Try and Tri Again
by Joeygirl1994
Summary: Victoire's last year at Hogwarts has begun. She's Head Girl, Quidditch Captain and has finally got the man of her dreams, Teddy Lupin. But what happens when she's forced to participate in an event from the past that still haunts her Mother and her Uncle's dreams?
1. But He Promised

A/N: This is my fist fanfiction. I have a couple more chapters but I only put up the first three for now. Tell me what you think and I might add some of the others I have done. This is actually going to be a long story, i'm already at about 40,000 words **(P.S. As you can see, there's even more than that ahead:) **with my other chapters so yeah . . . the adventure and romance starts slow but will grow gradually once all of the preliminary details are introuduced. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Do I own them? Is the square root of X to the power of zero, zero? No, actaully it's not. And no matter how much I argue, my math teacher tells me that it will never be. Sigh, just like me owning Harry Potter I suppose.

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**Chapter 1: Fixed - Date: Aug. 2012.**

**A/N: Hey, so those of you who are a few chapters in . . . chap 52 to be exact, will have read my A/N of that that says that I'm fixing up my previous chapters. This is the first one. Now I'm sure that there are still probably some mistakes (I've read mistakes in published books too) but I think I've got all the glaring ones. **

**So enjoy if you want to re-read. If you don't . . . well you can ignore.**

**If you want to review again, hey, feel free!**

**Enjoy . . . again :)**

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**But He Promised**

He looked around himself. Platform 9 3/4 was incredibly busy this year. As he watched the faces of the excited children running around he felt a slight stab of jealousy. He wished he could go back. The funny thing was, two years ago when he graduated he had celebrated the fact that his formal education at Hogwarts was over. It's not as though he didn't like Hogwarts; it was his home away from home. He had thoroughly enjoyed his experience there; he had made good friends, he had been the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team two years in a row, and had –somehow– been named Head Boy. He was excited to leave because it meant he had a chance test his hand in the real world, to begin the next chapter of his life. The only reason why he was upset that he _wasn't _going back was because she_ was_.

_Don't let her see that you're sad. It is her last year; let her enjoy it. Don't let her know that it'll probably take you a month to start even _acting_ normal around everyone else because you'll be missing her so much . . ._

Teddy Lupin shook his head to clear his thoughts.

_I wonder where they are . . ._

Just then, he spotted what he was looking for, the family standing near one of the middle carriages of the Hogwarts Express. He walked towards them with a bright smile plastered on his face. It fell a little though, when he realized that there were only four people in the grouping and that the one he most desperately wanted to see was the one who was missing.

His resolve to go up to the family was shaken slightly, but he went up to them nonetheless. The closest member of the family to him was a tall man with slightly greying red hair and long scars across his face: Bill Weasley.

Bill smiled when he saw Teddy. He stuck his hand out and shook Teddy's responding outstretched hand with slightly more exuberance than Teddy had thought was necessary, "How's it going Ted?"

"M'fine Bill how are you?" Teddy asked the man politely.

Once Bill had answered back with a generic yet genuine response, Teddy turned towards Bill's wife Fleur and paid her the usual compliments and greetings. After he had greeted Fleur, he turned his attention to the redheaded fireball who had been demanding his notice for some time now. He clasped the hyperactive fifteen-year-old in a warm hug as soon as he turned to her.

Dom Weasley -her full name was Dominique but if she caught you calling her that and you weren't one of her parents (or another adult she looked up to) then you would usually end up with a sharp punch to the arm. The fifth-year Gryffindor had inherited the red Weasley hair however, the tall thin figure, bright blue eyes, beautiful face, and light-hearted flirtatious attitude (that clearly showed that she had some Veela blood) was all inherited from Fleur. Dom released him and began babbling about her excitement for the upcoming school year.

Teddy smiled and moved to his attention to his left so he could rustle her brother's hair. Louis Weasley was in his third year at Hogwarts and -like his sisters- Gryffindor was the house he'd been sorted into. He had his mother's almost silvery blonde hair, his face -despite being male in shape- bared an uncanny resemblance to Dom's, and his wide eyes were the same colour of Bill's; further displaying that Louis' features were a balanced mix between both of his parents' genetics.

"Going to try to stay out of trouble this year?" Teddy asked the thirteen-year-old teasingly.

Louis smiled back at him happily, "I'll try . . ., but you know James and Fred. They'll plan some sort of master prank and I'll have to get involved just to get their butts out of the fire."

Teddy lightly placed his arm around Louis' shoulders; he was rather tall and thick for a thirteen-year-old, "What else is family for?"

Louis chuckled and Teddy turned back to Dom and tried to catch up with what she'd been telling him. In atypical Dom style she hadn't noticed the exchange between her brother and him because she was too busy talking about herself. As Dom spoke, Teddy gave the face of his watch a surreptitious glance. His peek didn't escape Bill's notice.

Bill placed an arm around his youngest daughter's shoulders –effectively cutting off her speech- and said, "Victoire's over by the front of the train."

Teddy gave him a shy smile and moved his hand up to ruffle his hair; a sheepish habit he'd picked up from his godfather, "Um, thanks."

Dom and Fleur giggled quietly at his nervous tone of voice while Louis smiled broadly at him. Teddy mumbled out his goodbyes, quite visibly embarrassed, and turned off to the direction Bill had gestured to while speaking. Before he moved entirely away from them though, he felt a swift reassuring clasp on his forearm; it was from Bill.

Teddy walked away from the family shaking his head. Even though he'd been dating Victoire for a month, he was still surprised with the warmth and acceptance her family gave him. Yeah, he'd been best friends with her for years and yes, they'd know each other since before they could remember. But Bill was very protective over his daughters, especially Victoire. He could remember the speeches Bill had given Victoire's respective boyfriends over the years. Said speeches never were ever very friendly or optimistic for Bill always made sure that he made a firm and stern first impression. Teddy remembered laughing silently as Victoire would tell him how each boyfriend took the first meeting with her father. He smiled to himself remembering earlier that month when he and Victoire had first told Bill and Fleur that they were dating . . .

_Teddy's stomach felt like it was full of miniature flying hippogriffs; he wasn't sure how they were going to take it. He'd known Bill and Fleur all his life. When he was younger he'd gotten into the habit of calling them 'Uncle and Aunt' like he had with the rest of the Weasleys and the Potters. In hindsight, since he was there to tell them that he was taking their daughter on a date he knew that he'd have to break that little practice sooner rather than later. Teddy thought that because of his closeness with the family that he'd be able to escape the ceremonial daddy/daughter's new boyfriend talk. Unfortunately, Bill was a stickler for tradition. Victoire had announced to her parents that she was going on a date that night; she just hadn't told them whom she was going with. When Teddy showed up at the door Bill had decided that he wasn't going to be cheated out of a chance of performing the speech he'd already spent time practising and memorizing. After scaring Teddy so thoroughly that both his complexion and his hair was the same exact same shade of white, Bill let him off the hook. "Sorry about that Ted," he said laughing, "But I've kinda had that one saved up for her first boyfriend for when she came of age . . . and _he_ just happened to be _you_." Teddy had joined Bill in his laughter after the terrorizing monologue was finished in an attempt to prove that he wasn't as scared as he seemed. However, the only real comfort he'd gotten during the speech was the sympathetic smile Fleur had periodically been giving him to counteract her husband's terrifying rules and expectations._

Teddy retched himself away from his memories and began searching the crowd of students and their families for his girlfriend. His heartbeat sped up as he spotted a tall long legged girl with silvery skin and long and shiny silvery-blonde hair. Her head was rapidly moving from side-to-side; she was also searching for someone. He walked quietly up behind her. He placed his arms around her slim waist and moved his chin onto her shoulder. He put his lips next to her ear and whispered quietly, "Hello beautiful."

To Victoire's credit, she didn't jump. Not when he initially startled her when he spoke in her ear nor did she as much as flinch when he'd first put his strong arms around her waist.

She sighed quietly before answering, "Hey handsome."

Teddy placed a soft kiss on her neck and she moved her hands until they were covering his hands that were on her waist. He noted that her skin was extremely soft.

"Who are you looking for?"

Teddy already knew the answer; he just hoped that asking her a question would break through her obvious distraction and force her to pay more attention to what was going around. It worked. Victoire's head stopped searching, and she turned around to face him and Teddy's breath caught slightly as he looked into her enchanting face.

To people who were intimate with the family, Victoire Weasley would seem as almost an exact duplicate of her mother from when she was her age. At seventeen, Victoire was the exact same height as Fleur and had the exact same colour of hair and shade of blue eyes. The only thing that marked her physical difference from her mother was the light scattering of gold freckles across her pixie like nose, and the deep concern clouding the vibrancy of her sparkling ocean-blue eyes. Victoire may have looked like a perfect little angel –to Teddy she was one- but her attitude was all Weasley. When the Weasley mind-set is mixed with Veela looks and charm, a person can end up with a real firecracker on their hands.

Thankfully, Teddy knew what he was up against and even more, he loved Victoire's spark. Sure, sometimes she could be a little severe, she didn't always have the best temper, she had an occasional show-off and know-it-all streak, and yes, sometimes she acted a little too rashly. Nevertheless, Teddy wouldn't dare call those faults; those were just parts of her personality. He wouldn't trade Victoire for the most perfect and faultless angel in the world. Truth be told, he liked her fiery attitude; it balanced out _his_ more quiet and composed nature.

Victoire had placed her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight hug. His hands moved from her waist to lightly rub her back.

He moved back, studied her creased and worried face, and repeated his question, "Who are you looking for?"

Victoire sighed, "He's supposed to be here by now! He promised he'd come to see me off."

Teddy moved one of his hands up to her head and he ran his fingers through her silky blonde hair. He knew exactly whom she was alluding to; he also knew that she wouldn't take his next reply very well, "Well . . . he has been busy with work. I know he was supposed to come home today . . . but maybe he was delayed. It can easily happen in our kind of work."

Victoire's ocean-blue eyes got sadder, "He's always been here to see me off. Ever since my first year. Besides, he specifically promised that he'd see me off to Hogwarts on my last year. He's _never_ broken a promise to me before."

"Alright," Teddy answered not wanting to get into an argument when he was about to lose her for a year.

He kissed her forehead softly, "I'm really going to miss you. You know that?"

Her angelic smile made his heart pound, "Yes actually, I do know that. Did you know that I'm going to miss you more?"

Teddy laughed at her playful tone, "No actually you can't. That'd be impossible."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "I'm surprised at you Teddy Lupin that was extremely mushy."

"Yeah well what can I say Vic? You bring out the mush in me."

She sighed again, "I guess the next time I'll see you will be at Christmas."

"Hey. Don't start depressing me with this talk about not seeing each other for four months. When you find out when your Hogsmeade weekend is, send me an owl and I'll see if I can make it . . ."

His sentence drifted off when he recognized the knowing look in Victoire's eyes. She smiled sadly, "It's okay Teddy. I know how busy you'll be at work . . . you don't have to make any special arrangements to meet me in Hogsmeade."

Victoire knew how busy Teddy would be at work. He was in his second year of Auror training. He didn't always know when he'd have to work; second year training was always just the boring grunt work.

"And," Teddy continued pretending like he didn't hear her, "Of course I will come and watch _all _of your Quidditch games, Captain."

Teddy said the last word with a smirk; Victoire had taken over for him as captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team when he had graduated two years ago.

She smiled sweetly at him and he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. Victoire's hands moved to his turquoise hair as their lips pressed against each other's. One of Teddy's hands stayed at her waist while the other one entwined into her long soft hair. They were kissing a lot more ardently than Teddy would have normally thought was proper for the crowded place they were currently in, but his sense of propriety was presently at the bottom of his priority pile. His feelings for Victoire taking over at the top of the pile; a place they'd occupied for years before they'd even started a romantic relationship.

Teddy was just pressing his lips down harder on Victoire's -knowing that he would very soon have to give her up so that she could get on the train- when he heard an exceedingly annoying voice yell out their names.

They moved their faces away from each other to see that, standing right next to them, was none other than James Sirius Potter.

"Oi! What are you doing?"

Except for the brief flicker of annoyance Teddy felt towards his godfather's eldest son, he was more embarrassed than anything to have been caught kissing Victoire. Especially in front of _her_ cousin; one of _his_ godfather's sons. Teddy wasn't always able to keep his Metamorphmagus powers under control when his emotions got the better of him, particularly when he was embarrassed.

True to his nature, Teddy's hair was turning bright red. He stammered out to James, "I-I came to see her off."

"Yeah but you were just snog-"

Victoire cut-in and almost hissed at her younger cousin, "Go away James."

James Potter was a rather stubborn boy, but even he knew better than to argue with his part-Veela cousin. He gave the pair one more odd look before disappearing back the way he'd come.

Teddy looked back to Victoire once James was gone. Her facial expression was depressed, "James has probably gone and told everyone by now."

Teddy ran his thumb comfortingly over the smooth skin of her cheek; knowing what was bothering her, "I'll talk to Harry about it later today. Anyway, it's not too bad. I mean we _were_ going to tell them today . . . James just kind of beat us to the punch."

The only people who had been aware of Teddy and Victoire's relationship this past month were Victoire's immediate family and Teddy's grandmother Andromeda Tonks.

Victoire looked even more upset at his comment, "I know it's just . . . we planned to tell everyone_ after_ we both told our godfathers. Now yours knows and mine doesn't. He's not even here yet!"

"I know Kingsley promised but you have less than five minutes until you have to get on the train. I doubt that he'll show up now. You could always write to him and let him know . . ."

"Or," Victoire countered, "You could tell him the minute he gets back to the Auror office."

Teddy gulped audibly; he wasn't going to be the first one to tell Kingsley Shacklebolt that he was dating his goddaughter, "Or, you could write to him. I know you wanted to be the first one to tell him."

Victoire laughed faintly, "Are you scared of him? You know that you shouldn't be; Kingsley loves you."

"Yeah, but I have a feeling that once he finds out I'm dating his little _Princess_," Teddy said using Kingsley's pet name for her, "That his feelings towards me are going to change dramatically."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Teddy, Kingsley is a _kitten,_ and you cannot honestly tell me that you're more afraid to tell him than you were to tell my parents."

"I can honestly tell you that I am more afraid to tell Kingsley than I was to tell Bill and Fleur. Besides, he's your godfather not mine. Our deal was that we would tell our own godfathers about our relationship and then we could feel free to tell anyone else afterwards. My part of the deal is done. I'm sure that Harry knows by now."

Before Victoire could speak, a loud whistle blew, signalling everyone to get on the train. Teddy leaned forward and gave Victoire a quick peck on the lips.

She sighed in response and smiled up at him, "Fine I'll make sure that I write to him tonight."

Teddy smiled and helped then showed his Gryffindor chivalry by helping her onto the train. He waved at her until her form disappeared and stood at the platform until the train was out of sight. He tried not to think about how much he was going to miss her. How he wasn't going to be able to focus on anything else for a while. Teddy was certain that this year's separation was going to be the hardest yet.

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Hope you enjoyed!

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**Fixed: Same as before, Hope you enjoyed! :)**


	2. Back to Hogwarts

A/N: Second Chapter, yay! This is an introduction to more of the characters and more background info to get a feel for the characters!

Disclaimer: I will own Harry Potter when the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup! (Jk, to all the Leaf fans out there, just a teaser.)

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**Chapter 2 Fixed: Aug. 2012**

**A/N: Hey, so those of you who are a few chapters in . . . chap 52 to be exact, will have read my A/N of that that says that I'm fixing up my previous chapters. This is the second one. Now I'm sure that there are still probably some mistakes (I've read mistakes in published books too) but I think I've got all the glaring ones.**

**So enjoy if you want to re-read. If you don't . . . well you can ignore.**

**If you want to review again, hey, feel free!**

**Enjoy . . . again :)**

* * *

**Back to Hogwarts**

Victoire Weasley walked through the train until she found the compartment that she had been looking for. She stopped at the door before going in and took a deep breath as she tried to compose herself.

_Don't let them see that you're sad. You're going back to Hogwarts! It's your last year! This will be fun!_

Her mental pep talk hadn't done much for the sudden wave of grief she felt over leaving Teddy, but it did quash the water beginning to materialize in her eyes. She was very strong-willed; she didn't want her friends to see her cry. First, they'd be completely confused as to why she was crying -she hadn't told any of her friends yet about her relationship with Teddy. Second, it was a point of pride; Victoire Weasley wasn't one to go about sulking and moping over her life. She would suck it up and move on. That's what she needed to do. She'd write to Teddy during the year, and she would see him at Christmas and again at Easter. She was determined to get through this year without him by her side every day. Then next year, nothing would be able to keep them away from each other.

When she finally opened the compartment door, she was greeted by a chorus of 'hellos'. There were four people in the compartment she entered: Sandra Collins; one of Victoire's best friends, Kyle Line; Sandra's boyfriend, Christopher Mullin; another seventh-year Gryffindor student, and -to Victoire's delight- Alexandra Weasley; Victoire's sixth-year cousin.

Victoire gave Alexandra a bright smile as she sat down beside her. Then she looked around the compartment and realized that someone was missing from their little group.

"Where's Xavier?" Victoire asked. Xavier Wood was _always_ with Kyle; they were best friends.

"He's up in the prefect carriage, he's Head Boy remember?" Christopher responded.

"Speaking of," Alexandra started, "Shouldn't you be making your way up there Miss Head Girl?"

Victoire mentally cursed herself; she'd been so preoccupied with trying to seem normal to her friends that she forgot her duties as Head Girl.

"I'll be back later."

With that, Victoire made her exit and almost ran to the prefect carriage in the front of the train. She opened the door and popped into the first available seat.

"Thank you for finding time in your busy schedule to join us Miss Weasley," Professor Linkwell reprimanded her as he gave her a rather scornful look.

The only people to laugh at the chastise she got were the people on either side of her. She hadn't even looked at her neighbours before she sat down, but she looked at them now. As soon as she did, she groaned internally. To her left -giving her a contemptuous look- was Colton Knott; Slytherin Head Boy, Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, and an overall snobby pure-blooded pain in the arse. On her other side, was Lorenzo Steed -one of Colton's cronies. Said crony was attempting to copy the same disdainful look his leader was giving her, but with poor effect. He was to dimwitted to realize that to give someone a contemptuous look their I.Q. should be at least over 80 points.

Of course, they were laughing at her; Professor Linkwell was Head of House for Slytherin. He used any opportunity he could get to make fun of a Gryffindor student -especially one who got one-hundred percent on all of the tests and assignments he gave her. It irked him that a student could ace his famously difficult _Transfiguration _tests that could make most students run for cover. Especially a perfect, pretty, little popular girl from Gryffindor. Linkwell strongly disliked Victoire, and she didn't feel bad for that. The feeling was completely mutual.

Victoire raised her head and got a sympathetic look from sandy-haired Xavier Wood across from her. She gave him a small smile in return and rolled her eyes. Xavier had to stifle his laugh before turning to the door where Professor Linkwell was going over the rules with the newly chosen prefects. Victoire had already heard this drill several times, so she wasn't strictly paying attention.

"What is rule thirty-five on page sixty-eight in the _New Hogwarts Handbook_?"

Victoire sighed; _I can't believe Professor Linkwell actually expects these guys to have even _opened_ the 'New Hogwarts Handbook'. _Nobody_ has these rules memorized . . ._

"Miss Weasley?"

Victoire's head shot up to give Professor Linkwell a confused look for he was supposed to be giving this speech to the new prefects, not to the Head Boys and Girls. She opened her mouth to voice her confusion, when another -almost nasally- voice answered, "Rule thirty-five states that there should be no PDA in the hallways, classrooms, or common room. First time offenders will be given a warning. Second time it's a detention. Third time is a week of detentions. And if they continue after that; a meeting with the Headmistress."

Victoire almost snorted. The voice was coming from an overexcited looking redheaded girl sitting directly to the left of Professor Linkwell. She was looking up at him like she was a puppy expecting to get a treat from its master for correctly bringing the ball back when they were playing fetch.

"Spot on Miss Weasley," Professor Linkwell said giving the girl a rather slimy grin, before giving Victoire a look that plainly asked why she couldn't be as accommodating as her cousin was.

Yes. The girl with the red hair was none other than Lucile Weasley. She was the eldest daughter of Victoire's Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey and was in her fifth years at Hogwarts. Lucy was one of the few of Victoire's cousins that hadn't sorted into Gryffindor. This would be Lucy's first year as a prefect for Ravenclaw.

Victoire wasn't surprised to see Lucy here; she definitely took after her father. She always got the best grades and had _never_ gotten into trouble before; though her current scheme to show off for Professor Linkwell made Victoire roll her eyes. She made a mental note to discuss with Lucy the importance of balancing not only her schoolwork and her prefect duties, but also her friends. Victoire was afraid if Lucy kept going down the road she was currently on, that by the end of the year when she went to study for her O.W.L.s she would end up completely breaking down.

She had reasonable grounds for this fear though; Lucy had done the exact same thing for the past four years, and Victoire really wasn't excited to repeat the tradition.

"Now, I will expect you all to follow this schedule," Professor Linkwell said as he flourished his wand and caused a white sheet of paper to appear in front of each prefect, Head Boy, and Head Girl, "Now go. Run off. All of you."

Everyone filed out of the carriage and began their way back along the train. Xavier caught up to Victoire as she walked down the corridor.

"Looks like we have the first _and_ last patrol of the train today," Xavier commented as he looked down on the schedule Linkwell had given them.

Victoire glanced at it, "Looks like it. We should probably start now. I'll take the first three cars, you take the last three, and we'll meet in the middle back at our compartment."

Xavier just nodded his head and began his way to the end of the train. He had been prefect the last two years with Victoire; they had a system down pact. Usually it involved Xavier doing whatever Victoire told him to. Despite its directness, it hadn't steered them wrong yet.

Victoire got through the first few compartments with little trouble. Just a few "Keep your voices down," or "No magic in the compartments," and the odd "What in the world do you think you are doing with those enchanted firework?" were all she needed to dole out to the trains occupants. Granted, the last statement was actually only repeated twice. Once to James Potter, and then once again to his partner in crime, Fred Weasley.

Victoire walked away from one of the last compartments she had to check -her pocket full of confiscated fireworks- and opened the last compartment door. After making a quick survey of the assembled students she smiled sweetly, "How's it going?"

Two of the students looked up. The female one, Rose Weasley, smiled brightly with her prominent front teeth. The eleven-year-old first year was the eldest child of Victoire's Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron and was expected to Rose followed almost entirely in her mother's footsteps. She was incredibly smart, and had the same bushy hair as her mother. However, she did have the trademark Weasley freckles, and her hair was a dark reddish brown.

The other student to look up was -surprise, surprise- another one of Victoire's cousins. Albus (he preferred to be called Al) Potter. He was the youngest son of her Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, and little brother to the afore-mentioned -enchanted firework carrying- James Potter. Albus' resemblance to his father was even greater than Victoire's resemblance to her mother. Al and Harry had the same almond shaped green eyes, and the same messy black hair. (Something Victoire had seen Teddy sport on occasion). They both even wore glasses; the only difference between them was that Al's forehead was clear of the lightning shaped scar that Harry was famous for.

Unlike Rose however, Al didn't smile. Victoire could guess why.

_Poor kid looks like he's about to throw up. He must really be nervous about the Sorting Hat ceremony._

"It's going okay Vic. How are you?" Rose asked her eldest cousin politely.

"Nothing much. Patrolling the corridors, making sure everyone's in the right place, _confiscating bloody fireworks _. . ."

Victoire said the last part as a quiet aside to muttered comment made Al smile, "Run into James did you?"

"Yes as a matter of fact I did. You wouldn't happen to know what they were planning on doing with them, do you?"

Both Al and Rose shook their heads, "Nope, we learned a long time ago that it was better not to ask."

Victoire nodded.

_Smart kids_.

She gave the three other students that shared Rose and Al's compartment a sweeping glance; _all nervous first years, _and smiled reassuringly at them before she left.

* * *

"What took you so long Vic?"

Victoire had just opened up the door to her compartment and sat down when she was accosted as such. To her surprise, Xavier was already there. Victoire sat down beside Alexandra as she answered Xavier's question, "Ran into some tiny problems. That's all though, nothing major."

Alexandra looked at her sideways, "What kind of problems?"

Victoire reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the enchanted fireworks she'd confiscated. She tossed in gently into Alexandra's lap, "Problems like that."

Alexandra picked up the firework. She sighed as she read the name _Weasley's Magically Enchanted Fireworks: Great for weddings, parties, and pranks!_

"And who did you get this from?" She asked almost fearfully.

"Who do you think Ally?"

"Fred or James?"

"Some from both actually."

Alexandra sighed at the foolishness of her family. Victoire looked at her empathetically, "There were just joking around. I took them before anything could have happened."

Ally nodded her head and turned her attention back to her magazine.

Alexandra Weasley was sixteen years old, but always acted older than her true age. A consequence of having a very unruly little brother and a father that sometimes acted rather childish. Her father of course had at least somewhat of an excuse. George Weasley was the owner of the biggest joke shop in England, _Weasley's Wizard Wheezes _(try saying that ten times fast). Her younger brother on the other hand -Fred Weasley- was a twelve-year-old prankster following completely in his father's footsteps. Along with his cousin, the notorious James Potter, Fred could be quite the handful. Alexandra had learnt at a young age that to compensate for Fred's childish behaviour, she had to act more grown up.

Ally Weasley had inherited her mother Angelina's black hair, but the pale skin, brown eyes, and freckles were all Weasley trademarks. Despite the year between them, Alexandra and Victoire were the best of friends because Victoire had a habit of becoming friends with people of almost completely different personality types than hers. Like with Teddy, Ally was more on the gentle quiet and smart side than the adventurous side. She had come out of her shell a bit over the years, and even began picking up some of Victoire's characteristics that were more outgoing. But she still cringed whenever her younger brother came up with a prank, or when someone else pulled a prank with one of her father's 'specialty items'.

Victoire sat in her compartment with her friends until it came time for her and Xavier to do their final round. Victoire stood up with Xavier, "We should tell everyone that we're getting close to Hogwarts."

Xavier nodded then smiled wickedly, "I get the front this time. I want to see the look on all the first years faces' when they I tell them how close we are."

Victoire laughed when Ally smacked Xavier on the arm, "That's not very supportive of you Mr Head Boy."

"Nope. But it will be funny."

Xavier stepped out of range before Ally could playfully hit him again. As Victoire and Xavier left the compartment, Ally called to him, "Prat!"

Xavier chuckled and Victoire looked at him curiously. He just gave her a shy look before walking off to the front of the train.

_There is definitely something going on there, and I'm _so _going to figure out what it is. _

* * *

"I wonder what is taking so long . . . it didn't take this long last year, did it?"

Victoire and her friends were all sitting together along the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall at Hogwarts but Christopher Mullin's question was directed specifically to Victoire.

Victoire, who hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation, looked up because his voice sounded closer than she expected. She was caught slightly off guard by his dark blue eyes. At first glance, she thought it was Teddy beside her -probably because she'd been thinking about him. However, upon closer inspection, she realized that they weren't Teddy's amazing and sparkling sapphire blues eyes, but Chris' paler almost grey-blue ones. The realization hit her harder as the face that belonged to the blue-grey eyes came more into focus. It wasn't Teddy's pale heart-shaped face with the straight nose and high cheekbones, but Chris' tanned and rounded face and cheeks. The sandy (and compared to Teddy's multiple shades of hair- boring) colour of Chris' hair continued to emphasize the differences between Teddy and the boy currently seated beside Victoire.

Victoire looked at her friend, wished for about the hundredth time that Teddy was still at Hogwarts, and not off at the Ministry doing his Auror training.

"Vic?" Chris asked again, "It didn't take this long for the first years to come in last year, did it?"

"Uh," Victoire stammered trying to think all the way back to last year, "Well, it can't be too long now . . . See, Professor Longbottom's coming in."

Victoire then pointed to a tall man with black hair that was presently coming into the Great Hall.

Professor Neville Longbottom was an old friend of the Weasley family -particularly with Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione. Neville Longbottom was the Professor of Herbology and Head of House for Gryffindor at Hogwarts. Victoire and her cousins had known Neville since they were little, causing a slight problem when they came to Hogwarts. They were very used to calling him by his first name but at Hogwarts, they had to address him as either Professor Longbottom, or Sir. They ended up coming up with a compromise; during class, they addressed him as Professor Longbottom but he allowed them to call him Neville outside of class.

Professor Longbottom walked up to the front of the hall and placed the Sorting Hat on top of the old three-legged stool. A minute later, the large doors opened at the end of the hall and the first-years started to walk through. Victoire felt bad for all of the little eleven-year olds as they walked up to the front of the hall. Their pale and tiny faces were filled with worry and fear; some of them even looked like they were about to pass out. The sight of the large cluster of children made Victoire think back to _her_ sorting ceremony.

_Her knees were shaking so badly she was afraid that the children next to her would be able to hear them knocking against each other. The only small comfort she'd gotten was when Neville (Professor Longbottom; she'd have to start calling him that) came and explained to them the Sorting process they were about to go through. His friendly smile, aimed directly at her, made her think that maybe she'd be able to get through the whole sorting ordeal without fainting. When they walked into the Great Hall, she thought -for just a moment- that she was going to collapse right where she was standing. All of, what seemed to be, every students gaze on her didn't exactly help the feeling she had deep in her mind that said that she was going to make a fool of herself. As she huddled up at the front in the dwindling crowd of first-years waiting for her name to get called she felt -for the first time in her life- an aggressive feeling towards the spelling of her last name. As names were being called, she looked over to the Gryffindor table to find that one friendly face. A huge grin broke across her face when she found it. Sitting at the end of the table, giving her a smile almost as big as the one plastered on her own face, was her best friend; Teddy Lupin. To be completely honest with herself; Victoire knew that the only reason she was able to walk up to the stool when her name was called and not run back out of the hall was because of the look that Teddy was giving her. His look told her not to be worried, to relax, and to take a deep breath. It told her that he believed in her. With that look, Victoire walked up to the stool, sat down, and held still while Professor Longbottom placed the old battered Sorting Hat on her head. What seemed like an eternity later, the Sorting Hat decided to call out, "Gryffindor!" _

_And that's how her experience at Hogwarts had begun._

The first years had made their way to the front of the hall by the time Victoire broke away from her memory. She dedicated all of her energy to looking for her two younger cousins. Her sudden flashback made her miss Teddy even more than she previously had and she needed something to distract her attention. She realized that she'd seen him just that morning and that she was already missing him; didn't bode well for what she was going to be feeling for the rest of the year. She wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do with herself this year.

She smiled as she spotted a tiny little girl with fluffy reddish-brown hair bobbing up and down with excitement. Directly next to her was a small black haired boy looking around nervously at the large Great Hall. Bingo: Rose and Al.

Professor Longbottom unrolled the long scroll and began reading off the names of the first years.

"Angkor, Daniel," a small bespectacled blonde boy walked up and sat down on the stool. A minute later the Sorting Hat yelled, "Gryffindor!"

As the boy walked over to the Gryffindor table, Victoire sent him a smile and patted the bench next to her. As Head Girl and Boy, Victoire and Xavier sat closest to the end of either side of the table, trying to make the first-years feel welcome. The boy smiled shyly and sat down on her side of the bench. He was slightly intimidated by her noticeable superiority and the shiny badge she had pinned to the front of her robes, so he left about a metre of space between himself and her.

The roll call continued with new additions to all four houses.

Victoire could hear the obvious pride in Professor Longbottom's voice when he called out, "Longbottom, Alice."

As Victoire knew, Alice was Neville's eldest child and was named after his mother. Seeing, as she was a first year she was the same age as Al and Rose. A small girl with shiny black hair and a round face walked, almost confidently, to the stool.

The hat sat on her head for a minute before calling out, "Gryffindor!"

The Gryffindors stood up and cheered. Alice took the hat off her head and handed it back to her father with a wide smile. He gave her an affectionately proud look before she skipped over to her new house table.

Victoire heard Neville call out -with a slight disbelieving tone that not everybody had caught, "Malfoy, Scorpius"

Victoire narrowed her eyes a bit, as she looked for the child to disengage himself from the crowd to take his place on the stool. Victoire had heard her Uncles and Aunts' stories about the Malfoys. She wanted to get a look at him so she could watch for him later. Her mouth popped open a little as the slim blonde boy walked up to the stool; he was one of the children who had been sharing Rose and Al's compartment earlier on the train.

The hat had barely had time to rest on Scorpius' pale blonde hair before it yelled out, "Slytherin!"

A few more people went up, and then Professor Longbottom called, "Potter, Albus!"

Whatever whispered conversations had been going on had stopped the moment Professor Longbottom had called Al's name. Everyone was watching as he stepped up to the stool. Victoire felt a pang of sympathy for her cousin as he went; it wasn't easy to be the son of the famous Harry Potter. She'd thought that the novelty would have worn off having James the year before, but apparently not. Victoire could empathize a little with Albus and James. The first time Neville had announced her name aloud the hall had gotten quiet. She had heard her last name whispered repeatedly throughout the hall, mostly with disbelief. And she was just a Weasley.

The Sorting Hat sat on Al's head for a moment before shouting out, "Gryffindor!"

The entire Gryffindor house stood up, applauded, and cheered. Al gave Neville -who just so happened to be his godfather- a small smile of relief before getting up off the stool. Neville gave him a quick wink before going back to the list. He walked over to the Gryffindor table; was patted on the back by everyone near him, and sat in the empty spot on the bench next to Victoire. She mirrored his grin and gave him a quick squeeze, his face was red but he looked pleased.

A couple people later and the pile of first-years had reduced to only a handful of people including Rose. Neville called out one or two more names, before announcing, "Weasley, Rose!"

Rose walked up to the stool and sat down, as Professor Longbottom sat the hat down on her heard. Rose's fingers drummed nervously on the stool before the hat called out, "Gryffindor!"

Once again, the Gryffindor table broke out in loud cheers. Rose paced quickly over to the table and sat down next to Xavier and across from Al; a look of extreme relief on her face. Al and Victoire smiled at Rose as Xavier gave her a brief one-armed hug. (Xavier's parents had been good friends with Victoire's Uncle George and Aunt Angelina, and had played on the same Quidditch team as Harry, Ginny, and Ron during their years at Hogwarts. Thus Xavier had known the Weasley's before he and Victoire were even off to Hogwarts when they were eleven.) Rose looked extremely pleased with herself.

Three more people went up before Neville had come to the end of the list. He rolled up the scroll, picked up the chair and the Sorting Hat, and walked down the hall. Over at the professors' table Professor McGonagall -Headmistress of Hogwarts- stood up and addressed the entire Hall, "Welcome back to our old students, and welcome to our new ones. I have some things to address before we leave but first, enjoy your meal."

With a wave of her hand, all four House tables were filled with several different varieties of food. The students dug in.

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Happy Reading!

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**Fixed: Same as ^ Happy reading! :)**


	3. Try, Tri Again

**N/A:** Shorter chapter but lots of interesting revelations! Meeting some new charaters too!

**Disclaimer:** Yeah . . . I'm still in high school so, me and JKR, not much in common. She owns them, I don't . . . unless you count my copies of the books however!

Yeah, I know, no one does . . .

Enjoy!

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**Chapter 3 Fixed: Aug. 2012**

**A/N: Hey, so those of you who are a few chapters in . . . chap 52 to be exact, will have read my A/N of that that says that I'm fixing up my previous chapters. This is the second one. Now I'm sure that there are still probably some mistakes (I've read mistakes in published books too) but I think I've got all the glaring ones.**

**So enjoy if you want to re-read. If you don't . . . well you can ignore.**

**If you want to review again, hey, feel free!**

**Enjoy . . . again :)**

* * *

**Try, Tri Again**

There was a loud _pop_ as Kinsley Shacklebolt apparated outside of the great iron gates. He tapped his wand three times against mouth on the lock of the large iron gates before they slowly creaked open. The gravel crunched and cracked underneath Kingsley's boots as he started up the path towards the Hogwarts Castle.

Kingsley shook his head as he walked.

_I_ c_an't believe I'm here right now. Bloody eleven o'clock at night! If it weren't for Minerva's insistent owl, I would _not_ be here right now._

He looked up at one of the high turrets; the one that he knew as Gryffindor Tower. Surprisingly, all of the windows were dark; a consequence of it being the first night back to school. Everybody was tired from the long train ride, the joy, and the nerves -nerves especially in the first-years case- of coming back. Kingsley sighed to himself; he knew that she would probably be nestled up all tight in her bed fast asleep right now.

_At present, she's probably dreaming about what a horrible godfather she has._

Kingsley knew why he was here and it wasn't because Minerva McGonagall asked him specifically to come. He came here with the thin -and probably rather ludicrous- hope that he'd somehow be able to see his goddaughter.

He'd been away for about a month on a mission for the Auror Office and he'd been scheduled to come home today. Knowing before he left the date of his return, he'd rashly promised Victoire that he'd be back in time to see her off on her last year at Hogwarts. As he had every year since she turned eleven. Kingsley was angry with himself for not keeping his promise; he'd never broken a promise to Victoire before. No matter what impulsive or unbelievable thing he promised her, she got it. She had been thoroughly spoiled by her godfather all her life. Anytime her parents had tried to say 'no' to her -which wasn't very often- he would end up breaking down and give would give her whatever it was that she wanted. It was impossible for him not to give her what she wanted; it was one of Kingsley's most honed instincts. On further thought, Kingsley realized that he was probably more than partially to blame for the development of the trait in Victoire's character that made her never take 'no' for an answer.

Kingsley hadn't even been back in the country for half an hour before he'd gotten an urgent message from Headmistress McGonagall that he was needed at Hogwarts. At first glance at the letter, Kingsley's body had turned cold. He was instantly afraid that something had happened to one of the Potter's, Weasley's, or, God forbid, Victoire. A quick owl back to McGonagall showed him that the meeting would have nothing to do with any of the children currently placed at Hogwarts. On reading the note, Kingsley felt much better and owled back the Headmistress that he would be there shortly.

When Kingsley reached the large castle doors, they opened to reveal Professor Neville Longbottom.

"How's it going Kingsley?" Neville asked as they began their trek to the Headmistress' office.

"Fine, Neville. I'm dead tired from my last mission but I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm good. It's a shame that you had to come here, so late at night when you just came home from a month-long mission," Neville sympathized.

Kingsley shrugged, "The mission wasn't too trying, just some interviews and check-ups. Nothing difficult. How did sorting go?"

Neville smiled broadly, "Gryffindor has one more Weasley and one more Potter."

Kingsley grinned back, "That's good. Of course, Al made it. But Rose? I would have thought that maybe Ravenclaw would have tried to stake a claim in her, with her brains and all."

"Yes. Well, I think the Sorting Hat has decided that by now when a Weasley shows up, they'll just automatically be sent to Gryffindor."

"That's not what happened with Lucy or Baxter," Kingsley commented as he named the two of Percy Weasley's children who had not sorted into Gryffindor.

"Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are excellent houses; Lucy and Baxter get along just fine. Being like their father, they probably enjoy the fact that they're not stuck in a house where they have to watch James and Fred pulling pranks and getting into trouble left, right, and centre. It's not like they were placed in Slytherin. They wouldn't be able to survive that house," Neville said with a laugh; showing that he was joking.

"Yes, speaking of Fred and James, did they grace the start of the year feast with one of their signature pranks?"

"No actually they didn't. Their lack of pranks was probably due to the fact that new Head Girl Victoire Weasley was watching them like a hawk throughout the whole of dinner," Neville said laughing. Kingsley smiled at the image Neville had conjured up of his goddaughter; it was spot on.

"Oh, and speaking of Slytherin earlier, you'll never guess who one of their new house members is," Neville continued.

Neville was right; Kingsley wasn't able to guess, "Who?"

"One Scorpius Malfoy."

Kingsley tried not to make a face, "Why does that not surprise me? Well, I guess you'll have to keep an extra eye on James and Fred this year. Make sure they don't get into too much trouble with him."

"Yes, I'm afraid that their fathers' history might cause a bit of an uproar between them, but I'll watch them and make sure they don't do something that will end up getting them expelled."

Kingsley nodded and he and Neville stopped. They had made their way to the gargoyle that guarded the entrance of the Headmistresses office.

"Grindylow," Neville said to the gargoyle. It moved to reveal the staircase. They traveled up the stairs and opened the door. Neville kept the door opened and gestured for Kingsley to go through it first.

Kingsley Shacklebolt made a quick survey of the room. To his surprise, it was filled with people. He'd expected that Minerva had just wanted to speak to him. The sound of the door shutting with Neville still in the office, told Kingsley that he was involved in whatever McGonagall wanted to discuss. Also in the office were the three other Heads of House for Hogwarts: Professor Flitwick for Ravenclaw, Professor Rydal for Hufflepuff, and Professor Linkwell for Slytherin.

Kingsley gave the last one a heavy look. He'd heard plenty about him from -not only his goddaughter, who had sounded most unladylike in her description of him- but also from Teddy Lupin, Ally, Dom, Baxter, Molly, Louis and Fred Weasley, and James Potter. The latter six's description might not have been entirely based on fact seeing as they all had a mischievous streak that someone like Linkwell would abhor. However, since the former's description was similar -and since they would have been, much more reliable sources- Kingsley decided to keep his eyes on the professor. The only Weasley to give a favourable report of Linkwell was Lucy Weasley, but she was a well-known as teacher's pet.

Along with the Heads of House and Professor McGonagall, there were three other people in the room. Kingsley recognized two of the three; one was a very large woman. Madame Maxine, the giantess who was Headmistress of Beaubaxtons Academy in France. In addition, the one man he didn't know was standing next to Madame Maxine with an unreadable look on his face. The other man that he did recognize was Inigo Flannery; Minister for Magic.

Kingsley's face fell as he looked at Flannery.

_This is _so_ not good._

Headmistress McGonagall decided to introduce everyone before the meeting began. The man who had looked unreadable was named Jaxon Jaroslov and he was the Headmaster of Durmstrang Institute. Kingsley was even more confused now. The Headmistress of Hogwarts, Headmistress of Beaubaxtons, the Headmaster of Durmstrang, the Heads of House of Hogwarts, the Minister for Magic, and himself, Kingsley Shacklebolt; Head of the Auror Office, what was going on?

"Now, most of you are probably wondering why you are here," McGonagall began, "So I'll let Minister Flannery explain it to you."

Kingsley was shocked when Professor McGonagall gave Flannery a severe look; one she usually reserved for dealing with students who had done something that she disagreed with.

_This does not bode well . . . _

Minister Flannery cleared his throat, "You are all probably wondering what you are doing here. I apologize for the lateness of our meeting, but this has just been cleared by the Ministry and we need to begin work right away if we're going to get this started on time."

Professor Longbottom looked at the Minister, "What has just been cleared by the Ministry?"

Flannery looked at McGonagall, "You haven't told them yet?"

"No, keeping in mind the controversial nature of _your _plan, I thought it best for _you_ to tell them."

Kingsley's eyebrows knitted together; if McGonagall was against this but the Minister was still going through with it, it really mustn't be a good idea.

Flannery looked back at Kingsley and the Heads of House, "This year, Hogwarts will be hosting the Tri-Wizard tournament."

Professors Flitwick, Rydal, and Linkwell all wore the same look of shock on their faces. Madame Maxine and Jaroslov's faces became dark; they'd already been aware of the plan. Kingsley and Neville gasped audibly.

"The Tri-Wizard Tournament? Surely you're joking Flannery," Kingsley asked rather severely.

Flannery glared at Kingsley, "This is _not_ a joke Shacklebolt. I have decided that we need to bring the Tri-Wizard Tournament back. It will be a good thing for us."

The last time the Tri-Wizard Tournament took place was three years before the war. When Harry Potter had been a participant at the young age of fourteen. The Tournament had been a pawn in Voldemort's plans to regain his strength and power.

"But Minister, seeing as how the last Tournament ended, don't you think it's best that you let the tradition die out? Besides, I think the Tournament will bring more bad with it then good," Neville said in a calm tone.

"Thank you for your opinion Professor Longbottom, but I think this is something our world needs."

Kingsley tried again, "Flannery this is senseless. We've gone more than twenty years without a Tri-Wizard Tournament there is no need to start the tradition up again."

Flannery looked fiercely at Kingsley; he didn't like him. Nineteen years ago, after the war, Kingsley had been named temporary Minister for Magic. He'd stayed in that position for ten years to help the Wizarding World get back on their feet. Nine years ago, he'd stepped down from his post as Minister for the position of Head of the Auror Office. Many people had thought that Kingsley was crazy; he had been on top of the world. Everybody loved him, and he stepped down. His friends had understood though. Kingsley had never been the type to crave the spotlight; he never meant to be Minister. He'd only filled the spot because they needed someone to look up too, someone strong and brave like he was. He'd stepped down when the politics had become too complicated. There had been several Ministers in the nine years since Kingsley stepped down -yet- the Auror Office had only had one Head. Minister Flannery didn't like Kingsley because he had a -irrational- fear that Kingsley wanted his job. Even though Kingsley had purposely stepped down Flannery was still afraid that Kingsley was going to kick him out of his position. Not that it wouldn't be hard for Kingsley to do that, everyone adored him. Nevertheless, Kingsley didn't want to go back to the spotlight; he was fine where he was.

"It's too late to change anything. All the plans have been arranged and all we need to do is figure out how much protection we're going to need around Hogwarts."

Kingsley nodded his head stiffly. That's why he was here. Flannery need to discuss how much manpower would be needed from the Auror Office, and he was doing it right here in front of all the Headmistresses and Masters, so they could see how much thought and work he was going to put into the Tournament.

_Typical Flannery, the only reason he's discussing protection is so that he'll look good in front of everyone else._

Kingsley had consented to Flannery's plans -not at all quietly- because he knew that there was no getting around the Minister. There was one person however, who was still adamant that the Tournament was not a good idea.

"How are you going to make sure that there are no problems like last time? How are you going to make sure that only _three_ people are picked?" Neville probed.

"There will be some changes from the traditional way things are done. All to ensure the students safety of course," Flannery answered back.

"Still, before we go through with this, I think we should talk to the last Tri Wizard Champions. See if they think that it's a good idea to bring this all back up," Neville responded.

Kingsley smiled.

_Good idea Neville; good idea._

Maybe if Flannery heard what the past participants had to say about it, he'd understand that it's not a good idea to reinstate the Tournament, "I agree with Neville. We could owl Viktor Krum and have him come to the Office tomorrow. Harry will already be there anyway -he has desk work- and we could easily ask Fleur and Bill to stop by and we can all discuss this together."

McGonagall smiled, "That's an excellent plan Kingsley. We should definitely speak with Harry, Fleur, and Viktor before forcing three other children to take a walk down the same path they were doomed with."

Flannery blanched at the term 'doomed'.

"Fine," he snapped, "We'll have a meeting with them tomorrow at eleven."

Kingsley's smile grew wider as Flannery continued, "If they all aren't there at eleven o'clock sharp, they would have forfeited their chance to share their feelings on the Tournament."

"Deal," Kingsley said.

"But for now," Flannery began in a more authoritative tone, "We will discuss some of the finer details for the Tournament."

Everyone sat down at this point to discuss the games. Kingsley looked around. Minerva McGonagall was not happy, but her hands were tied; she had to do what the Minister said. The other Heads of House didn't seem too happy about the coming Tournament either -especially Professor Flitwick, for he was present for the last Tournament and did _not _want a repeat. In addition, Madame Maxine and Jaroslov had the same look that McGonagall had. Kingsley tried to pay attention to what was going on, but his mind kept wandering. He didn't feel as though Flannery's preparations were going to matter. He knew for a fact that neither Harry nor Fleur were going to be happy about the Tournament, so it was only a matter of time before Flannery's plans dissolved. He wouldn't go against the decision of Harry-The-Boy-Who-Lived-Chosen-One-Killer-of-Voldemort- Potter.

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Oh, little bit of a cliff hanger . . . excuse my lame attempt to get you hooked. Review, add to your alerts, or just enjoy! Some feedback would be greatly appreciated, I need to know if I should continue posting and writing seeing as I have a few more chapters of this already done . . . :)

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**Fixed: Oh, I was so naïve back then . . . "a few more chapters" I wasn't thinking very far ahead now was I? ;)**

**Again, I hope that you enjoyed!**


	4. Curiosity Killed Mrs Norris

**A/N:** Hey, here's the latest chapter. Hope you like it . . . it's not the most exciting but I think it gives some nice background information on some of the characters.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter. I also don't own the moon, gravity, or love or happiness (although I'm saving up for the last one). :)

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**Chapter 4 Fixed: Sept. 2012**

**A/N: Hey, so those of you who are a few chapters in . . . chap 52 to be exact, will have read my A/N of that that says that I'm fixing up my previous chapters. This is the fourth one. Now I'm sure that there are still probably some mistakes (I've read mistakes in published books too) but I think I've got all the glaring ones.**

**So enjoy if you want to re-read. If you don't . . . well you can ignore.**

**If you want to review again, hey, feel free!**

**Enjoy . . . again :)**

* * *

**Curiosity Killed Mrs. Norris**

"It's ten o'clock at night Victoire. Where are you going?" Sandra Collins asked.

Victoire stopped at the door; she had been on her way out of their dorm room. She turned around and looked at her best mate. Sandra was lying on top of the scarlet and gold comforter of her bed reading a magazine.

Victoire smiled, "When we came into the Common Room I checked the message board. I've got patrol duty tonight until twelve."

Sandra gave her a sympathetic look, "Patrol duty on the first night back? That definitely sucks."

"Comes with the responsibilities of being Head Girl."

"Yeah. So who's doing it with you?"

"Austin Pennington."

Sandra's eyes went wide; she even gasped audibly, "That prat? He made Head Boy?"

"Yup, anyway, I've got to go . . ."

"Hold it right there young lady!"

Victoire turned around and faced her best friend. Sandra had jumped off the bed and was now standing very close to her.

"What?" Victoire asked innocently batting her eyelashes.

"Do _not_ even go there Vic. You know your Veela blood has absolutely no effect on me."

Victoire swore silently. She knew where Sandra was about to go with this and she definitely didn't want to go there.

"Now, did I just hear you say that you have patrol duty with Austin Pennington tonight?"

"Yes."

"Austin Pennington of Ravenclaw?"

"Yes."

"Austin Pennington of Ravenclaw, who keeps harassing you to go out with him?"

"Yes."

"The prat who tried to spike your drinks with a love potion in fifth year?"

"For the last time Sandy, yes! Austin Pennington!"

Sandra looked upset, "Hey, I'm just trying to look out for you. I know that you hate him. You do know that he's going to be spending the majority of his time tonight trying to get you to go out on a date with him, right?"

"Yes I know."

"Yet you don't seem worried by this," Sandra noted as she narrowed her eyes at the blonde.

"No I'm not. If the Git hasn't figured out yet that I have absolutely no intentions of dating him, then he has bigger problems than I thought. I'm not going to get myself worked up because the idiot can't realize that I have no feelings for him whatsoever."

Sandra's eyes widened slightly as she listened to Victoire's impassioned speech, "And where, does this heated defence come from? I know you Victoire Weasley. Despite the fact that almost every boy in the castle would give their wand arm to date you, you don't always have this much confidence around blokes. It makes me think that something has happened to you that has increased your confidence with men."

Victoire shifted uncomfortably in Sandra's penetrating gaze. Her mate knew her all too well. She didn't want to tell Sandra yet about Teddy. She still wanted Kingsley to know first.

_And that's not going to happen for a while. I need to owl him but I won't have any time to write the letter tonight. Maybe I should tell her . . . it's not like it's going to make a big difference . . ._

Victoire shook her head to clear her thoughts. She'd made a decision to tell Kingsley first and she was going to stick to it.

"Maybe I've just grown over the summer. Anyway, I've got to go now . . . don't want to be late . . ."

Victoire practically ran out of her dorm room after she tossed out the excuse to her friend. It didn't work as well as she'd hoped though, because she could hear Sandra calling her name behind her as she fled the dormitory.

Victoire hastily jumped down the stairs and almost ran into Xavier Wood, "What are you doing here Mr. Head Boy? Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Xavier smiled at her, "Actually no. I'm up because I have patrol duty tonight."

Victoire frowned, "But . . . I have patrol duty tonight . . ."

"Yeah, we have patrol duty _together_," Xavier said with extra emphasis on the word together. He gave her a look as if he thought that she was slow.

She rolled her eyes at him, "Together? But I'm supposed to be on patrol with Austin Pennington."

"I know. I looked at the sheet and noticed that you were assigned to work with Austin. I know that you don't like him so I asked Professor Longbottom if he could change the schedule so that I could patrol with you instead. He was in a little bit of a hurry so he said yeah, go ahead."

Victoire smiled brightly, "Wow that was really nice of you Xavier."

He blushed lightly, "It was no problem. I just didn't want to you to get detention on the first night back to school. James and Fred would be very upset if you beat their record."

"Detention?"

"Yeah. Austin would probably annoy you so much that you'd end up hexing him and get in trouble."

Victoire smiled; good thing Xavier understood her.

* * *

Xavier and Victoire were walking slowly around the corridors. Since it was the first night back -and Victoire knew that James and Fred had no pranks planned for the night- it was quiet.

"So Xavier . . . how was your summer?"

Xavier stopped and glanced at Victoire oddly, "You already asked me that."

Victoire stopped also, racking her brains. Their conversation had gone from classes, to professors, to Head Boy and Girl duties for the following year. She didn't remember asking him anything about his summer, "I did?"

"Yeah, before dinner when we were waiting for the first-years to come in . . ."

Victoire tried to think back to then. She knew why she missed it. She'd been thinking about Teddy at that time and hadn't been paying attention to anything anyone had been saying, or anything she'd been saying herself for that matter, "Oh, sorry."

Xavier smiled, "That's alright. I could tell that you weren't really all there earlier . . . you were thinking about Ted weren't you?"

Victoire almost blushed; thankfully, her Veela blood prevented that, "Um, yeah I was. It's just weird not having him here, you know? I mean, I know he wasn't here last year . . . but it still feels really odd . . . you know 'cause we're good friends and all . . . and . . ."

She'd started to ramble; that was what Victoire did when she was embarrassed. Xavier knew her pretty well. He was even good friends with Teddy. Maybe, just maybe, he'd believe her 'best friend' excuse and leave it there.

"Good friends . . . really? Because that's not what I heard."

Victoire gulped, "And what exactly have you heard?"

"Just some rumours about you and a certain half-werewolf metamorphmagus," Xavier answered as he smiled widely at her.

"And these rumours entailed?"

"There weren't many. Just something about a goodbye snog . . ."

"And whom did you hear this from?" Victoire asked almost fearfully.

"James."

"Bugger," Victoire put her face in her hands.

"Ahhh. Do you have something to share with me Vic?"

Victoire was too angry to answer his question, "I'm going to kill that kid. He can't just go running around and announce to everyone what he finds out when he eavesdrops. He doesn't usually even have the full story!"

Victoire had started walking briskly down the corridor. It was something of a habit of hers. Whenever she was stressed, angry, or just needed some time to herself, she'd go for a run. While she was in the school -and was afraid of being caught running- she usually just ended up walking rather fast or pacing back and forth.

Xavier reached out an arm and stopped her movement, "Calm down. He didn't go and tell the whole school. I walked into the compartment and he'd just begun to tell Fred what he saw. He thought that I'd get a kick out of the story and told me what happened. When he was done, I told him not to tell anyone else because it was wrong and because it wasn't anybody else's business but yours and Ted's."

Victoire still didn't look too composed, "But Xavier! Do you really expect James to keep _my_ business a secret? Just because you asked him to?"

Xavier smiled; it calmed Victoire somewhat, "No Vic. I'm not stupid. I didn't _ask_ James not to spread the rumour around; I _told_ him not to."

Victoire nodded and looked at her feet. She'd been abstractedly rotating her ankles and stretching her leg muscles. As she calmed down, her legs stopped moving, "Alright, as long as he understood that if he does go around shooting his mouth off that he'll be dead quicker than he could say 'Quidditch'."

Xavier smiled, "I'm pretty sure he got the message."

Victoire grinned back, "Thanks."

They began their way down the corridors again.

"No problem . . . but since James _did_ tell me the story . . . would you please verify or discredit the information?"

Victoire sighed; she wasn't sure what to do.

_Yeah, he _did_ save my arse with James and Freddie . . . and it's not as if I'm never going to tell him or everyone else. 'Cause I will. I just need to talk to Kingsley first. Xavier _is_ a good friend. I know Teddy won't be upset if I tell him because they're rather close. And Xavier _does_ know how to keep a secret . . ._

Victoire continued to weigh the pros and cons of the situation while Xavier watched her. His face turned red when he next spoke, "I'm sorry if that was kinda forward. You don't need to tell me. It's your private life."

Victoire looked at him and she made her decision. She was going to tell him, "No Xavier, you're not being too bold. I'll tell you, but first you need to tell me what you've heard."

"Well, all I heard from James was that he was on the platform and ended up seeing you and Ted snogging. He said that he had asked you about what you were doing, and that you glared at him until he went away."

"That's all?"

"Sort of. That's all he told me but that's not all that I have to go on."

Victoire's eyebrows rose, "What more is there?"

"Ted and I have kept in touch over the years. We owled back and forth during the summer . . ."

Victoire's blue eyes widened, "Did he tell you?"

If he did, she was starting to get angry with a certain pseudo-cousin of hers.

"No, no. But he did mention you. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but it just felt different when I read it . . . and then when I heard James' story I kind of put two and two together. I was waiting for you to say something at supper tonight. Or for Ally to say something. Especially since you were acting so distracted."

"Do you think anybody else noticed my distraction?" Victoire asked worriedly.

"Not really. Sandy and Kyle were too busy flirting with each other, and Chris, Ally and I had a conversation running pretty much the whole time. I know Chris didn't find anything out of the ordinary with you. But I can't be too sure about Ally though, she's a smart girl and she sees a lot."

Victoire nodded; feeling slightly better. She knew that she was going to have to tell everyone soon though; there were too many liabilities. Xavier knew now -even though he was the least of Victoire's worries. James and Fred knew something was up -they worried Victoire the most seeing as they weren't in the habit of _thinking_ before they went to say something. Louis and Dom knew of course, there was no way of keeping it from her siblings. Dom was a girl though so she understood Victoire's need to control the situation about who would find out and when. Louis could have been more of a problem being a thirteen-year-old boy, but he was way too scared of his eldest sister to cross her on something like this. Sandra was even close to suspecting something after Victoire handled the whole Austin Pennington situation, and she didn't even know where Ally would stand on the scale. Xavier was right, she was smart, and she did see a lot. Not only that, but she'd seen Victoire and Teddy multiple times over the summer. She could easily have developed a hypothesis about the two of them and was waiting to talk to Victoire about it when no one else was around.

"I don't think you need to worry about telling everybody though. It's not like it's a big surprise or anything," Xavier continued matter-of-factly.

Victoire tried not to let her mouth pop open in surprise, "What?"

Xavier stopped and looked at Victoire seriously, "C'mon Vic, you can't expect everyone to completely freak when you tell them about you and Ted. It's not a big surprise; most of us have seen it coming for a while."

"What, but . . . how? We've only been dating a month. How could you have foreseen this?" Victoire almost spluttered.

"Vic, even though you're like the smartest person in our year, you can be real simple sometimes. You and Ted have been _best friends_ forever. About half of Hogwarts has bets on when you two would end up together."

"What!?"

Xavier smiled; she could tell that he was teasing her now, "Yeah, it's been going on since Ted's last year."

Victoire decided to play along with him, "And may I ask who will claim the prize?"

"Well, it's definitely not me. I had my money on February of his last year. I actually think Baxter might have won . . ."

Victoire giggled, "But seriously Xavier. Have you really seen it coming?"

He smiled warmly at her, "I have, and I know some other people have too. However, don't worry, there are others in the castle that are much dimmer and won't have seen it coming. You could still make a scene if you wanted to."

Victoire sighed, "I hope you're not alluding to my male groupies."

She wasn't particularly happy with the following she had at school. There were some boys -like Austin Pennington- who have kept asking her out despite the fact that she told them that she didn't like them that way. There was nothing worse than a boy who wouldn't leave you alone no matter how many times you threatened to -and actually _did_- hex them.

"Yeah, well, you only have to put up with them for one more year. Next year we'll be gone, off in the real world. Teddy will be done his Auror training, and you'll be off to Healing school. I doubt anyone will be able to get in between the two of you then," Xavier smiled sweetly at her as he spoke.

Victoire -who had desired a change in the conversation, but didn't want to seem rude to Xavier as she tried to attain it- quickly took up the subject of their graduation from Hogwarts, "Yeah, I'll be learning about how to heal the various injuries _you'll_ be attaining from _your_ job."

Xavier laughed slightly uncomfortably, "That's only if I get asked."

Victoire looked at him sympathetically. Xavier wanted to be a professional Quidditch player; he ate, slept, played, talked, thought, and even breathed Quidditch. He'd been hoping to be scouted for a professional team that year.

"Xavier, you know that you're as good as on Puddlemere United."

Xavier's father Oliver Wood had played for them for his entire Quidditch career and his mother Katie had also played for them for several years before and after having given birth to Xavier. It was only when Xavier's sister Cecilia had come along that Katie decided to retire from professional Quidditch so she could spend more time with family.

Even without his impressive Quidditch lineage, Victoire knew that Xavier would still be scouted for a professional team. He was an amazing player.

"But what if I'm not? They might not ask me . . ."

"Really," Victoire said exasperated, "Xavier you're an amazing player. If you don't already have a spot because of your parents you'll definitely get one because of your mad skills."

"But is that right? To get a spot just because of who my parents are?"

_Ah, so that's what's bugging him_.

"You can't control who you're parents are. If people treat you differently, because of who you are then you just have to suck it up and take it. In no time you'll be able to prove that you're there because of your skill and not because your parents were both professional Quidditch players."

Xavier smiled; he knew that Victoire was telling him what she truthfully believed. The good thing about her was that she was always truthful -even if the truth was not something people wanted to hear. She'd gone through enough of life with the last name Weasley to know what to do when people judge you by who your relatives are.

Xavier smiled at her and then they continued to walk in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Victoire began in a new vein of conversation, "So, do you think I'll need to hold open Quidditch tryouts this year? Or should I just invite a few people to try for certain positions?"

Xavier thought seriously about her questions, "Hmm . . . well, there are you of course as seeker, myself as keeper. And then Ally was a beater last year, but her partner Michael is gone so we'll need another beater. Brant Bennett and Derek Roswell are gone so we'll need two more chasers, good thing Caroline Hilbert is still here though. So ideally, we only need two chasers and a beater . . . unless you want to give everyone a fair chance and have them try-out again . . ."

"I think I'll just announce the positions that we're looking for. I'm not going to find a better keeper than you. Ally's an amazing beater and I'm not going to lie, I feel much safer knowing that she's going to be watching out for bludgers while I fly around concentrating on the snitch. She's one of those rare people that actually thinks when she plays instead of blindly swinging a bat. Caroline is a rather good chaser, plus she already knows most of the plays. Anyway, I have a feeling that if I had her try out again she'd just end up back on the team and that'd be a waste of time for both her and I. So . . . yeah, I'll just announce that we're looking for two chasers and a beater."

Xavier nodded and they began talking more in depth about plays and the Quidditch teams for the other houses. Even though Victoire was the captain for Gryffindor, she always made sure to discuss with Xavier about what she was going to do with the team. He knew what he was doing and she felt guilty that she had been named captain the past two years and he hadn't. Xavier knew a lot more about Quidditch than she did, and had even been on the Gryffindor Quidditch team longer than she had.

She remembered asking him once if he was angry that she had been chosen for captain instead of him. He'd ended up laughing at her. Once he'd caught his breath he explained to her that he was absolutely fine with her being captain instead of him. Despite the fact that he was a phenomenal player -and that his dad had been captain of the Quidditch team when he was at Hogwarts- Xavier did not intend to become captain. He said he didn't feel as though he'd be able to inspire the team, as a proper captain should. After hearing several stories about the kind of captain Xavier's dad had been, she believed that it was probably a good idea she'd been chosen instead of him. She knew that her uncles and aunts had affectionately nicknamed his father -Oliver Wood- the Quidditch Nazi.

* * *

Victoire checked her watch and saw that it was a quarter to twelve. She and Xavier had just enough time for a quick sweep of the third floor corridors before they began their return trip to Gryffindor tower. They were two hallways away from the Head Mistress' office when they heard a set of footsteps down the hall. Xavier smiled at Victoire excitedly; their patrol had been rather boring and he was dying to use some of his Head Boy authority.

They walked slightly quicker towards the sound of the footsteps.

"Miss Weasley, Mr Wood! What do you two think you are doing?!"

Victoire turned around and groaned. Professor Linkwell was walking towards them with a grim expression on his face.

"Oh, hello Professor Linkwell," Xavier greeted him politely.

Professor Linkwell had made his way towards them. His previously grim expression turned into a slimy grin, "Do not 'hello me' Mr Wood. I'm about to take twenty –no, fifty points away from Gryffindor and give you both a week of detention. As Head Boy and Girl you two should know better than to be out this late at night."

"What? Fifty points and a week of detention? No, Link- Professor Linkwell, you can't do that. Xavier and I are supposed to be here, we're-"

"I don't want to hear excuses Miss Weasley or it will be two weeks of detention," Linkwell cut her off.

"Professor, Victoire is right, we're supposed to be here. We have patrol duty tonight," Xavier said smoothly. He had slightly better people skills than Victoire. Especially when it came to dealing with Professor Linkwell.

Linkwell pulled out a rolled piece of parchment and looked through it. His slimy grin fell when he found Victoire's name listed under patrol duty for the night. It came back slightly though when he read the second name.

"Hmm . . . yes, it seems Miss Weasley is listed for patrol duty today. However, her partner seems to be one Austin Pennington. And Mister Wood, unless you are Mr Pennington but are under the influence of polyjuice potion -which is a banned substance and would result in three weeks detention- I will ask again, what are you two doing?"

Xavier tried to explain to Linkwell the change in the schedule, but Professor Linkwell kept cutting him off and telling him that he didn't believe him. Victoire was about to lose her temper -it wasn't really a rare occurrence but it was unheard of for a time so early in the school year- when she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the group turn into the dark corridor. As they came closer to the light, the mass of shadows began to take form. She had distinguished a tall thick man with dark skin and dark clothing from the cluster. A small shine of gold near the dark man's head glimmered in the low light from the flickering flames of the corridor's lamps.

Xavier and Professor Linkwell's argument ended when Victoire went sprinting at full speed down the corridor to the group of people.

"Kingsley!" She cried joyfully as she jumped at him. It was a good thing that he was solid or she could have easily flattened him to the floor from the power of her embrace.

Kingsley Shacklebolt was rather surprised to have been so quickly and unexpectedly ambushed by his goddaughter, but he didn't show it -he was an Auror he was use to surprises. Plus he was much more excited to see her, then to waste time with questions about why she was out of bed at this time of night -which would have been the first thing a responsible godfather would have done. He squeezed her tightly back, "Hey Princess."

Victoire buried her head in his dark robes; she'd really missed him the past month, "Where were you today?"

Kingsley didn't try to smile at her. He knew he had hurt her feelings by not showing up at the Hogwarts Express, so he wasn't going to brush it off and pretend as if it wasn't a big deal because it was. It was a huge deal. Victoire was the daughter that Kingsley never had and never thought he needed. He'd been wrapped around Victoire's fingers from the first time he'd laid eyes on the blue-eyed, blonde-haired baby girl.

He was still holding her in a tight embrace, "I'm so sorry Vic. My assignment went longer than I expected-"

"Is everything okay?" Victoire asked as she looked up at him with a nervous expression.

He smiled, "Yes, everything is fine. Things just dragged out a little."

"Okay," Victoire said starting to smile; it faltered a little as she asked her next question, "What are you doing here then?"

"Oh, I'm just here to-"

"Ahem!"

Kingsley looked up at the gruff noise and suddenly recalled that he and Victoire weren't the only people standing in the hall. Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Rydal, and Linkwell were near them along with Xavier Wood and the man who had loudly cleared his throat; Minister Flannery.

Even though Flannery's comment was marked enough for Kingsley to understand his meaning, it was subtle enough for him to hope that Victoire hadn't found it too out of the ordinary, "I'm just here to go over some of the basic protection spells and procedures."

"Isn't it a little late for that?"

"Yeah, well it's the beginning of the year; these are just routine checkups and stuff."

"But isn't that something that magical law enforcement covers?"

"Yup, I thought I'd take a peek through to make sure it's all okay."

"Alright, but why is Minister Flannery here then?" Victoire asked the question casually enough but Kingsley understood the significant look she was giving him.

It was almost like he could read her mind.

_I don't think that you're telling me the whole truth but I'll play along until we're alone; then you will tell me._

"Question after question, after question! Young lady, has anyone ever told you that curiosity killed the cat?"

Kingsley wanted to punch Flannery; he had no right to talk to Victoire like that. He was being a pompous -for lack of a better word- git.

Victoire smiled brightly back at Flannery, the girl was definitely about to lay on some thick Veela charm.

"I don't believe in that old wives tale Minister because if curiosity actually did kill the cat, Mrs. Norris would have died a long time ago."

Kingsley turned his chuckle into a cough. Minister Flannery's face went red; he hadn't expected her to be able to make an intelligent comeback. He was a strong believer in the whole 'dumb blonde' stereotype. Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and Xavier laughed, which caused Flannery to look at the latter. His eyes went from Xavier to Victoire; back and forth.

"Professor McGonagall, I didn't know it was common practice to allow students to be out of bed, and in the halls, at," Flannery glanced down at the face of his watch, "Twelve o'clock at night."

Kingsley glared at Flannery; he was trying to cover his embarrassment by intimidating the headmistress.

Victoire looked at the Minister; her blues eyes went cold, "I beg your pardon Minister, but Xavier and I were on patrol duty. We were about to head back to Gryffindor tower, but we heard noises down this hallway and came to investigate."

"Well, seeing as you have found the source of the noise I suggest you run back to your dorm to get some beauty sleep before your classes tomorrow," Flannery bit back almost testily.

_How did he become Minister of Magic with an attitude like that?_ Victoire wondered in passing.

Normally she would have made a comeback equally as scathing as the one given to her, but she decide that this would be a great opportunity for her and Xavier to leave before Linkwell could pointlessly assign them detention.

"What a_ grand _idea Minister. Let's go Xavier."

Unfortunately, Linkwell saw what she was doing, "Just one minute Miss Weasley, Mr Wood. We are not finished here."

Victoire and Xavier looked back at Linkwell worriedly. Thankfully, Professor Flitwick cut in, "Aldus, what's going on? Miss Weasley and Mr Wood were just doing their patrol rounds."

"Yes, Miss Weasley is assigned to do patrol tonight, but she's supposed to be with Mr Pennington. Not Mr Wood here. So, I will only ask you two one more time, what are you doing out of bed?"

Flannery smiled widely at the bright prospects for Victoire getting in trouble. Kingsley scowled, but not at Victoire. She could tell that the frown was meant for Professor Linkwell and not for the situational trouble she was presently in. She was glad that it wasn't for her. Upsetting one of her professors was one thing, she could even live with upsetting the Minister -especially after how he's shown himself to be a major git- but she wouldn't have stood for upsetting Kingsley. He was her godfather, she's looked up to him since she was a little girl; she loved him. She wouldn't be able to live with herself knowing she'd upset him.

"Professor Linkwell, Miss Weasley and Mr Wood are doing nothing wrong. She _is_ on the list. And as for him, I have already discussed this," Linkwell looked at Professor Longbottom disbelievingly.

"Mr Wood came up to me earlier tonight and volunteered to take Mr Pennington's spot for tonight. I said yes, and informed Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall of the change."

Linkwell's face turned red, "I wasn't notified of the change Professor Longbottom."

Neville feigned contriteness, "Oh, my apologies Professor! The change was made right before our meeting. I guess I forgot to inform the other teachers of the alteration."

Linkwell was about to say something but Neville continued, "Anyway, their patrol duty is now over and they should be getting to bed."

"Of course, Sir," Xavier began happily; he placed a hand in the crux of Victoire's elbow, "Let's get back to Gryffindor Tower Vic."

She smiled at him but shook his hand off, "Sure."

She walked back over to Kingsley and gave him one last quick squeeze.

"Goodnight!"

He smiled warmly down at her as he returned the hug, "Night Princess."

"Thanks for keeping your promise," she whispered to him.

He looked into her sparkling blue eyes hoping that he wouldn't see any sarcasm; he didn't. Her eyes were clear and affectionate. He shot her a confused look.

"You did see me off . . . to bed."

His confusion became a smile, "I'm sorry you had to wait so long."

"Better late than never," Victoire let go of her godfather and began to walk back to Gryffindor Tower with Xavier.

As Kingsley watched his goddaughter walk away, he felt his heart lighten. Everything was going to be okay. Victoire wasn't upset with him. He got to see her before her new year of school started -you never actually did anything the first night back, all that happens is the back to school feast. His tedious month long mission was complete, earning him at least one month of administrative work in England and not another distant country. The only thing he had left to think about was Minister Flannery's crazy idea to bring back the Tri-Wizard Tournament. He wasn't very worried about it though. Neville's idea to talk to the previous champions will get Flannery to change his mind. Kingsley knew that neither Fleur nor Harry would enjoy Flannery's new plan.

* * *

Hey hope you liked it. If you have any comments I'd love to hear them!

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**Fixed: ****Again, I hope that you enjoyed, and, you can review again if you'd like :)**


	5. The Cat's Out of the Bag

A/N: Hey, next chapter I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: JKR=Harry Potter Me=not Harry Potter It's sad but it's true

* * *

The Cat's Out of the Bag

"Oi! Vic!"

The voice broke through Victoire's dream; she grumbled and rolled over in her bed. She pulled her sheets over her head -in an attempt to block out the voice that was repeatedly calling her name- and tried to fall back asleep. It was working too, until she felt something hard hit her head. She sat up and looked down at the object (which had just hit her) lying on top of the blankets, it was a hot pink stiletto heeled shoe.

Sandra was standing at the foot of Victoire's bed, fully dressed with her arms crossed over her chest, "Were you planning on waking up this morning?"

Victoire yawned loudly, "Not really, no. What's with the shoe? I didn't think you owned any heels, and pink no less!" She said feigning shock as she twirled the shoe around her finger by the strap on the heel. Sandra was a tomboy; when Victoire first met her, she'd ardently declared that she couldn't walk straight in heels, and that she was allergic to the colour pink.

Sandra opened her mouth to speak, but was cut-off by Pamela Mace.

"Give me back my shoe!" She stalked over to Victoire's bed and tore the shoe out of Victoire's hand.

She gave Victoire a scathing look before walking back to her side of the room to finish getting ready. Pamela Mace was one of Victoire and Sandra's seventh year roommates. She was a shorter, stick thin girl with gaudy, bleach blonde hair, and pale brown eyes. She was spoilt and self-centered, and hated Victoire's guts. Victoire for the life of her had never been able to understand why Pamela disliked her so much. It wasn't as if she'd done something to her, she'd always gone out of her way to be nice to her, and yet Pamela still treated Victoire as if she was some sort of disgusting insect.

"Ignore her, you need to get ready," Sandra commented throwing a biting look in Pamela's direction. Pamela stuck her tongue out at Sandra and strutted out of the dorm.

"Uh, I don't want to get out of bed! I want to go back to sleep!" She lay back down on her bed.

Sandra smiled and sat down on the edge of Victoire's bed, "Okay, you can go back to sleep . . . I'll just go down stairs for breakfast . . ."

"Breakfast?" Victoire asked sitting up straight in her bed. Sandra smiled again, she knew her best friend; Victoire would never deliberately miss any chance to eat. You would never be able to tell by looking at her slender and lean figure, but that girl could eat. In fact, more than a few people have commented on her ability to eat and eat, and never gain a pound.

"Yes, if you hurry, we should be able to grab a quick bite before classes start."

Victoire needed no more encouragement. She jumped out of bed and began to get dressed for the day. Sandra timed her; Victoire was ready exactly eight and a half minutes later. Sandra sighed quietly as she studied her friend; she looked flawless. At best, Sandra guessed that it would take her half a day to come even close to looking as good as Victoire can in less than ten minutes. She envied her friend's inherited ability to step out of bed and look completely amazing.

"Let's go eat," Victoire exclaimed happily, her shiny blonde hair sliding around her back as she linked her arm in her friend's and sauntered out of the room.

* * *

They walked into the Great Hall and searched the Gryffindor table for their friends. Sandra spotted Kyle the same time Victoire spotted Xavier. Victoire and Sandra sat down side-by-side on the bench, opposite Xavier and Kyle.

Victoire and Sandra started to fill their plates up with food.

"Morning ladies. You're a tad late," Xavier commented.

"Lay off Xavier," Kyle laughed, "they probably just decided to get a little extra beauty sleep." Kyle winked at Sandra and leaned over the table to give her a light kiss on the lips.

"C'mon, I'm trying to eat here!" Xavier complained, waving his fork.

"We're not stopping you from that, I mean, look at Vic, our display of affection hasn't stopped her from shovelling her face," Kyle shot back.

Victoire looked up from her plate stacked with pancakes, "Hm?" She asked her mouth full of food.

Kyle, Sandra and Xavier burst into laughter as Victoire swallowed and took a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"Aren't you guys just _hilarious_." Victoire went back to her food, taking smaller bites and mouthfuls than before.

A light conversation began between the four as they continued with their breakfast. At one point, Victoire stood up and leaned over the table to grab a dish of eggs, which Xavier had purposely been keeping away from her because he claimed that 'if she ate one more bite she wouldn't be able to get her broom off the ground at next week's try-outs'. As she leaned over the table, her necklace slipped out from under her blouse and lay against the front of her shirt when she sat back down.

Xavier opened his mouth, and Victoire stuck her tongue out at him, expecting it to be some sort of reprimand for the large helping of scrambled eggs she was scooping out onto her plate, but that wasn't what she got.

"When'd you get that?" Xavier was looking at her blouse.

Victoire looked down at her own shirt, trying to figure out what he was talking about. The sun shone through the large windows of the Great Hall; causing Victoire's necklace to gleam in the light. She looked at the large, oval shaped, gold locket resting on her blouse. The face had an intricate set of vines and flowers carved on it. She'd gotten it as a gift from Teddy about a week ago. He said that it was a back to school gift, something she carry with her to remind her of him. She didn't think she'd need a necklace to remember him, but she accepted it anyway. He had already filled it with pictures for her.

Victoire's fingers moved along the long gold chain around her neck, "Um, it was a back to school gift."

"That's nice . . . from whom?" Xavier asked, expecting the answer.

"Teddy . . ." Victoire answered, unblushingly. She _never _blushes, and she wasn't going to pick now to start.

"Aw, how sweet," Sandra commented coming into the conversation, "do you have any pictures in it yet?"

"Yeah . . ."

"Can I see?" Sandra and Xavier asked together. Victoire cursed silently; the pictures of her and Teddy would definitely cause them to ask questions, but her hands went to the chain to, slowly, remove it from her neck; before she took it off however, she was distracted.

"Howdy everyone!"

James Potter and Fred Weasley had decided to grace their eldest cousin with their presence. James squeezed in the bench in-between Sandra and Victoire, while Fred jumped in-between Kyle and Xavier. James was a twelve-year-old miniature of Harry. The differences between their appearances were rather subtle; James had Ginny's brown eyes, instead of Harry's green. He didn't wear glasses, and of course, his forehead was free of Harry's lightning shaped scar. James' face was also clear of the trademark Weasley freckles. Fred on the other hand, was the embodiment of the stereotypic Weasley features. The twelve-year-old had a tall wiry build, short fiery-red hair, and pale skin covered in golden freckles.

"Morning James, Fred. What have you got planned for today?" Victoire asked her cousins pleasantly.

James and Fred shared a sly grin, "Whatever do you mean Vic? Are you trying to imply that you think Fred and I are planning some sort of prank?" James asked in a hurt tone.

"I'm not implying anything James. I'm straight out asking you if you have some mischief planned for today," Victoire answered narrowing her eyes at her cousin.

"That's insulting Victoire. You should know us better than that. You know we don't prank for at least a week after we begin school," Fred said affronted.

"Yeah, we like to let everyone get lulled into a false sense of security, maybe even make them believe that we've given up pranking," James continued equally upset.

"How else do you expect us to come up with some genius idea unless you give us time to scout around and see what we're dealing with?" Fred finished, wounded from the fact that Victoire was underestimating their pranking techniques.

"Oh, my apologies boys. I forgot that with you pranking is an art form," Victoire said with slight sarcasm.

"Apology accepted." James said plucking a sausage off Victoire's plate; she slapped his hand and he dropped the sausage; frowning.

"So when are you holding Quidditch try-outs Vic?" Fred asked curiously.

"Xavier and I were thinking on next-"

"VICTOIRE APPOLINE WEASLEY!"

Victoire quickly turned her attention to the source of the noise. Standing at the entrance to the Great Hall, looking angrier than Lucy Weasley when Fred and James switched her 'note writing quill' with one that writes in invisible ink -causing her to lose a month's worth of a History of Magic notes- was Alexandra Weasley. Her face was redder than her brothers hair, causing her gold freckles to stick out on her face, her brown eyes were angry slits as she stared at her cousin. Standing next to her, looking confused and, also red, were Victoire's brother and sister, Louis and Dom. Victoire instantly knew that this wasn't good. Ally never loses her cool; it was like Victoire losing her appetite, impossible. Yet there she was, glaring at Victoire as if she desperately needed to yell at her. Victoire wondered what was going on, Ally's facial expression looked very betrayed . . . _Crap! There is only one thing I've ever kept a secret from Ally . . ._ Victoire instantly knew what was going on; Ally had somehow found out about Teddy and she was upset with Victoire for not telling her herself.

When Alexandra saw Victoire stand up and move away from the table, she walked out of the hall, practically dragging Louis and Dom with her. Victoire grabbed James' arm as she got off the bench, "You're coming with me."

James gave her a wide eyes stare but didn't argue; the look on her face was enough to keep him quiet. Victoire looked across the table to Fred, "You're coming too."

Fred opened him mouth to protest but was also silenced by one of Victoire's glares. Xavier nudged Fred until he got off the bench. Victoire glanced around the Great Hall as she walked to the doors. It looked like someone had hit everyone with an immobilization charm, no one was talking, no one was moving (To Victoire's extreme shock, no one was even eating!). They just sat there staring at them, even at the head table. All of the professors looked shocked; Alexandra Weasley was _not_ known for outrageous outbursts. Victoire saw that Neville had gotten up from his chair and he looked directly at her, his expression was easy to read. He was wondering if they needed him to follow to sort something out. She shook her head slightly in response; he nodded and sat back down. Near the end of the Gryffindor table Victoire saw Rose and Al sitting down with one of their older cousins, Molly Weasley. Rose and Al's eyes where huge, they were still surprised from Ally's fit. Molly Weasley gave Victoire a pointed look. Victoire shook her head; she didn't need Molly's help either. On her way out, Victoire took one last look at the Hall, the last of her cousins, who were at Hogwarts, were standing up at their respective house tables. Lucy Weasley was standing near the middle of the Ravenclaw table; her eyes narrowed on her cousins, Victoire could almost hear the cogs whirring in her head, even with the distance between them. Baxter Weasley was standing near the end of the Hufflepuff table, his face had a worried look on it; he also knew that Ally's outburst were exceedingly rare.

Victoire found Ally waiting for her under the grand staircase, her arms were crossed over her chest and her lips were pressed together so tightly that Victoire wasn't sure if they'd ever open back up again.

Apparently they could, Alexandra looked at Victoire, her dark brown eyes almost turning black, "So Vic, would you care to explain to me, _why_ I've only _just_ found out that you're dating Teddy?" Her voice sounded sweet, but Victoire knew her cousin well enough to hear the rough edge in her voice.

Victoire's mouth was open; she didn't know how to answer, how to tell Ally (one of her best friends) why she hadn't told her about the relationship she'd been in for the past month, "Ally . . . I-I was going to tell you . . ."

"Really Vic? You were going to tell me! When? Three years from now when you get engaged?"

"Hey," Victoire held her hands up, "calm down Ally. This isn't a big deal."

"Not a big deal? Victoire you are may be my cousin, but you're also my best friend. I just found out that you've been in a relationship for a month. With. Teddy. Lupin."

Victoire looked into Ally's wounded face, "Just hear me out okay? I'll explain everything to you, but please just listen."

Ally nodded mutely, Victoire took that as encouragement enough, "Ally . . . Teddy and I have been dating for a month, I-I'm not entirely sure how it happened but it did. I know that it probably sounds weird to you, because he's like a brother to me . . . and we were going to tell you, it's just everything got out of control."

"Oh, so you're saying that you've been meaning to tell me about this for a _month_, but just haven't found the _right time_?" Ally may not have inherited her father's taste for pranks or trouble, but she did inherit the Weasley sarcasm.

Victoire looked down at her feet, "No, I haven't been trying to tell you for a month."

"Then when did you decide you'd finally tell me Vic?"

"Yesterday," Victoire said barely audible, this _wasn't_ going the way she hoped it would.

"Since yesterday. You've been dating him for a month, and you just decided that you would try to tell me yesterday."

"Listen Ally, Teddy and I didn't want _anyone_ to know when we started dating. We wanted to try it out for a little bit to see where it would go. I mean, I could've told you the minute we made our first date, but what if that didn't go anywhere. Everyone would have known and it would have been extremely awkward. My going out on a date with some boy and it not working out is one thing, but me going out with Teddy and it not working out, that's just a mess. Teddy's been my best friend since before I can remember, he's been like a brother to me, and like a cousin to everyone else . . . we wanted to make sure that there was something in this relationship before we told our family. You can understand that can't you?"

Ally nodded, she knew where Victoire was coming from. The Weasleys and the Potters were practically family to Teddy, if they had told everyone that they were dating, when they started dating and it didn't really go anywhere . . . Victoire was right, it would be one _major_ mess.

"Fine," Ally almost snapped, "but if you were going to tell me yesterday, why didn't you?"

"Well . . . that's when everything got out of control. Teddy and I had decided to tell everyone before I left for Hogwarts, but I wanted to make sure that Kingsley was one of the first persons I told. He wasn't supposed to come home until yesterday so Teddy and I made a plan that I'd tell Kingsley and then he'd tell Harry and ounce our godfathers knew, we'd let everyone else find out."

"Then how come I'm only hearing about this now?"

"Well, it was a nice plan . . . but everything kind of went downhill yesterday. By the time Teddy came to see me off, Kingsley hadn't shown up yet . . . I'd rather given up on the hope that he'd come. Teddy kissed me goodbye and then James popped up out of now where," Victoire paused to glare down at the black haired boy, whom she still had a hold of, "he quickly ran off, and I have no doubt that he went directly to tell his parents what he saw-"

James finally broke out of Victoire's grip, "If you didn't want anyone to find out, you should have been more careful. Snogging in the middle of Platform Nine and Three Quarters is _not_ at all discreet."

"_Anyway_," Victoire said glaring at James. "Harry and Ginny, and who knows who else, found out from James-"

"I can tell you exactly who else found out," James cut in grinning.

"I knew I should have told you when we were on the train, or at dinner, or in the Common Room, but I just . . . I had a stupid wish that I could tell Kinsley before everyone else knew . . . it just didn't feel right telling everyone before him . . ."

Ally sighed, she knew how much regard Victoire had for her godfather, her wanting to make sure that he was one of the first people to know about her new relationship didn't surprise her, especially after he'd been away for the past month.

"Well . . . I'm sorry that you weren't able to tell Kingsley first . . . but Teddy can always tell him at work."

Victoire laughed humourlessly, "That's not going to happen. Teddy already told me that there was no way that he was going to be the one to tell Kingsley that we're dating."

"For an Auror, Teddy _doesn't _really come across as the bravest man out there."

Victoire looked up surprised as Dom spoke. She'd forgotten that her sister and brother were standing with them.

"You can't really blame him though," Fred cut-in. Victoire has also overlooked that he was there, "I mean Kingsley is this huge guy, who's the head of the Auror office at the Ministry. Nobody in their right mind would go up to him and flaunt about how he's dating his daughter. Teddy telling Kingsley that he's dating Victoire would pretty much be equal to that."

"That's beside the point, I'll find the time later to write to him. Ally, I really am sorry about not telling you earlier. I promise that I won't keep something like this from you again."

Ally's face was expressionless as she listened to Victoire. Victoire batted her eyelashes at her cousin and gave her huge blue, puppy-dog eyes. Ally smiled in spite of herself. _Damn Vic and her nauseatingly perfect Veela charm._

"Fine, I forgive you. I guess I understand why you kept it from me for so long. I'm sorry about that . . . display in the Great Hall; I guess I was angry because of how I found out than about anything else . . ."

"How did you find out anyway?" Victoire asked curiously, she'd been wondering about that since she realized in the Great Hall why Ally was yelling at her.

"Well . . . I saw Fred and James talking to Louis just before I went into the Great Hall for breakfast. I waved at them before going in and James and Fred immediately ran up to me when they saw me . . ."

Victoire turned to glare at her James and his red headed partner in crime, "You little Gits," she started menacingly, "you were the ones to tell her! I thought Xavier had scared the two of you enough that you'd know better than to tell people about Teddy and me."

"Xavier?" Ally asked confused.

"I swear Vic we didn't tell Ally! And yes, Xavier did scare us enough that we'd never think about telling anyone else," James said defensively.

"What is this about Xavier?" Ally interrupted them restlessly.

Victoire's face fell; she knew Ally wasn't going to take this well, "Xavier kinda walked in on James telling Fred about seeing me and Teddy kissing, on the train yesterday."

Victoire's prediction proved to be true, Ally's eyes narrowed at Victoire when she next spoke, each word was clipped, "So, you told Xavier Wood about you and Teddy before you told me, your best friend!"

"I-I didn't tell him out right! Like I said, he walked in when James was telling Fred. Then he brought it up to me last night, I never actually confirmed or denied it, he just guessed right! It's not my fault that Xavier Wood is too bloody perceptive for his own good."

Ally tried not to smile as she listen to Victoire grumble out the last part of her statement, "Vic, James is telling the truth for once, neither him nor Fred told me about you and Ted."

"Yeah," James said smugly, "hey! What do you mean for 'once'?"

Victoire ignored him, "Well if Fred and James didn't tell you . . . that leaves only two other options . . ." Victoire turned her cold glare over to her siblings. Neither Dom nor Louis would meet her gaze. _Knew I shouldn't have even told them. It's not as if they would have figured out on their own either. Dom was too busy with her 'boyfriends' this summer to pay attention to what I was doing, and Louis was too busy doing extra charms work with Aunt Hermione so that he'd be able to bring his charms mark up this year to notice that Teddy and I were acting more friendly than usual._

Ally continued with her explanation, "Fred and James just asked me what I knew about itch reversal potions . . . I told them that it would probably be better to ask you, seeing as you're the aspiring healer and all. They nodded and walked off to find you. I then went over to Louis; I asked him how his summer went. We talked a little; I noticed that under his robes he had a Puddlemere United shirt on. I asked him when he got it. He said that you and Teddy had gone to a game a few weeks ago and that you'd brought it back for him . . ."

"And then you told her!" Victoire finished glaring specifically at her thirteen-year-old brother.

Louis looked up at his elder sister, his brown eyes meeting her blue, "No I didn't tell her. I was just telling Ally about you and Teddy getting me the shirt when Dom walked up and started yelling at me. She heard me talking about you and Teddy and she thought that I was telling Ally _about_ you two. She came up -she looked just like you do now by the way Vic- and she was all 'Louis Vincent Weasley how dare you go around talking about Victoire's relationships when she has expressively forbade us from telling people' blah, blah, blah. And that is how Ally found out. Not from James, or Fred, or even me, she found out from Dom."

Victoire looked towards her sister with shock, Dom's blue eyes were huge, "I'm-I'm _so_ sorry Vic. I never meant to-to tell anyone. It was an accident, I thought that Louis had told Ally and I knew that you'd be upset when you found out, so I thought I'd intervene and say something . . . but I just made everything worse. I know I can be selfish sometimes Vic, but I swear I didn't mean to spill your secret. I-"

Victoire cut her sister off with a quick hug. Despite the two years between them, Dom wasn't much shorter than Victoire. However, Victoire was able -with a lot of effort mind you- to rest her chin on top of her sister's red head.

"It's alright Dom. I believe that it was an accident. I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep it a secret for long anyway, there were just too many liabilities."

"Are you calling James and me 'liabilities'?" Fred asked trying to go for an affronted air.

"Yes," Victoire answered lightly, "do you have a problem with that?"

"Nope," James said easily.

"We're just trying to make a list of all the names we've been called. Liabilities," Fred said mimicking writing it down on his hand.

"That's a new one," James finished, pretending to read off Fred's hand.

Victoire looked at Ally, "Are we good now?"

Ally smiled brightly, "For now, but later tonight you are going to tell me _all_ the details."

Victoire grinned, "Deal."

The clock on the front of the school chimed loudly, signalling that it was time for lessons.

"Miss Victoire Weasley, Miss Alexandra Weasley, Miss Dominique Weasley, Mr Louis Weasley, Mr Fred Weasley, and Mr James Potter!"

They turned to see Professor Longbottom standing at the entrance to the Great Hall, "Have you six gotten your timetables yet?"

They collectively shook their heads, "Well then come over here and get them." Without further discussion, the five Weasleys and one Potter walked over to the Head of their house.

* * *

Hope you liked it, I wanted some of the deatails about Vicoite and Teddy to get out, so it was a little fluff, minus Teddy's actual presence. Plus, I couldn't help but add in the little Potters and Weasleys, I have lots of fun writing them.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!


	6. Auror Interrogations

A/N: Hey sorry this update is a little late. I had a chemistry lab to do and a chem test to study for, and babysitting, and a haircut, and religion homework, then my dad wanted me to go driving . . . Yeah, I know there some pretty bad excuses but I'm sorry. Here's the new chapter. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and commented. I will get to adjusting the other chapers . . . I was actually on my way to doing that before my brother distracted me will REAL Bernie Botts Every Flavoured Beans and Chaocolate Frogs that his friend brought back for him from Harry Potter Land. Anyway . . . enough stalling . . . here's the new chapter.

Disclaimer: Finder's keepers, losers weepers dosen't apply in this situation, sadly . . .

* * *

Auror Interrogation

Teddy Lupin walked out of the elevator and into the Auror Office. His arms were full of different books, scrolls, and pieces of parchment. He deposited a little of his cargo on a few of the desks as he walked by. The Aurors nodded or mumbled their thanks to him as he went by. His arms were still rather full by the time he got to his destination. The plaque on the large desk read the name _Auror Harry Potter_. Teddy smiled as he stood in front of the desk. Harry Potter smiled at his godson (and now since Teddy was a second level Auror in training his shadow and protégée).

"Thanks for getting those Ted, you can place them over there," Harry pointed to the large desk directly to the left his.

Teddy raised his eyebrows, silently questioning him. Harry grinned and nodded his head. Teddy smiled slightly as he dropped the large pile on the desk. He conjured up a simple straight back chair and pulled it up to the open left side of his godfather's desk.

"What's on the docket today Auror Potter?" Teddy asked.

"Teddy, I know that you want to take your Auror training seriously -which is good- but you don't need to be so formal with me," Harry told him.

"But, isn't it considered rude to call you by your first name at work?"

"Nope, in fact it sounds weird when you call me that, it makes me feel that you're angry with me or something. You can call me by first name at work, especially when you're shadowing me now. Besides, Ron and I use each other's first names all the time."

"Yeah, but you guys have been best friends forever, and you're his brother-in-law, it's different."

Harry looked thoughtful; he knew that Teddy had worked really hard the last two years to get to where he was. Only a quarter of the people he had started his training with had kept up with it the past two years. In Harry's mind, Teddy had already more than proven himself good enough for the job, but he still had at least one year at the least of training left, he was always vigilant of doing something that could be construed as improper or wrong and get him in trouble. _Constant vigilance. Mad-Eye would have _loved _to meet this kid . . ._

"We also call Kingsley by his first name," Harry pointed out.

"Yeah, but you've known Kingsley since before he was Minister and Head of the Auror Office. Plus you're Harry Potter; no one would _dare_ tell you that you're doing something wrong," Teddy joked.

Harry chuckled, "If you can call Kingsley by his first name _outside_ of work, than you can call him by his first name _at_ work. It's not at all rude or improper. That man's changed you're dippers before for heaven's sake."

Teddy's face went red; like with Harry and the rest of the Weasleys he's known Kingsley Shacklebolt since he was born. Kingsley had worked as an Auror with his mother before the last war, and had been in the Order of the Phoenix with both his parents before the Last War.

"Morning Harry, Ted."

Teddy looked up from the piece of parchment he was holding, and looked at the Auror who had just walked in. Ron Weasley smiled at Teddy, and at his brother-in-law.

"Morning Ron, how're the kids? Harry asked politely.

"They're fine I guess. Hugo was a little sad today, but I think that's because he's not used to being the only kid in the house. What I got from Rose's letter she seemed good. She was extremely happy that she ended up in Gryffindor."

Harry smiled, "Yeah so was Al, I swear I expect to get an owl from Victoire yesterday saying that he fainted on the way to Hogwarts or something."

Ron laughed and went to the desk to the left of Harry's. His eyes got huge, and he looked over at Harry, "And what's all this?"

"Oh, well that is your work for today. Since you opted not to have a student shadow you this year, and since you're not presently in the middle of an investigation, you get to sort through all of that paperwork and put it into the categories listed on the green piece of parchment."

Ron's mouth opened in shock, "Bloody hell. I knew I should have just chosen to babysit some annoying ickle student this year."

Teddy pretended to put on an affronted face, "Annoying student, you think I'm annoying Ron?"

"No Teddy, you're actually the only Auror-in-training that I can stand to be around for long periods of time."

"Aw, thanks Ron, you're so sweet. But you should probably get to work on all that _fun_ paperwork."

Ron sat down behind his desk and eyed Teddy warily, "I think you're spending too much time with Percy, Teddy."

Harry laughed and turned to Teddy, "See, you called him by his first name and nothing bad happened. I told you that it was fine."

Ron looked at Harry confused until Harry told him about the conversation he had previously had with Teddy. Ron nodded his head in understanding, "As interesting as that is, there is something I'd like to discuss with you Teddy."

Teddy looked up from his paperwork, "Yes Ron?"

"So what's been going on with you and Victoire? I heard a little rumour about you two yesterday, but I'd kinda like to have it verified."

Teddy's face and hair turned red; his mouth opened but no sound came out. Ron grinned, and Harry sighed, "Way to be tactful Ron."

Ron looked at Harry, "C'mon you can't tell me that you were actually going to wait until _he_ started on the subject with you."

Harry looked at Ron scornfully, "No, but I was going to wait to broach the subject when we weren't in a crowded room full of Aurors."

Teddy put his head in his head, _oh Merlin! How in the world am I going to handle this?_

Ron snorted, "Harry, even if anybody else could hear us, it's not like they would care. Most of them don't even know who Victoire is."

Ron turned his attention back to Teddy, "So, are you going to talk about it or do we have to coax it out of you?"

Teddy looked up to Harry for backup, Harry's face was expressionless, but Teddy could see the curiosity burning in his green eyes, "It's- It's just weird talking to you guys about it . . . I mean, she's your _niece_ . . . I highly doubt you actually want to hear what I have to say . . ."

Ron looked sharply at Teddy, "And, what exactly do you have to say?"

Teddy's hair went red again when he realized what Ron was asking about, _crap! That did _not_ come out right,_ "N-Nothing, I swear. I just mean that I doubt you guys are really going to care about what I have to say about her . . ."

"What would make you think that? Wait! Are you about to go on a really mushy rant about how much you miss her and about how her eyes sparkle like the ocean or something like that?" Ron asked his brown eyes becoming alarmed.

Teddy's face turned red, but he smiled slightly, "Well, not intentionally . . ."

Ron groaned, "Never mind then, never mind. You were right; I _don't_ want to hear it."

Teddy grinned, one down, one to go. It was just too bad that the one left to go was the one Teddy knew wouldn't give up until he heard all that he wants to hear. Teddy couldn't look Harry in the face, so he looked down at the reports in his hand instead.

"Ted . . ." Harry said quietly.

Teddy looked up at his godfather, his face was gentle, "I don't want to pry . . . but I can tell that you want to talk to me about it."

Teddy sighed, Harry was like a father to him, always had been, always will be. Harry was the person Teddy always went to when he needed advice or help. He knew that the only reason he'd kept this from Harry for so long, was because he felt weird talking about it since it _was_ Victoire he was dating.

"What do you want to know Harry?"

Harry smiled, "So you're dating Vic?"

Teddy nodded his head.

"How long have you been dating her?"

"A month."

"Really? Interesting . . ." Harry looked at him, "Ted . . . _I _know that _you_ know that it was James that told us all about you and Vic . . . and I'm not really angry about it because I know that you would have told me sooner than later. I know that you were probably just trying to take things slow at first . . . but _please_ tell me that at least Bill and Fleur know about this."

Teddy was surprised at the strain in his godfather's voice, _so that's what he was worried about. That Vic and I kept this a secret from _everyone_._

"Don't worry Harry. Bill and Fleur _definitely_ know. So do my grandma and even Louis and Dom. It was just that the rest of the family that didn't know. We wanted to date for a little bit to see if it would work out between us before we went and told you guys . . . you can understand that right?"

Harry smiled. Teddy and Victoire had been best friends ever since they were old enough to play with each other. He knew that it was a big step for them to change their friendly relationship into a romantic one, not that he hadn't seen it coming. You would have had to been blind to not see where Vic and Teddy were going.

"Yes I understand."

Teddy smiled but his face fell as he looked down at his papers. Talking about Victoire with Harry made him miss her even more than he already did. _I thought that work would at least be a distraction during the day. But now that Harry and Ron know, I don't think it's going to work._ His chest felt heavy thinking about how far away Victoire was from him.

"You're missing Victoire aren't you?" Harry asked shrewdly.

"Yeah, a lot. I don't know how I'm going to make it through this year without seeing her."

"Okay! We really need to stop talking about this," Ron broke in.

Harry looked at Ron surprised, "C'mon Ron, Ted's allowed to talk about how much he misses his girlfriend."

Ron looked at Harry incredulously, "Yeah, if it was any other girl I'd be fine with that. But Harry, this is Victoire were talking about, our _niece, o_ur first and eldest niece. You can't tell me that you really want hear about this?"

Teddy smiled instead of frowning. Ron wasn't the type of person to go around talking about his feelings or emotions, let alone anyone else's.

Harry laughed lightly and looked at Teddy, "Don't read too much into that. I've been married to Ginny for more than twelve years and he _still_ doesn't like to hear about."

Ron scowled at Harry and Teddy's combined laughter, and mumbled, "My friends really need to stop getting together with my family members." Teddy and Harry laughed even louder.

A tall, thick, and imposing looking woman walked over to Harry's desk, "Shh! Shacklebolt's coming!" She walked away slightly glaring at Harry because he was still laughing.

Teddy's face went white, "Shhh, Harry. Kingsley's coming."

Harry tried to sober up as Ron looked at Teddy curiously, "Oh, now you want to be all professional."

Teddy's face turned red, "No-well, it's just . . . let's just do the paperwork." Teddy picked up a quill and started checking items off a list in front of him.

Ron and Harry both picked up some paperwork. "So Teddy, has Victoire written to you yet?" Harry asked conversationally, trying to calm his suddenly anxious godson down.

Teddy's shoulders tensed, "Now's not really the time Harry, Kingsley's coming and he'll probably have some important report to share with you."

Harry looked down the aisle; he could see a grouping of Aurors in their red robes. In the middle of the grouping, he could see a tall dark man. Kingsley was obviously trying to get to his office at the other end of the aisle. But he was being stopped by his fellow Aurors trying to catch him up on what had happened in the month he was away. Harry estimated that he'd be stuck in that pile for a good amount of time before he'd get to them.

"Take a calming draught Ted. Kingsley's going to be a while. Plus it's not like it's illegal for us to talk about personal stuff at work." Harry said eyeing Teddy's tense and stiff movements cautiously.

Teddy shot a nervous glance at the grouping Kingsley was in, he was making more headway out of it, "Harry, can you just leave it please?"

"But Ted-"

"Please Harry?" Teddy's eyes were wide as he looked at Harry; pleading.

Harry's eyes narrowed at Teddy as a thought came into his head, "Teddy . . . if I didn't know any better. I'd say that you're being jumpy not because you don't want Kingsley to hear us _talking_, but because you don't want Kingsley to hear what we're talking _about_."

Teddy tried to keep his hair and face from turning red, "No that's not-"

Ron caught onto what Harry was getting at, "Teddy, Kingsley does know about you and Vic. Doesn't he?"

Teddy was able to keep his hair a normal colour, but some of his blush escaped his control. If it weren't Harry and Ron (or anyone else that knew Teddy well) they wouldn't have noticed the slight reddening of his cheeks before he was able to morph it away. Harry looked at Teddy surprised. He had thought that Victoire would at least have contacted her godfather to tell her about her newest relationship, seeing how close she was to Kingsley.

Teddy stammered out an explanation, "I-we, we were going to tell him yesterday when he came to see her off to Hogwarts. That was when we were going to tell you all . . . but he never showed up, then James saw us, then she had to leave and-and she said she'd write to him so I didn't have to be the one to tell him."

Ron tried hard to hide a smirk, "Do you know if she wrote to him yet?"

"No, and I'm definitely not going to bring it up first. So until I figure out if he knows or not, would you two please not say anything about it?" Teddy asked pleadingly.

Harry and Ron nodded lightly, just before Kingsley made his way over to their desks. Kingsley's countenance was gloomy and there were dark circles under his black eyes. Nevertheless, he smiled at Harry, Ron, and Teddy.

"How was it while I was gone?" Kingsley asked, his question directed at Harry who was in charge (along with another Auror) of the office while he was away for the last month.

"Not bad. Gordon and I sent you the main cases while you were gone, some people worked on the profiles of the new recruits, and others were doing deskwork and research on cases," Harry reported still shuffling through the papers on his desk.

Kingsley nodded and looked at Teddy. He smiled at the young man, "So what did they have you and the rest of the second level Aurors do?"

Teddy smiled, "They just had us got through the basic healing spell training course so we can be first responders at our cases."

Kingsley nodded, "How do you think that went?" Because of Kingsley's friendly relationship with Teddy's family, he uses Teddy almost like his eyes and ears around the Aurors in training.

Teddy shrugged, "Good for the most part. Many people knew most of the basics as I did. The course helped people more with remembering the spells and procedures opposed to learning them all over again."

Kingsley nodded again, "How about the office? Was it smart of me to leave Harry and Gordon in charge?" Kingsley had left Harry Potter and Reed Gordon in control of the office while he was away. Even though Kingsley held both Harry and Gordon in high esteem as Aurors, he was curious as to how well they ended up working together. Harry was clever, intuitive, innovative, and knew how to get a job done. Reed Gordon was also intelligent, insightful, and experienced, but he preferred to do things more by the book opposed to Harry's more go with the flow attitude. Kingsley had thought that they might butt heads every now and then, but in the end, they should've complemented each other nicely.

Teddy shot his godfather a quick look before answering Kingsley's question, "I think everything went well. Everyone was on task . . . no major injuries occurred, nobody ended up getting kidnapped or threatened with ejection from the Ministry. Both Harry and Gordon did an amazing job organizing things. I don't think you would have been able to pick anybody else who would've worked so well together considering their opposite temperaments. Together they made sure that every aspect of a task got covered."

Kingsley nodded his head; his face had a thoughtful expression on it, "Hmm . . . that's good . . . thank you Ted. I appreciate your feedback. It was very honest . . . considering the circumstances . . ."

Teddy looked at Kingsley confused, "Circumstances . . . you know I wouldn't lie and make Harry seem better than he is . . ." Teddy began uneasily; he had hoped that Kingsley knew him better than that to lie just to make Harry sound good.

"No, no! Of course not. That wasn't what I was getting to at all!" Kingsley said surprised at how Teddy interpreted his words. "I merely meant that I was surprised at the favourable outlook you painted for _both _Harry and Gordon."

Teddy gave him another confused look when Kingsley smiled widely at him, "I would have thought that you would have been more upset with Auror Gordon seeing as _that_ is probably his doing." Kingsley gestured towards Teddy's head.

Teddy tried to look up to see what Kingsley was talking about, when it clicked. Kingsley was talking about the fact that Teddy hair was -at the moment- a normal colour. At present, Teddy was sporting the messy black 'Potter' hair; he'd been wearing it more often at work now because he'd been assigned to follow Harry this year for his second-level Auror training 'shadow section'. Usually Teddy would wear whatever hair colour he felt like while he was at the office, Kingsley didn't mind Teddy's changing hair colours (he had worked as an Auror with Teddy's mother for years and was used to the bright and sometimes odd coloured hairdo's and styles) . . . but other people did. While Kingsley was away Auror Gordon (who wasn't a fan of Teddy changing his features unless it was for a specific mission) kindly asked him to refrain from changing his hair colour while he was, partly, in-charge, because he found it rather distracting. Harry had told him that he could wear whatever colour he wanted, but Teddy abstained from changing his hair in an attempt to keep the peace between his two temporary bosses. Knowing that Kingsley was coming back today, Teddy had actually planned to wear his hair in a much more vibrant colour -maybe his favourite turquoise blue, or bright pink- but had opted not too when he saw his reflection in the mirror when he first got up in the morning. His hair and features always liked to do their own thing while he was asleep.

_When he woke up this morning, he found that his eyes had lighted a couple shades from their original sapphire blue colour, into a more green-blue colour like the sea. His hair however, had stayed short, but the colour changed into a silvery-blonde. Teddy had sighed he knew what was going on. While he was sleeping, his eyes and hair had changed colour to match Victoire's. He had shrugged it off and chalked it up to the fact that he'd been dreaming about Victoire and her amazingly beautiful features. He had attempted a couple times to change his hair from blonde to blue- without much success. He'd gotten it to go 'Potter' black and had figured that that was the best it was going to get. _

It was the first day that he was going to be without Victoire, and he was already missing her so much that it was affecting his metamorphmagus powers. It wasn't new to him, last year had been his first year without his best friend and at times he'd felt himself missing her so much that he had trouble morphing properly. But he was always able to fix it. Sometimes work would take his mind off her, sometimes it was other friends or whatever girlfriend he'd had at the time, but this year was worse. He wasn't just without his best friend, he was without his best friend and girlfriend; it was just his luck that they were the same person. Work wasn't going to be as much of a distraction this year; second level training was the boring grunt work. He had to shadow a senior Auror (he was lucky that he got Harry for that position) and pretty much do whatever the other Aurors asked him to. Even though last year's training was harsh and gruelling enough that three quarters of the Aurors had quit, it was certainly helpful with trying to get his mind on something else besides Victoire. This year he was going to have lots of free time to think, lots of time to contemplate on how much he missed Victoire and have nothing to do to get his mind off her.

He answered Kingsley with a slight smile, "Not completely Gordon's fault. I was going to change my hair colour today, but I didn't really feel like it. I thought I'd wear my hair like this in case Harry was missing James and Al." Teddy looked at Harry and grinned, Harry smiled back, but you could tell that Teddy was right. Harry was starting to miss his sons.

Kingsley nodded, "Yes. I guess that congratulations are in order, I've heard that Al and Rose are the brand new Gryffindors."

Both Harry and Ron smiled. "Thank goodness they both landed Gryffindor," Ron commented.

Harry looked at Ron incredulously, "There wouldn't be anything wrong if they'd ended up in a different house. You know very well that Rose was probably very close to ending up in Ravenclaw."

Ron shrugged, "Yeah, I know that Ravenclaw is not that bad, but there the only person she would have had there, would've been Lucy. But now that she's in Gryffindor she'd got Vic, Ally, Dom, Louis, even Fred and James, Al now, and they'll have Neville for their Head of House. You can't tell me that you're not happy that Al will have lots of people to look out for him now that he's a Gryffindor."

"Even if Al didn't end up in Gryffindor I'm sure everyone else would still have looked after him," Harry replied evenly.

"Yes, but it's just easier when they're in the same house, especially since Vic's Head Girl this year. Speaking of Vic," Ron started, Teddy looked up worried but Ron's next sentence was directed to Kingsley, "have you received an irate letter from her yet for standing her up yesterday?"

Kingsley looked at Ron, "No," he said simply.

Ron looked surprised, "The letter wasn't irate?"

"No, I didn't get a letter," Teddy let out a sigh of relief, Kingsley's dark eyes quickly flitted to Teddy, Teddy quickly looked down to the papers in his hand. Kingsley continued, "I actually had to go to Hogwarts last night to run some last minute things by McGonagall. I ran into her in the hall, her and Xavier Wood were getting harassed by Professor Linkwell for being out of bed at twelve at night."

"What were they doing out of bed so late?" Ron asked trying not to let his eyes wander to Teddy.

"They had patrol duty last night. I guess Victoire was the only one signed up for it but Xavier Wood switched with another person and Linkwell didn't get the message," Kingsley said shrugging, it wasn't very important to him.

"Xavier Wood?" Ron asked.

"He's Head Boy for Gryffindor this year," Teddy added, hopefully sounding indifferent. He'd been owling back and forth with Xavier over the summer and Xavier had told him the good news the same day Victoire had learned about her being Head Girl.

"Yeah, anyway, I ran into her, apologized, she forgave me, and then Neville sent the both of them back to their dorm rooms because their patrol duty was over."

Harry nodded his head, "That's good, if there is one person in this world to be afraid of when she's angry it would certainly be that pretty blonde part Veela."

Kingsley laughed, "She's my goddaughter; you don't think I know that?"

Harry and Ron laughed lightly while Teddy pondered the propriety of joining in on their laughter.

"Anyway," Kingsley started again looking down at his wristwatch, "Harry I need you in the first conference room right now, we're going to have a meeting at eleven."

Teddy also looked at his watch, it was a quarter to, "Okay, what case files will I need to bring with me?" Harry asked looking through piles on his desk.

"You don't need any files, this isn't for a case."

Harry looked up surprised, "May I ask what this meeting's about?"

Kingsley studied Harry, "You'll find out soon, I'd rather not be the one to broach the subject."

"Is it that bad?"

"Not per say . . ."

"What about me?" Ron asked quietly; he and Harry were always put together on assignments.

"Ron I need you to go to the entrance foyer and meet someone and bring them up to the conference room. You'll be able to stay for it afterwards." Kingsley handed Ron a folder, and Ron hurriedly and wordlessly walked towards the elevator.

When Ron was out of sight, Harry stood up and began his way to the first conference room. Teddy looked at Kingsley questioningly, "Um, what should I do . . .?"

Kingsley shook his head; he had obvious thinking about something else, and looked at Teddy, "Well, you are supposed to be shadowing Harry."

"Yeah, I just thought that since you said the meeting wasn't about a case, that I wasn't supposed to go with him . . ."

Kingsley considered him, "Hmm, you would have found out sooner than later. Besides, you'll have to be following Harry through this mess anyway . . ." Kingsley's last sentence dropped in volume, Teddy assumed that he wasn't supposed to hear the later sentence, and walked away to the conference room.

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Bit of a clif hanger . . . Mwa ha ha . . . next week is the confrontaion you're all waiting for :) Hope you enjoyed!


	7. A No or a Go?

A/N: Hey here's the next chapter. I apologize in advance for the horrible job I've done writing the accents. I ried my best but I know they kinda suck . . . Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: The closest I've come to owning Harry Potter was participating in 'Fandimonium Day' today at school where you dress up as your favourite character from Star Wars, Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings.

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A No or a Go?

"Teddy, are you going to answer me?" Harry asked turning around in his chair and looking at his godson, who was leaning up against the wall. Teddy still hadn't answered so Harry threw an inkwell at him.

"Hmmm?" Teddy asked, finally focusing in on Harry as he dodged the projectile.

"I asked you if you wanted to guess what this meeting is going to be about," Harry said still looking at Teddy.

Teddy took out his wand, he vanished the ink that had spilt when Harry sent the inkwell flying at him (yes it was full) and quickly repaired the broken glass from the well itself. "Really Harry, I have no idea what's going on. You haven't had an important on-going investigation in _months_."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "I mean," Teddy, added quickly, "All of your investigations have gone flawlessly, without any problems or anything left to clean up, that they are not helpful in determining the subject of today's meeting."

Harry smiled, "That's what I thought you said . . ."

Teddy and Harry looked at the large oak door at the entrance to the room when it opened. Kingsley Shacklebolt walked in. He stood behind the large wood table, which occupied the majority of the room, across from where Harry was seated.

"Do I get to know what's going on now?" Harry asked Kingsley flippantly.

"Not yet," Kingsley replied tersely.

An awkward silence filled the room as Harry and Kingsley openly studied each other. The silence was broken by a sharp buzzing sound. Kingsley, Harry and Teddy turned to look expectantly at the large black marble fireplace situated along the wall opposite the door. The buzzing sound was the signal that someone was about to enter the room via the floo network. As expected, green flames burst into the fireplace and a tall figure stepped out of the hearth when they'd died down.

"Welcome Minerva," Kinsley said quietly as Professor McGonagall walked over to the side of the table opposite Harry and Teddy.

"Hello Kingsley, Harry, Mr. Lupin," Professor McGonagall greeted them as she took as seat in a chair next to Kingsley.

"Hello Professor," Harry said slightly bemused.

"Hello Professor," Teddy answered back. He quickly looked at Harry and could see the sudden worry in his eyes.

"Kingsley," Harry started quickly, "does this have anything to do with James or Albus?"

Kingsley shook his head while Professor McGonagall answered, "Don't fret Harry; this meeting has nothing do with either your kids or your nieces and nephews."

Harry sighed, and Teddy felt it easier to breathe himself. He'd been worried about that too, that something had happened to one of his pseudo cousins -or Godric forbid- Victoire.

Harry and Teddy turned toward the fireplace again as another figure stepped out. It was Neville Longbottom.

"Sorry 'bout being late, I had something to take care of," Neville said sitting down next to McGonagall.

"You're in on this too Neville?" Harry asked surprised.

Neville tries to smile but it turned out to be more of a grimace, "Sadly yes. Don't worry though; you'll be in on this soon enough."

Harry grunted; he was still angry that he wasn't being told what was going on. Neville greeted Kingsley rather coldly, when he saw Teddy though, he smiled brightly and gave a chipper greeting. Teddy answered back just as cheerfully; Neville had been one of Teddy's favourite professors at Hogwarts. It probably had something to do with Neville's connection to his godfather's family, but Teddy didn't really care. He liked talking to him and learning from him. Herbology had been one of his favourite subjects when he was at Hogwarts.

"Did you deal with the problem?" McGonagall asked rather cryptically.

"It wasn't much of a problem," Teddy wasn't sure, but he thought that Neville shot him a surreptitious look as he spoke, "but yes, I worked it out."

McGonagall nodded.

Harry looked at McGonagall and Neville, "Are you sure this isn't about something James did?"

"James hasn't done anything," Neville replied calmly.

Teddy turned his laugh into a cough. James Potter; not doing anything, that's funny. Harry raised his eyebrows at Neville unbelievingly.

Neville read Harry's look, "Okay, well . . . as far as I know he hasn't done anything . . ."

The discussion about James' current status as troublemaker was interrupted when the door opened, and a very confused looking Bill and Fleur Weasley walked in.

"Bill, Fleur please come have a seat," Kingsley said smoothly when he went up to shake their hands. He motioned for them to sit down next to Harry. Fleur quietly took her seat, but Bill preferred to stand behind her chair.

"What's going on?" Bill asked eyeing Kingsley and Professor McGonagall worriedly.

"Well . . ." Kingsley began in an anxious tone.

"Iz zere zomtheeng wrong wit ze children?" Fleur interrupted her eyes wide.

McGonagall and Neville shook their heads. "No, all the kids are fine," Minerva answered.

Bill and Fleur were confused. They had no idea why they were summoned by Kingsley Shacklebolt to visit the Auror Office. They'd gotten even more confused when they walked in and saw Harry Potter, Professors Minerva McGonagall and Neville Longbottom.

Bill shot Teddy a look before asking his next question, "You're sure that this doesn't have anything to do with Victoire?"

Kingsley tried to lighten his expression, he doesn't joke or beat around the bush when it comes to anything concerning her, "No, not at all. I definitely would have told you when I'd contacted you if it had _anything_ to do with her."

Bill and Fleur nodded a little bit more at ease, but much more confused. Fleur started to drum her long thin fingers against the polished tabletop. Harry saw it and turned to her, "It is annoying isn't it? They haven't even told _me_ what we're doing here."

Teddy rolled his eyes at his godfather when he made sure that no one was looking. _Harry's getting to be a little bit of o diva. Everyone should really stop giving him everything he wants whenever he asks. He's getting very spoiled._

The door suddenly burst open. Standing in the doorway, with an extremely sour expression on his face, was Minister Inigo Flannery. If Teddy, Harry, Bill and Fleur weren't even more confused with the entrance of the Minister for Magic, the looks that Kingsley, Neville, and McGonagall gave him would have certainly added to it. The three who were in on the plan sent a collected glare at Minister's position.

"Hello Minister," Kingsley said coldly.

"Shacklebolt," Minister Flannery said copying his tone.

Teddy's eyes narrowed as he watched the exchange. _This is _not _a good sign . . . _

Flannery gave McGonagall and Neville s fleeting look before turning to the people he wanted to impress. "Hello Mr. Potter, Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley."

Harry, Fleur, and Bill nodded politely in greeting.

Flannery looked at the people in the room. His eyes stopped for a moment when he saw Teddy standing near Harry's chair but he didn't say anything. He turned to Kingsley instead, "So we're waiting on one more? You know the deal, it is ten-fifty-eight, and if he's not here in the next two minutes he forfeits his chance."

Kingsley opened his mouth, but Harry cut-in, "Whose chance for what?"

Flannery looked at Kingsley, "You haven't told them."

Kingsley's face was dark, "None of us wanted to get stuck with that extremely undesirable position."

"Why iz eet extremely undezirable?" Fleur asked eyes wide. It was really worrying her now that Minister Flannery seemed to be involved.

Flannery tried to put on his bright 'politician' smile, "Well, you see-"

The door flew open one more time. The first one through the door was Ron. His face was stony but when he saw whom else was in the room it turned to confusion. Nevertheless, he made his way over to where Teddy was standing and where Harry was sitting, as Viktor Krum strutted into the room. His heavy face was confused but he smiled a little when he saw Harry and Fleur -at least he recognized some people.

"Ah, Mr. Krum! Right on time, please have a seat," Flannery said gesturing to the seats across from him.

Viktor nodded and sat down next to Fleur. He nodded to Fleur, Bill, and Harry before facing the Minister, McGonagall, Kingsley, and Neville.

"Well, now that we're all here we should probably explain what's going on," Flannery said in a fake cheerful tone.

Harry stared at Flannery, his patience waning, "What _is _going on?"

Flannery cleared his throat before beginning, "I have asked you to meet me here today because you three were the last Tri-Wizard Champions. As such you are here to voice your opinions on my newest plan."

"And this plan is?" Harry asked not liking the introduction Flannery had given.

Kingsley answered for Flannery, "The Minister has decided to re-instate the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

"Vot?" Viktor asked breaking the silence that had ensued. His heavy black eyebrows almost touching his greying black hair.

Teddy was watching Harry and Fleur very closely. Harry's face was white and his mouth was firmly shut. Fleur looked like she was about to cry but her voice was strong when she spoke, "And when were you planning on doing zis?"

"Well," the minister started, not liking the reception he was getting, "We were _planning_ on this year . . ."

"Oh, so you've already got everything arranged and you're waiting for us to give you the no, or the go?" Harry said scathingly.

"Well . . ." Flannery began looking for help from McGonagall. She met his stare with an even stronger one of her own.

"No. Zey have already decided on doing zis. Zey just thought zat eet would zeem correct to get us on board zo zat eet would look good in ze news," Fleur said angrily looking at the minister.

"Of course you're correct Fleur, my mistake. It seems that I just wanted to believe that our caring Minister would never be stupid enough to agree to bring back something that caused so much pain and controversy," Harry said sarcastically.

Teddy saw Kingsley's small smile and wondered what was behind it. The Minister looked aghast at Harry and Fleur's comments. Teddy almost rolled his eyes. He wasn't the biggest fan of Minister Flannery seeing how he was known to treat Kingsley. Teddy had always looked up to Kingsley, he was family and a friend, like the Potters and the Weasleys. He was one of the reasons why Teddy had decided to follow in his mother's footsteps and become an Auror.

Teddy almost couldn't believe his ears when he heard Minister Flannery said that he was bring back the Tri-Wizard Tournament. After everything that happened in the last one, more than twenty years ago, he would have thought that the tradition had died. He for sure didn't want it to happen again. He'd heard all of Harry and Fleur's stories about what happened in the tournament; most of them were horror stories. He knew that even now Harry still had nightmares about the tournament. About the dangers, he faced; about what really happened in the maze when his fellow champion Cedric Diggory was murdered by Voldemort, and the proceeding fallout. Teddy even knew that Fleur still had nightmares about it, about what she faced. He knew that if the future of the tournament actually _did_ depend on the previous champions' opinions, as Flannery claimed, the tournament would not be going on.

"Your opinions do matter to us. The Tournament will only be a success if you three cooperate," Flannery said trying to change the direction of the discussion.

"Our cooperation? Vat if ve don't vant to cooperate? Vat if ve theenk vat vis is a bad idea?" Viktor asked sharing his feelings on the topic for the first time.

"It is all set to go. Almost everything is arranged and set up. I know that you each have your own . . . personal issues with the Tournament," Flannery said daring to look at each one of them before letting his eyes rest on Harry. Harry's expression hardened with his words.

"But it's going to be different this time. Protection for Hogwarts is going to be stronger than it was before, especially for the champions."

"Wait, Hogwarts? Hogwarts is hosting again? No," Harry said suddenly standing up. He didn't want tournament to happen, especially at Hogwarts. The publicity his family would be getting would be worse than it's ever been since the children were born. His family did not need to be in the public eye anymore. Bringing the Tournament to Hogwarts is just asking for unwanted exposure.

It seemed Fleur's mind was on the same page as Harry's, "Why cannot Beaubaxtons or Durmstrang 'ost? 'Ogwarts 'osted lazt time."

"Well . . . seeing as the problems about the last Tournament happened at Hogwarts, I thought why not show that we can do it right by re-instating the Tournament and having it go off with a bang?" Flannery said putting enthusiasm in his voice.

"Translation; no one wanted to host or even re-instate the Tournament but Flannery made it so that Minerva's hands were tied," Kingsley replied face hard.

Flannery went to glare at Kinsley but then thought better of it because he was still trying to 'charm' the last champions.

"Even eef we did agree, 'ow are you going to make sure that eet all goz right? 'Ow are you going to make zure that only zree people get pickeed zis time?"

Flannery decided that his 'charm' wasn't working at that it was time to be forceful instead, "We've decided to change a few things from last time. The Tournament will be essentially the same but some small things will be changed for the safety of the students. One of the things we're adjusting is how this year's champions will be picked."

Harry looked at Flannery questioningly, "Instead of having eligible of age students place their own name into the goblet which is left out in the open . . . which is where the problem was held last time-"

Harry cut him off, "Yeah, the fact that the goblet of fire was left out in the open was what went _wrong_ last time."

Flannery pretended that Harry hadn't spoken, "Instead of that practice, the goblet will be under watch, lock and key until it is time for it to pick the new champions."

"Ven how do the students put their names in?" Viktor asked confused.

"All of age students will have their names put in the cup for them. After the goblet has taken it's time to decide whom will be the new Champions, it will pick the three names; one from each school, which are most suited to take part in the tournament."

"What! Are you saying that the students don't get a choice?" Harry asked voice tense.

"Well . . . it may seem like that, but the all of the students will be told that their names will be placed in, and the goblet will only pick the strongest and most skilled three . . ."

"Yes, Harry. The three new champions will _not_ have a choice in the matter." Neville spoke for the first time in front of everyone.

Harry gulped, "So you're dooming three more kids to the fates that Fleur, Viktor and I shared?"

"Mr. Krum and Ms. Delacour knew what they were getting into when they put their names in the goblet. Mr. Potter you were the only one who was chosen against your will."

"Yes and look where that led me," Harry said angrily.

"You ended up winning," Flannery tried to point out.

Harry's face got harder, "And what are the characteristics that make a student eligible to have their name put into the goblet?"

"Well, they have to be at least in their seventh-year of schooling, of course that means that they need to be of seventeen years of age," Flannery said.

"And that's it. If they're seventeen their names get placed in the goblet?" Bill spoke for the first time, his voice sounded defeated.

"Well . . . yes."

Teddy could feel his mouth pop open. Bill question had made him realize the danger with Flannery's plan. It seemed that the dangers had just dawned on Fleur also because water started to leak from the corners of her eyes to run silently down her face. The problem with Flannery's plan? All seventeen-year-olds would be placed in the goblet of fire, whether they want it or not. That means that Victoire's name would also be placed in the goblet. As worried that Teddy was for all of the students who would have their name placed in the goblet, he was even more worried now that he heard that Victoire could be forced into the Tournament as Harry had been.

"And vey vill have no choice in the matter?" Viktor asked worriedly. Teddy had almost forgotten that he was there, but now when he looked at him he wasn't surprised to see the same look of parental concern on his face that Fleur and Bill were wearing. To Teddy's knowledge, Viktor Krum had two children. They were both boys, one was seventeen, the same age as Victoire, and the other was sixteen, the same age as Alexandra Weasley. If the tournament were going to go on, Viktor's eldest son's name would go into the goblet just like Victoire's would.

"Well, traditionally the chosen champions would have no choice . . . but considering the fact that they didn't put their names in for themselves . . . they will get to choose whether they want to participate or not," Flannery said.

"So, are you three behind us or not?" Flannery asked finally coming to the crux of the matter.

Harry looked up at Kingsley, McGonagall and Neville. He could tell by the expressions on their faces that they didn't want this to happen but that they'd have no choice. Flannery was going to put this on whether they wanted it or not. He looked beside him to Fleur and Viktor, his fellow champions. They may not have had to go through everything he had, but they did have to endure a lot. Now add the fact that they both have children who would be old enough for their names to be put into the goblet (not that Harry would have thought for a second that either Victoire or Viktor's son would be chosen for the Tournament), he could tell that they didn't like this anymore than he did. Fleur and Viktor were waiting for Harry to say something first. Harry looked at Flannery last, he knew that he didn't have a choice, no matter what he said, Flannery was determined to have his way. Harry would just have to make the most of the situation.

Harry started slowly, "I will agree to support the Tournament," Flannery's face lit up while Kingsley, McGonagall, and Neville's hardened, "But only under a few conditions."

Flannery frowned, "What conditions?"

Harry almost smiled, "Number one, I want to be in charge of security."

Flannery's frown grew, "Trust me Mr. Potter. We have security under control; there is nothing you need to worry about. Security will be handled by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I've actually spoken to Kingsley about it last night and we have it all arranged, right Shacklebolt?"

Kingsley looked at Flannery, "I've already told you that I think we need more security. But you said that we couldn't because we already stretched the man-power we have from that department-"

Flannery spoke, "And I told the truth! We used up their limited amount of bodies there is now one left in the department to assign-"

"Which is why you should let me arrange the Aurors," Harry broke in.

"Using Aurors would worry the parents. They would think that there was some sort of dark or evil threat."

"Which there very well could be! If you let me handle it, everything will work out fine. We have an abundance of bodies here with no cases, just paperwork. Not to mention about a dozen odd Aurors in training that would be perfect for surveillance," Harry answered, his hand gesturing to Teddy who was still standing against the wall behind his chair.

Flannery thought for a moment before agreeing. If it would appease Harry, why not? "What are the other conditions?"

"We'll need the press to sign special information release agreements."

"We already make sure they do that," Flannery said waving his hand at Harry's suggestion.

"No these are going to be even more specialized. They will dictate specifically what the reports can ask and who they can talk to," Harry pressed.

"I don't understand."

Harry's eyes narrowed, "This is going to be a publicity nightmare at Hogwarts, not only for my family but also for Fleur and Viktor's. One of Viktor's sons will be there no matter what because he's eligible. And almost all of mine and Fleur's children and family are already at Hogwarts, there is now way I'm going to let the press take advantage of this and harass them or run something that could possibly ruin their lives. You're going to want Fleur, Viktor and I there for most of the Tournament, I assume, to show our support. Well we, and our families, will need to be protected from the press."

Flannery studied Harry to see how much this mattered to him. He had decided that it was a lot and quickly agreed to his terms.

"Anything else?" Flannery asked Harry almost worried.

"Nope, there's nothing else I can think of."

"So you'll support the Tournament."

Harry nodded, "I'll support the children competing in the Tournament, but this Tournament will _never_ have been my idea."

Flannery nodded; it seemed like it was the best he was going to get from Harry and turned to Fleur and Viktor.

"Well, eef 'Arry eez in charge of zecurity and you write up a press arrangement . . . then yes, I weell agree to 'zupport' ze Tournament," Fleur concluded.

Flannery smiled, two down, one to go.

Viktor thought for a minute, "Vell . . . alvright . . ."

Flannery smiled like the cat that swallowed the canary, "Perfect." He turned to Kingsley the smile was still plastered on his face, "I told you they would see my side of things."

"No, you tied their hands like you tied mine and the other Headmaster and Mistress'," Kingsley replied angrily.

"Either way, the Tri-Wizard Tournament is officially a go!" With that last statement, Flannery swept out of the room.

Everyone stood up once the Minister left. Kingsley looked at Harry and Fleur, "Are you sure that you guys wanted to agree to this?"

Harry nodded again, "He was going to do it anyway, at least now we'll have our hands in it and we can be there for the entire Tournament."

Kingsley nodded, "Makes sense. Quick thinking Harry, now we can at least monitor the Tournament."

McGonagall sighed, "I'd hoped we were done with this nonsense. Well Harry I expect to see you sometime later this week to discuss the new protection plans," McGonagall said, looking at Harry. Harry nodded and McGonagall turned to the others, "Goodbye Bill, Fleur, Mr. Krum. I'm sorry about how this turned out."

With the last comment, McGonagall walked over to the fireplace and flooed away. Neville walked over to where Harry, Bill, Fleur, and Ron were standing, "Guess I'll be seeing you sooner than later. If it's any consolation, your kids are all doing great."

They nodded at him thankful for the report. Neville smiled, "Well bye guys. Bye Ted!" Neville said cheerily as he left, also via the floo network.

There was a knock on the door as it slowly opened, a young second-level Auror stood at the door. His face was red, he was surprised at who he found in the room. He quickly turned to Kingsley, "You have an urgent message from Auror Jenks, Mr. Shacklebolt."

Kingsley nodded, "I'll check up on what you and Ron have set up in a few hours, Harry. Goodbye Bill, Fleur, Mr. Krum."

They nodded in return and he left. Bill and Fleur left right after Kingsley, deep in conversation with Viktor. Teddy followed Ron and Harry out of the room and to their desks.

"Um, so what just happened in there?" Teddy asked hoping for a conformation for what he'd thought he'd heard.

"Well Teddy, we're going to be spending a _lot_ of time at Hogwarts this year," Harry said trying for a light smile; it didn't really work.

Ron's smile was genuine though, "At least you'll get a chance to see Victoire a lot more this year."

Teddy's face and hair turned red as he went to work on the piles of parchment Harry had handed him.

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Hey, hope you liked it and enjoyed reading it. Reviews and commenst are always welcome if you have the time!


	8. Tug O War

A/N: Guess what! Snow Days (more like freezing rain days) are very useful. Not only do I not have to go to school, but I can spend all day writing and update even sooner! Yay Canadian winter in March! Here's the next chapter enjoy!

Disclaimer: I am no where lose to being mistaken for J.K. although . . . I really would like a cool accent like that . . .

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Tug-O-War

"Xavier Wood! Let go now!"

"No way Alexandra!"

Alexandra Weasley glared at the seventh-year Gryffindor Head Boy, "I swear to Godric Xavier, if you don't let go, I'll-"

Xavier Wood narrowed his eyes at the sixth-year brunette, "No! I had it first! You're not taking it from me!"

A small crowd of people had gathered outside the Great Hall, dinner had just finished so no one was in a hurry to get anywhere. The argument between Ally and Xavier was a very promising source of entertainment.

"It's mine! I need it!" Ally yelled back at him pulling her half.

"Merlin! Will the both of you bloody let go! And for the twentieth time, I'm not an _it_!"

Ally and Xavier stopped tugging for a minute to look at the topic of their argument. Victoire Weasley was in between her cousin and her fellow Head. The former had a steel hard grip on her lower left arm, and the latter had a rock solid hold on her upper right arm. With each passing sentence of the previous argument, the speaker would pull Victoire closer, causing the other person to tug her back in the opposite direction.

"Sorry Vic, but Xavier here just can't respect my need to be with my cousin," Ally said pointedly glaring at Xavier.

Xavier towed Victoire towards himself, "No, Ally just doesn't understand my need to speak with my Quidditch captain about new teammates and plays."

"And neither Xavier, nor Ally, has taken Victoire's hint to LET GO!" Victoire yelled her face turning red. She knew that her friends were arguing, mostly playfully, but she _did _have a problem when people got in her personal space (With Teddy it was a different story of course).

Neither Xavier nor Ally let go.

"Xavier, let go of her. I _need_ her to talk to," Ally said with a sad tone, trying to guilt him into letting go.

Xavier shook his head, "Sorry Ally. But Vic and I need to work on this Quidditch stuff right away."

"What do you think I'm doing here? Just standing around talking to myself?" Victoire said in a wondering tone since it seemed like no one was listening to her. She was right Xavier and Ally continued to bicker about whom was going to walk away with her as the last people who were eating dinner left the Great Hall.

One of the stragglers was a tall, freckled, redheaded thirteen-year-old boy. He was surrounded by a laughing group of Hufflepuff boys. Ally saw the boy as he exited the Great Hall, her face lit up.

"Baxter! Get over here!" Ally called to the boy.

Baxter Weasley looked over at his best friends and housemates before walking towards his cousins. Baxter Weasley was the only son, of Victoire's Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey. He was the younger brother of Lucy (the only Weasley in Ravenclaw) and Molly (one of the many cousins Victoire had in Gryffindor House). Along with his eldest sister, Baxter was one of the only Weasley's to be placed in a house other than Gryffindor. His house loyalty was to Hufflepuff.

Baxter's brown eyes were wide as he took in the scene in front of him, "What do you need me to do Ally?"

"Help me pull Vic away from Xavier!"

"Uh, okay, but why?" Baxter asked before moving. He may be in Hufflepuff, but he was smart enough to realize that he should get the full details before getting into the fray.

"Because I need to discuss personal subjects with her, and Xavier is trying to steal her from me just so they can talk Quidditch," Ally calmly answered her cousin.

"Hey! Quidditch is important. You're on the team, you know that!" Xavier retaliated angry that Ally was insinuating that Quidditch wasn't as important as some girly discussion.

"I know Quidditch is important Xavier! But it's only the second day back and I'm only taking her for tonight, you can have her tomorrow!" Ally shouted back at him.

"Hmm," Baxter started, "I'll only help you Ally, because I'm pretty sure what your need to talk to Vic about has something, has to do with your outbreak this morning at breakfast."

Ally's face turned red but she didn't answer. Baxter walked over to Ally's side of Victoire and put his arm out. He was a second away from touching Victoire when her voice stopped him.

It was sweet, cold, and angry, "Baxter, I swear, if you touch me I _will_ kill you."

Baxter took a big step back from Victoire, "On second thought, I'm not going to help. The only thing that scares me more than a girl with the Weasley temper," Baxter glanced at Ally, "Is a girl with the Weasley temper mixed with Veela blood," he looked this time at Victoire.

Victoire smiled at him, "Right now, you're my favourite cousin."

Baxter proved his heritage by showing off a great Weasley blush. He waved goodnight to his cousins and left with his friends to his house's common room.

Ally looked at Victoire with a fake shocked expression, "James will be very upset with you when he hears what you just said."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Will you guys _please_ let go of me?"

"Nope."

"Not going to happen."

"Uhhhh!"

The crowd around them dwindled a little when they realized that the entertaining part was pretty much over. Victoire tried to peek into the Great Hall and caught a glimpse of what she thought was going to be her saving grace.

Victoire called out to the closest passing figure, "Professor Longbottom!"

Professor Longbottom didn't even try to hide his grin as he walked over to the oddly situated Gryffindors, "Do I even want to know what's going on?"

Xavier and Ally cracked a smile. They answered at the same time, "No."

Professor Longbottom went to walk away, but Victoire yelled at him, "Don't leave me here with these two!"

Professor Longbottom chuckled, "Why?"

"Because they're fighting for my attention."

"What part of your attention?"

Ally answered first, "I need to talk to Vic about something."

Xavier spoke after her, "And I need to discuss with Vic about Quidditch stuff."

"Why can't you do both? Alexandra's on the team too. Unless of course Alexandra and Victoire need to discuss something private . . ." Professor Longbottom answered.

Victoire sighed, "Well Ally, he does know what we're going to talk about . . ."

Ally and Xavier looked at each other, "Fine, we'll share."

Professor Longbottom smiled, "Good, I don't think Victoire could handle anymore tug-o-war."

Ally and Xavier nodded while Victoire exhaled happily, "Are you going to let me go now?"

"Naw, c'mon let's get to our dorms," Ally said contentedly. Her and Xavier dragged Victoire away from the Great Hall, up the staircases and stopped in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Cauldron Cakes," Xavier told her before she opened her mouth. She nodded and moved. Xavier and Ally dragged Victoire through the portrait hole. They stopped as soon as they entered the Common Room. It was full of students. Some were mulling around playing games of exploding snap or wizard chess, others were reading the copies of the _Evening Prophet_, or _Witch Weekly_, or (it always made Victoire smile when she saw someone reading this) _The Quibbler_. Others were reading books or even working on homework they'd gotten the first day back.

"Uh, Ally. I really don't feel like talking surrounded by so many people," Victoire said apprehensively.

Ally nodded, "We can go to your dorm room."

Victoire shook her head. She had spotted Sandra and Kyle sharing one of the armchairs by the fire, they were talking quietly together. Victoire's eyes lingered for a moment on her best friend and the -almost sickly- sweet moment she was having with her boyfriend.

Her eyes went back to Ally's face, "Not a good idea. I can see Sandy, but I don't see Pamela or any of her cronies. They're probably up stairs. I am _not _talking to you when they're around."

"Yeah, Xavier can't come to our dorms anyway . . ." Ally said, just remembering that Xavier was with them.

"Well . . . he probably could . . . but that would raise _way_ too many questions," Victoire said talking more to herself then to her two companions.

Ally's face showed her shock, "How exactly?"

Victoire looked up at her cousin; her face was surprised and interested. Very uncharacteristically, Victoire's cheeks reddened, "I'm not telling you."

"C'mon Vic . . ."

"Nuh, uh. Not going to happen Ally. I'm not telling you how to get a boy up to the girls' dorms."

Xavier broke in, "How about we go up to _my_ dorm room then?"

Victoire looked around the Common Room, besides Kyle, she saw three other students whom she knew shared a room with Xavier. The only other person they could run into was Christopher, but Victoire was almost certain that he was in the library.

"Sure!"

Xavier led the girls to the staircase to the left, which led to the boys' dorms. He gestured for the girls to go first and followed them up the stairs. He looked back at the Common Room when he'd reached the top; he had felt eyes on his back. His feeling was correct. Xavier could see two boys in his year (coincidently, they were two of his dorm mates) grin at him and flash him a thumbs up from each. Xavier could feel the blush rise to his face, when understanding of his roommates' actions, dawned on him. He should have realized it before hand that walking up to an empty dormitory with both Victoire and Alexandra Weasley would look very . . . suggestive. _Not that I would ever, in a million years, actually do anything like _that_ with Vic or Ally, _Xavier thought to himself. _Sure, they're both really pretty, and smart, and funny, and talented Quidditch players, and skilled witches, and fun and easy to be with, and I know that many guys would do almost anything to date either one (in some cases both) of them, but it's not like _I_ like either of them like that . . . just friends . . . just friends . . ._

"Xavier?"

Ally's voice broke Xavier out of his reverie. She smiled a little when she saw a blush creeping into his face "Is everything alright?"

Xavier nodded mutely at her, and led the girls to his dorm room.

"Hey! So this is where you were?" Victoire said cheerfully as she entered the room. Standing in the middle of the dorm was Christopher Mullin. Victoire had been under the impression that he was busy in the library.

"Um, I was just putting my books and quill away, and then I was going to go downstairs because I have an appointment to get my arse kicked in chess, by Kyle," Christopher said smiling at Victoire, "What are you guys doing?"

His question was directed at Xavier, he faced Xavier but his eyes kept moving towards Ally and Victoire occasionally. Xavier had gotten over his embarrassment and smiled at Christopher, "Vic and I are discussing Quidditch, and Ally wants to talk to Vic about some sort of girly problem."

Ally smacked Xavier playfully on the arm, "It is not some girly problem Xavier Wood! It is a serious family discussion!"

"Alexandra Weasley," Xavier said copying her teasing tone and searching the trunk at the end of his bed, "I know what Victoire has to tell you, remember? Trust me; it's just some girly problem."

Victoire jumped onto Xavier's bed as she watched him continue to rummage through his trunk, "It didn't seem so lame and girly last night when you were practically _begging_ me to tell you."

Xavier looked up from his search for a minute to stick his tongue out at her, "Last night's patrol was really boring okay?"

"Boring? How dare you say that! You did have _me_ for company after all."

"Well if I'm so ungrateful then the next time you have patrol duty, I'll make sure that you're working with someone that will appreciate your company . . . like Austin Pennington or Colton Knott." Xavier's smile was so wicked that it was worthy of a Slytherin.

Victoire knew he was joking but her face turned white, "You wouldn't . . ."

Xavier's smile grew, "Guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Victoire threw a pillow at him, effectively wiping the smile off his face. Chris and Ally burst into laughter as Xavier grabbed another pillow soundly _thwacked _Victoire with it. Ally jumped up and got in-between Xavier and her cousin before the fight went any farther. She looked at Chris, "If I were you, I'd leave now."

Chris nodded his head, he looked a little disappointed, but he left the room.

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Victoire sat on the edge of someone's bed (Xavier told her it was Kyle's and that he wouldn't mind) as she watched Ally and Xavier get situated. Ally was lying on her stomach on the end of Xavier's bed; Xavier was sitting at a wooden table he'd just conjured and was leafing through several pieces of parchment with different Quidditch plays on it.

"Okay, you guys can start talking I'm just organizing the plays," Xavier told the girls as he picked up his quill and quickly sketched numbers next to diagrams.

Ally looked at Victoire eagerly, "Tell me everything."

Victoire kept her expression cool, "What do you want to hear exactly?"

"Start with the beginning and go to the end. When you get there, stop."

"Okay . . . um, so seventeen years ago on June nineteenth I was born at-"

Ally cut her cousin off, "Don't be a smart-alec. I know how you and Teddy met. He first saw you when you were born. He was two years old, ever since then he was your designated play pal -even though I was born a year later- you've been best friends ever since you could walk, blah, blah, blah. I mean, how did you and Teddy go from bestest friends, to the couple we all knew you were going to turn into?"

"How come everyone says that they saw it coming? I mean, I wasn't even aware of my feelings for him until the last couple months of sixth-year," Victoire said generally curious. First Xavier commented on it, now it was Ally.

"Oh! That's a good place to start! When you finally realized your feelings for him."

"Okay, well it was right after we won the House Cup last year. I'd just caught the snitch, which had been right underneath Knott's nose remember? And you guys had all gotten changed and were up in the Common Room at the party and I was still in the team room; tiding up -because I'm the captain and I get stuck with the messy jobs- and Teddy came in to congratulate me on winning the cup the first year as team captain. And he was . . . he acted like he always did around me I just-I never really realized how much his friendship meant to me before. It was his first year in Auror training and I didn't realize how much I'd miss him by the end of the school year. I realized, after he left, that they way I felt about him was different . . . my feelings were changing. I knew for sure that I felt differently about him when we met him when we got off the Hogwarts Express and I saw him again. After that, the next few weeks of summer vacation were awkward. I mean, I just become conscious of the fact that I _really, really liked_ my best friend. I didn't know how to act around him. I've had boyfriends before . . . but the way I felt about Teddy was just so different . . . I didn't know what to do . . ." Victoire was lost in thought as she reminisced about, what she called, her "light bulb" moment; the moment she knew that she was in love with Teddy. Thinking back on the first few weeks of summer when she felt peculiar, self-conscious, and tongue-tied around him. She had told Ally the truth; she hadn't known what to do around Teddy. She was used to boys fawning over her, she only pick a boyfriend when she decided that one of the boys who praised her was worthy of her attention. Her attention never lasted long though; but with Teddy, it was different. She was lost and actually felt like a teenager for once in her life, one dealing with seemingly unrequited love.

"Oh, is that why you broke Kingsley's new sneak-o-scope?" Ally asked.

Victoire grimaced remembering that day. _It was two weeks after everyone had gotten back from Hogwarts. She had seen her godfather a few times over the last fortnight, but she hadn't had a lot of time for an in-depth conversation about how school had gone. Victoire had made plans to meet Kingsley in Diagon Alley to have lunch together. At the last minute, Kingsley said that he was going to have to cancel because he wasn't going to be able to leave his office to eat. Victoire, being who she was, wasn't going to let that stop her from seeing her godfather. She had told Uncle Ron and Harry about her plan and Ron took her to the ministry and up to the Auror offices. On entering Kingsley's office, they found that it was empty. Ron left Victoire alone in Kingsley's office to await his arrival. She walked over to his desk and amused herself with the objects scattered in its' surface. There were pictures and inkwells, quills and parchment. She picked up one picture. It was she and Kingsley at the Hogwarts Express, when she was off to Hogwarts for the first time. She was about to set the picture down when she heard a voice call her name. She had recognized the voice, and it wasn't her godfather's. It was none other than Teddy Lupin. Uncle Ron (the big mouth) had told Teddy about Victoire being in Kingsley's office and he decided to go visit since he hadn't had the chance to talk to her in a while (Victoire had been purposely avoiding him because she didn't know what to say around him). Teddy's voice had startled her, and the hand that was holding the picture had moved and sent the sneak-o-scope on the desk to go flying across the room and hit the wall. She'd later found out that it was a brand-new, specialty ordered, can't-get-it-in-stores-yet, or fix-it-with-a-reparo-spell, sneak-o-scope. Kingsley had laughed it off, he was just happy that Victoire was there to see him, but for the remainder of her visit with Kingsley, Teddy was on the back of her mind, and her confusing feelings for him . . ._

"Yeah, he surprised me."

"Well as sweet, and oddly awkward for you Vic, as that sounds, we need to fix the positioning on this play."

Victoire looked away from Ally and glanced at Xavier, truthfully she'd forgotten that he was there (and that she was supposed to be helping him). Victoire silently got up and walked over to Xavier, she leaned around him and started pointing out where people should go. After a few minutes, they'd perfected the play "The Greenish-Coloured Unicorn". Ally was upset that Xavier had stolen Victoire's attention for a bit, so she demanded the chance to name the new play. Victoire had agreed until she heard the play name (Ally wanted to have a little fun) then she wanted to change it to anything but that. Xavier sided with Ally though; he thought it was comical. In the end, Xavier's turn was over and it was Ally's turn again.

"So how did you two end up together? Did you just tell him how you felt and he said that he felt the same way?" Ally asked eagerly. She was never a girly-girl, who believed in love stories and fairytales, but she cared a lot about Teddy and Vic and she knew that they are the perfect people for each other.

"Merlin Alexandra! Have you been reading your mother's sappy love novels again?"

"C'mon Vic! It's getting late and I need to know before I go to bed or I won't be able to sleep because it'll haunt me!"

Victoire rolled her eyes, but continued in a thoughtful tone, "I finally worked up the guts to do something about how I felt about him. In the first week of July, Teddy was over at my house and we were hanging out and . . . I asked him out," Ally actually squealed while Xavier just rolled his eyes, "the only problem was that he didn't realize that I was asking him out on a date. He said yes of course, because he just thought that we were going to go out to dinner as friends, even though I did slip the word 'date' into the conversation a few times, I think he just brushed them off. So we were on our 'date'; things were going great, we went back to my house, and he said goodbye . . ., and that's when I told him that I really _liked_ him. He looked at me surprised and kinda spluttered out a few inconsequential words. Long story short, he tried to 'let me down easy' but then I kissed him."

Ally's mouth popped open and even Xavier had looked up from the Quidditch plays in front of him. "What! He was trying to 'let you down easy' and you kissed him!" Ally exclaimed.

"Yeah. He mumbled a little after that, but in the end I made him realize that he felt exactly the same way about me as I did about him," Victoire said shrugging. At that point, she was going over the plays her and Xavier had been working on. They seemed good.

"Wow. So that's how it finally happened . . . you had to force Teddy into realizing that he loved you?" Ally said.

"Hello, this is Victoire Weasley you're talking to, I'm pushy and I always get what I want." Victoire said laughingly.

"Well . . . you're right about the pushy part . . .," Xavier said as he grinned at her. His ill-timed comment earned him a searing glare and a levitated pillow to the back of the head.

"Is that how you made Head Girl Vic? Because of your skill with wordless, wandless magic?" Xavier commented lightly as he used his wand to wordlessly, levitate the pillow back to its original spot. He knew he deserved the playful smack from the pillow; he was just very impressed that she was able to do it without even pulling her wand out of her pocket.

Victoire smiled lightly at her fellow Head, "Yes in fact it is. Would you like me to give you some pointers on how to get as good as me?"

"Would you really? Gosh, that's so nice! And who says that people with Veela blood are snobby, selfish, airheaded and conceited?" Xavier said sarcastically.

"You might want to watch who you say that to Xavier, Dom and Louis aren't as . . . open to their _true_ personalities as I am."

"Very true, you may be snobby and conceited, but at least you know that," Xavier and Victoire smiled at each other while Alexandra sat there grinning (almost bemusedly) as she listened to their playful banter.

"Well all I have to say is, that after seventeen years of friendship, I do hope that Ted knows what he's gotten himself into with you." The pillow that popped up to hit Xavier was much more forceful this time.

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Sorry I couldn't resist putting a bit of girl talk into it . . . and what's girl talk without a surly boy to put his two cents worth in? Hope you liked it!


	9. Truths and Rumors

A/N: Hey this chapter's a little shorter than the others. It's March break in Canada so usually that would mean I'd have an abundance of time to write . . . not really when I have to do Driver's Ed all week . . . anyhoo hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Not mine . . . I don't know how to make that any simpler . . .

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Truths and Rumours

Victoire Weasley was just finishing pulling her long silvery blonde hair up into a pony tail as she heard an insistent knock on the bathroom door. She didn't even bother hiding her eye roll as she opened the door. Standing in front of her, looking almost murderous, was Pamela Mace. Pamela's bleached blonde hair was sticking up in odd spots and her face was splotchy looking. It was clear that she'd just woken up.

"Yes Pamela?" Victoire asked coolly.

"Are you done primping yourself for your groupies? Because if you are, then there are _plenty_ of other people who would _love_ to use the bathroom," Pamela said crossly.

Victoire narrowed her eyes to match Pamela's dark expression, "I've only been in here for ten minutes. Eight of which I was in the shower. The other two were spent putting my clothes on and brushing my hair."

"Yeah, yeah. Spare me the life story and just get out so I can get ready."

Victoire walked out of the bathroom, summoning her hairbrush and other items to fly out after her. Pamela loudly slammed the door as she took possession of the bathroom. Victoire was putting her things back in her trunk when she was accosted my one of Pamela's cronies.

Hillary McGill, a somewhat taller Pamela clone, decided that it was her duty to harass Victoire while her 'boss' was busy.

"Really Weasley," They had an annoying habit of calling her by her last name: one, to show their contempt for her, and two, because they couldn't pronounce her first name correctly in French and they hadn't been able to come up with a properly insulting variation of it. "If Pamela spent as much time working on her hair and make-up as you do; guys would be flocking around her just as much, if not more, than they do with you."

Victoire bit her tongue to hold in her retort. First, because she was better than they were and didn't need to sink to their level (she briefly thought that Teddy's, more passive, nature was finally starting to rub off on her). And second, because they both knew that what Hillary had just said was a downright lie. Pamela spent more time in the bathroom than all the girls in their dorm combined. In fact, Victoire prided herself on taking less amount of time to get ready than most girls her age. Of course, her Veela traits _did _make it easier since she barely bothered to put make-up on most days and because her hair was almost always perfect. _Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever had an actual bad hair day . . ._

Victoire's musing was cut short by Hillary's next comment, "Of course, I'm sure that your going to be spending even more time in the bathroom now since you decided to start dating Xavier Wood . . ."

"What!" Victoire almost choked. Her eyes were so wide it looked like they were about to pop out of her head. "What did you just say about Xavier?"

Hillary smiled at Victoire's obvious discomfort, "What? Did you think you could keep it a secret? You were in his room until late last night -by yourselves, I might add- and Austin Pennington from Ravenclaw even said that you had Professor Longbottom change your patrolling partner from him to Xavier the first night back. Not to mention that you sit beside each other in every class-"

Victoire cut her off before she could go any further, "For the love of Godric Gryffindor! There is nothing romantic going on between Xavier Wood and I, and I would prefer it if you would stop indulging in the spread of such rumours."

Hillary looked sceptical, "Really? You're saying you have no designs at all on Xavier Wood."

"No way . . . that's-that's just wrong!" Victoire said. She didn't want to insult Xavier; she did love him as a friend, but the idea that there was anything romantic going on between them was highly comical and a little disturbing. Especially after he spent the last night listening to her go on about how she was in love with Teddy, and how they'd finally admitted their feelings to each other.

Sandra decided to come to her best friend's defence, "My first question is where in the world you would have heard a ridiculous rumour like that, and my second is why Victoire's love life would be any concern of yours."

"Well it would be nice to know what boy she was going to go after that way us other girls would have the chance to get a boy for ourselves," Hillary huffed staring daggers at Victoire.

"Like Sandra said, my personal life is _none_ of your business. But since I know that you won't stop until I explain why your assumption that Xavier and I were dating is wrong, I guess I'll have to tell you. First, _Xavier _was the one to go to Professor Longbottom and asked to be switched. He did not do this because he's in love with me, but because he knows that Austin and I don't get along well, and thought that it would be best if we didn't have to work together on the first night back. Second, I was in his room last night, but we weren't by _ourselves_. My cousin Alexandra was there with us and we were discussing upcoming Quidditch try-outs and making some new plays. After all, I am the captain, he is my assistant captain, and both he and Ally are valuable members of the team. Third, I'm not going to claim that it is a coincidence that Xavier and I have every class together, because it's not. I have to take almost every class that I can because I want to be a Healer. Xavier wants to be a professional Quidditch player but everyone knows that jobs like that don't always pan out. So he has to take as many classes as he can because he needs to keep his options open in case his Quidditch career doesn't happen. We are in the same house, we are in the same year, and we are good friends. Therefore we sit near each other during whatever classes we have together, which just so happens to be every class. Understood?"

Victoire's speech met a mixture of reactions. Hillary and another one of Pamela's cronies looked at her disbelievingly; they had expected that she would give them something incriminating to go off to cause more gossip. Sandra on the other hand was looking at her with immense respect; she'd expected Victoire's temper to come out and bite their heads off. When she didn't it made her slightly suspicious.

Pamela's cronies were still staring at her open mouthed and Victoire decided that it was best to leave before their tiny brains were able to create a comeback. Victoire walked out the room with Sandra at her heels. They had made it down the stairs, across the Common Room, and through the portrait hole before Sandra decided to speak.

"Vic . . . is there something going on with you? You know . . . in the guy department. Something you haven't told me about yet?"

Victoire tried not to feel guilty at the friendly, trusting look Sandra gave her. I should just tell her already. She's my best friend after all. It will get out soon anyway, whether I like it or not, too many people know already. Victoire had still been deliberating on telling her best friend about her new relationship with Teddy because she still hadn't found the time to write to Kingsley yet. Honesty is always the best policy.

"No Sandy. There's nothing going on with me and a guy."

So much for honesty . . .

"Really? Because first, you were being so grown up about having to work with Pennington the other night, even though Xavier switched, and second, your defence of Xavier back there was very mature and emotionless -but not in a bad way. Someone else would say that you've grown up a lot over the summer, but I know you better. You're acting differently to impress a guy aren't you?"

Crap. I have been acting much more mature when it comes to dealing with guys since I started dating Teddy. Before him, any time someone would bring up a rumour about me and some other guy I'd end up spluttering like an imbecile or I'd get unreasonably upset and angry about a tiny little rumour.

Victoire put on her best haughty look, "Me? Victoire Weasley. Act different to impress a guy. Sandy it's like you don't even know me!"

"I didn't say you were purposely trying to impress him. Personally, I think you're doing it unconsciously. Not only that, but you must be _really_ into this guy to be changing your natural attitude just to win over some boy."

"I don't need to change my attitude to win him over; I've already done that," Victoire mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" Sandra said her eyes narrowing. They had just made it to the bottom of the staircase and Victoire reached out and grabbed Sandra's arm to stop her from entering the Great Hall. She swiftly looked around them and pulled her over to a tiny alcove behind a suit of armour.

"What are you-"

Victoire put her hand over her friend's mouth to quiet her down.

"I'm going to tell you something very important. But you can't to tell anyone about it okay? I don't want it getting out. You can't even tell Kyle."

Sandra nodded her head and Victoire removed her hand from her face.

"Well?"

Victoire smiled lightly, "Well Sandy, you have officially climbed up the best friend ladder to the very top."

Sandra was confused at the direction of the conversation, "Wasn't I already at the top?"

Victoire smiled, "Yes . . . but you were tied with someone remember?"

"Ally?"

"No, well . . . kind of, it's a little different because she's my cousin though, but she's not the person I'm talking about."

"Well then who? The only other people you're really close to are Xavier . . . and Ted of course . . ."

Victoire smiled and wondered if she'd be able to connect the dots.

"Ted . . . Merlin's pants! Vic! Teddy?" Sandra wasn't able to form a coherent sentence but Victoire knew that she got the just of it.

"Yes, me and Teddy."

"Since when?"

"Since July."

"Oh my Godric!"

"I know."

"I'm so happy for you. It's just a little hard to believe, not that I didn't know that it was going to happen, but when it did I thought I'd be one of the first people you'd tell . . ."

"Why does everyone say that?" Victoire asked suddenly annoyed, "everyone says that they just knew that Teddy and I were going to get together. How do they know?"

Sandra smiled; for once, she knew something Victoire didn't, "C'mon Vic. You've known each other forever, and you've been best friends forever. He's the only guy I've ever met that can fully and completely put up with you for a large amount of time."

Victoire sighed. Sandra did have a point. She had always gotten along with Teddy better than any other male. Even Xavier. They were good friends but prolonged exposure to each other can and _has_ resulted in one of them trying to strangle the other.

"Anyway, now you know. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. Teddy and I made a deal that we would let everyone know when we were able to tell both Harry and Kingsley about us. Well, Kingsley had been out of the country for a month and he just got back and I haven't been able to write to him yet."

Sandra nodded her head. She knew all about Victoire's close relationship with her godfather. "So, that tiny freak-out Ally had yesterday at breakfast . . . was that about this?"

Victoire shuddered thinking of the memory of Alexandra's anger, "Yeah, she didn't know until yesterday when Dom accidentally spilled the beans."

Sandra nodded, "Who else knows?"

"Ally, Dom and Louis, James and Fred unfortunately, probably Rose and Al, and I'm not sure but most likely the rest of my cousins will find out soon enough, oh, and Xavier."

"Why does Xavier know before I know?"

"Because the Git ran into James when he was telling Fred about seeing us snogging at the Platform when he came to see me off."

"You snogged him at the Platform!"

"Yes, now if we're done here I'd like to go into the Great Hall and _eat_," Victoire said as her stomach grumbled.

"After you the future Mrs. Lupin," Sandra said as she gestured to Victoire to start. Victoire's glare made her silent laughter change into a fit of giggles.

When Victoire and Sandra made it to Gryffindor table Sandra sat down next to Kyle who was sitting next to Xavier. Victoire sat down next Xavier and across from Christopher who was sitting beside Alexandra.

Victoire smiled cheerily at Xavier, "Hey Baby, I've got bad news. Seems like people have found out about the two of us."

Xavier gave her a playful smile in return, "Yes, Sweetheart. I was about to inform you of the same thing."

Chris, who had just taken a large sip of water, ended up spitting it out as he listened to the exchange between Xavier and Victoire, "What!"

Ally smiled at her cousin and thumped Chris on the back as he choked, "I think they're talking about a wild rumour I heard this morning."

"You heard about this too?" Xavier asked, looking at the girl beside across from him. His face had turned red.

"Yup, from a very reliable source too." Now she was just teasing.

"Mm 'ohf 'id 'ou 'ear ip 'frum?"

Alexandra gave her cousin a strict look, "Chew, swallow, and _then_ speak Victoire."

Victoire stuck her tongue out at her favourite cousin. Her cheeks were full of semi-chewed toast so it gave her the appearance of a blonde chipmunk.

"How charming. You really do take after Uncle Ron, no wonder you two get along so well. It _is_ a wonder however, that you were able to snag Xavier, with your horrid table manners."

Victoire swallowed her mouth full of toast and smiled brightly at her cousin, "It's the Veela blood. I can just sit here and pig out and every guy would think that it was the sexiest thing they'd ever seen. Right Xavier?"

Xavier wrinkled his nose in disgust. Victoire had said what she said because Xavier was known for criticizing her on her table manners, "Yes, well now that you've refreshed my memory of your behaviour at meal times, I think I have no choice but to break up with you now."

Victoire put on a fake pout, "Typical men. You spend almost the whole night with them, _alone_, and they end up dumping you a few days later after they get what they want."

"Yes, well I'm sorry Vic but you just didn't live up to my expectations. I'd heard great things about you but sadly, you weren't that good. Of course, with a little bit of practice and maybe some flexibility exercises, you never know. You could win me back."

Victoire opened her mouth to retort back but Chris cut her off, "As much as I'm enjoying the fact that I'll probably have to have someone _obliviate_ this conversation from my memory later, what were you saying to Ally when your mouth was _occupied_ with something else?"

"Oh, well I meant to ask Ally where she heard that rumour from."

Ally smiled as she took a sip of her tea, "My _reliable_ source was Clarissa Hart. She heard it from Mallory Temple, who heard it from Gregory Davis, who heard it from Alan Walberg, who heard it from Joanna Knapp, who heard it from Travis Berry, who heard it from-"

Victoire cut her off before the list grew anymore, "What? Who the hell is Travis Berry? And why is he spreading rumours about my love life?"

"He's a third year Slytherin. Short, kinda dumpy looking, with a really prominent nose," Victoire looked exasperatedly at Kyle as he added in the_ interesting_ tidbit of information.

"Great, even Slytherins are gossiping about mine and Xavier's fake relationship."

"Well it seems like there's only one way to stop this Vic. I'm just going to have to publicly and embarrassingly break up with you," Xavier said his eyes twinkling.

Victoire chewed a big bite of sausages before speaking, "Please Xavier. Boys do not break up with _me_. _I _break up with boys. No one is going to believe it if we have a fake break-up that you were the one to do the dumping."

Xavier sighed frustrated, "Then what are we going to do?"

"We'll just go on with our life like we normally would and if someone asks about us; we'll just tell the truth, that we're not together."

"Are you sure about that Vic? Normally you would have come up with this huge plan that lets everyone know exactly where we stand with each other."

"Yeah, well it isn't anyone else's business. If their lives are so boring that they have to go and gossip about ours than they're really not worth the time or energy."

Xavier looked at Victoire intently for a minute, "That's very mature of you to say Victoire."

Victoire shrugged her shoulders and went back to her breakfast as her friends openly gapped at her whole new attitude. _I guess I really have changed. Damn Teddy. Why do you have to have such an impact on me? And why does everyday have to get harder without you here?_

* * *

Hope You liked it!


	10. It's Like a Family Reunion

A/N: Yeah, sorry this is late. I had a school club meeting and a hockey game of one of the kids of a family's friend to go to. And today was a birthday so we were busy . . . Enough of my excuses.

**This chapter is pretty long, I was gping to cut it up but it wouldn't have flown as well. I know you're going to read this and wonder what exactly it has to do with the story plot . . . trust me it does fit in later on . . . plus, the Weasleys and the Potters were complaining that they needed more mention . . . so this is what I had to do to appease them . . .**

Enjoy!

Diclaimer: Not even close to owning the franchise . . .

* * *

It's Like a Family Reunion

"C'mon Ted; time to get moving."

Ted Lupin looked up from the piece of parchment in front of him and looked at his godfather, "Pardon Harry? I didn't catch the beginning of that."

Harry Potter was standing in front of his godson dressed in his travelling cloak and holding out what looked to be Ted's own dark blue cloak, "I said that it's time to get moving."

"Oh, I guess I did catch it all. Where are we going?"

Harry was still holding out Ted's cloak, he didn't speak until he got up, and took it from him, "Well,_ I_ am going with Kingsley to Hogwarts to discuss with McGonagall the security measures for the tournament. Since _you_ are supposed to be shadowing me, you will be coming with us."

Teddy nodded as he put his cloak on, "We're going to Hogwarts?"

Harry gave Teddy a knowing look, "Yes, Hogwarts. Will that be a problem?"

Teddy almost blushed; it took all his energy and concentration on his morphing not to, "No of course not Harry."

"Damn. I was hoping to put you into an awkward position so I could see one of your rare blushes that you can't morph away. Guess I'm just going to have to work harder." The bright twinkle in Harry's green eyes told Teddy that his godfather wasn't at all joking.

"How are we getting there? Apparation or floo?" Teddy asked as he followed Harry out of his cubicle.

Harry walked swiftly through the Auror Office and stopped in front of Kingsley Shacklebolt's cubicle. The shiny brass plate on the front of the dark mahogany door read _Kingsley Shacklebolt- Head of the Auror Office._ Harry knocked and he and Ted walked in as the door opened. Ted noted that Kingsley was also dressed in a travelling cloak, only his was a bright crimson with silver ends instead of gold. Teddy grinned when he saw Kingsley's cloak; it was the one that Victoire had given him two Christmases ago. You can tell that Victoire picked it out because it was red, but instead of the common gold trim that usually accompanied a red garment, the finish was silver. Only Victoire could convince someone that silver went better with red than gold. It was sort of a trademark of hers'. She may have been a Gryffindor, and true to the red and gold, but in her opinion (and it seemed to be only her that thought this) silver would always go better with red.

Teddy tried to change the direction of his thoughts without physically slapping himself. Stuff like this had been happening all day (it was only two o'clock and he was already sick of it). He would see something that would remind him of Victoire and his mind would go off and daydream about her. Going back to Hogwarts wasn't going to help either.

"Hello Ted, I like your hair."

Teddy finally focused in when he realized that Kingsley was talking to him.

"Thanks. Do you want me to change it for when we go to Hogwarts though?" Teddy's choice of hair colour today had been a bright turquoise blue. Even though he knew that Kingsley had never really had a problem with him wearing 'different' colours for his hair, he didn't want to embarrass himself when he went on a 'mission' for his work.

"Of course not, I personally love your hair colour. Besides, Professor McGonagall won't mind, she must have been used to it by now," Kinsley said as he smiled Ted.

"How are we going to get there?" Teddy asked his original question.

"We're going to floo straight into McGonagall's office. It might worry the students to see Aurors walking through the school."

Teddy nodded; made sense. Harry went first to Kingsley's fireplace, picked up some green powder, and disappeared into the flame. Teddy went next, and Kingsley went last.

Teddy stepped out of the fireplace in the Headmistress' Office and moved away from its' mouth as Kingsley came through.

"Hello Kingsley, Harry, Ted," Professor McGonagall said politely as she glanced at the three Aurors who just emerged from her fireplace.

"Hello Minerva, we should probably get to work on those security plans," Kingsley said frowning; he was still upset with the fact that the Tournament was still going on.

"Yes, well Harry, you of course know where all of the entrances to the castle and the castle grounds are. Both public and secret. How do you think we should cover them?" McGonagall asked getting to the point.

Harry thought for a minute, "I think a couple layers of the standard protection spells would work well, but I'm going to need someone to go around and check all the hidden entrances and make sure that they're still in working condition and that nothing is out of the ordinary."

McGonagall nodded, "The sooner the better I guess."

"Yes, I'd like to get it done today if that's okay," Harry told McGonagall.

She nodded, "Mr Lupin of course can go while we work on the finer things but this going to take more than one person. Hmmm . . ." She thought for a minute her hand on her horn-rimmed glasses.

"I think I've got it," She waved her wand and a cat patronus shot out and ran through the door, "Someone will be along in a minute to help you check the passages Ted."

Teddy nodded. Kingsley began, "Harry, if we're going to be monitoring almost everything during the Tournament I think we'll need the Marauder's map. It will help us see what's going on."

Harry nodded and turned to Teddy, "You had it in your seventh year . . . and then what? Did you give it to James?"

"I gave it to Vic after my seventh year because we thought that the last thing James needed to help his pranking was a magical map of Hogwarts. He and Fred ended up stealing it from her halfway through the year though, and she let them keep it. So, unless Al and Rose got the nerve to steal it from Fred and James, they should still have it."

Harry nodded, "I'm going to have to figure out some way to get it from them then. But how to do it without them realizing that something's going on?"

"I could call them up here if you wish . . ." McGonagall started.

"No, I'll think of something," Harry answered waving her off.

McGonagall nodded and went back to talking to Kingsley about how many Aurors they'll have to assign to each spot. While they were discussing that, Harry was going over a list of spells McGonagall had approved to use on the entrances. Teddy looked around McGonagall's office as she spoke quietly to Kingsley. Teddy had been in the Headmistress' Office at Hogwarts many times before. Even though he was a prefect and Head Boy when he was at school, it didn't mean that he was a saint. He'd gotten in trouble a fair amount of times, although it was nowhere close to James Potter and his accomplice Fred Weasley's record. And they were only second years.

Teddy's wandering gaze had been caught by the portraits Hogwarts' previous Headmasters and Headmistress that lined the wall behind Professor McGonagall's desk. Teddy recognized the faces of Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. He'd heard plenty of stories about both Headmasters; it wasn't until a few years ago however, that he heard the full story of their effect on the last war. Growing up Teddy had heard all the stories, from his Grandmother Andromeda, from Harry, from the other Weasley's and from Kingsley. He had always gotten the water down version; it took his coming of age, to finally get the entire story. He knew that that's how his family had decided to handle it. When Victoire turned seventeen the past summer she sat down and got the entire story, no reservations, and not censored. Because he knew the story of what happened, Teddy knew that the glare that the portrait of Severus Snape was giving him wasn't entirely personal. (Even though he thought that, it might have been somewhat personal; he'd also heard all of the stories of what the Marauders did back in the day to Snape. He'd heard them from Harry so it was safe to say that he shouldn't feel guilty about it.)

While the portrait of Snape gave Teddy a sneer, the one of Dumbledore gave him a bright smile. After a minute it winked one of its' sparkling blue eyes directly at Teddy. Teddy's face scrunched up in confusion, he was about to voice his puzzlement when he heard a commotion outside the doorway to McGonagall's office.

Teddy, Kingsley, Harry and McGonagall all looked up at the door as it opened. The scene that washed in completely confused the four. The first person through the door was Professor Linkwell; he had a tight grip on two first year students. In his right hand was Albus Potter, and in his left was Scorpious Malfoy. Trailing behind Linkwell was a worried looking Rose Weasley and another boy in Slytherin green robes; he also looked like a first year. And bringing up the rear and causing most of the noise since it seemed that they were in the middle of an argument was none other than Lucy and Victoire Weasley.

Teddy's heartbeat sped up as he saw Vic enter the room. As confused and worried as he was about her being in the office and arguing madly with Lucy (it really wasn't good a good position to be in), he was almost overjoyed to see her. It hadn't even been a week yet without her and he already missed her like crazy. He thought back to Ron's comment the other day about the Tournament, _he was sort of right. At least with the Tournament I'll be able to see her more often . . ._

Professor Linkwell had been speaking sternly to the group of students that he'd brought to McGonagall's office so he didn't realize until after they'd been there for a few minutes that she had company. Linkwell stopped talking when he saw that Harry and Kingsley were standing with McGonagall at her desk. The first years had also stopped talking and were taking in the scene in front of them in silence; the only people who were still making sound were Victoire and Lucy, and from their loud words, it was obvious that they were having a very intense argument. Neither of them had taken note of the people around McGonagall's desk until Victoire heard Al exclaim in a worried tone "Dad!"

Lucy stopped speaking, and Victoire's head snapped up and she looked around. Her gaze went from person to person, her expression changing with each glance. As she looked at Harry her face was confused, at Kingsley it was surprised and, oddly, embarrassed, but when her gaze finally steeled on Teddy her face went completely white. Her mouth popped open a little, and completely uncharacteristic of her, her cheeks shone with a bright red flush.

Teddy smiled when he saw Victoire's Veela blood fail her for the first time in covering up her feelings. He knew that the only reason why she was blushing in the first place was because of him, and he felt very smug about it.

McGonagall stood up from her desk as she took in the scene in front of her; the two first year Gryffindors, the two first year Slytherins, the fifth-year prefect from Ravenclaw, and the seventh-year Head Girl from Gryffindor. "What is going on here Professor Linkwell?"

Professor Linkwell sent a glare at Al, Rose and Victoire before beginning in his answer, "Well, I was walking to the greenhouses when I saw these two," he pointed to Victoire and Lucy, "arguing. With these four-" he pointed to the first years, "around them and in a scuffle of their own. They told me-"

Professor Linkwell's explanation was cut off by more sounds coming from the door to McGonagall's office. The door opened and in walked in Professor Flitwick (who was covered in an odd blue slime) and on each either side of him were two very pleased looking boys. Fred Weasley and James Potter were laughing their heads off as they entered the office. Their laughter quickly faded as they saw the occupants of the office. James' face went white when he saw his father.

Harry put his head in his hands as Fred loudly exclaimed, "Hey, it's like a family reunion! All we need is Ally, Molly and Baxter!"

Teddy rolled his eyes as he heard Fred's happy remark. Harry moaned into his hands as Kingsley cracked a smile, "Two for two today Harry."

Harry looked up at Kingsley and gave him a significant look towards Victoire, "I wouldn't be talking, you're one for one right now too."

Victoire's face went even redder as she listened to Harry and Kingsley's surprisingly calm banter.

McGonagall looked at the slime covered charms professor and asked, "Filius, what happened?"

"Well, I gave the class a simple assignment to charm their matchsticks into-"

Professor Flitwick was also cut off during his explanation by the opening of McGonagall's door for the third time. This time Austin Pennington (his Head Boy's badge shining brightly on his chest) walked in with Alexandra Weasley, Colton Knott (whose face was bloody around the nose) and two other seventh-year Slytherins who Victoire knew as Colton's cronies.

Alexandra's mouth dropped open as she surveyed the crowed office. Austin took in his surrounding's also and spoke to McGonagall in a worried tone, "Is there something going on Professor? We can wait outside if you want . . ." His gaze was flickering from each person. Until it landed on Victoire, she was trying to get Ally's attention but Ally was purposely avoiding her gaze by looking at the floor. Austin's face broke out into a smug smile and as he caught Victoire's eye. Her face hardened and turned from him to face McGonagall for the first time since she entered the room.

McGonagall looked at Austin, "Don't worry about that Mr. Pennington. We'll work this out. What happened?"

Austin's chest swelled up and he began pompously, "We'll I was walking through the hall when I heard yelling in the Ancient Runes corridor, so I went there and-"

Austin was cut off as the door opened for the fourth time. In walked Professor Longbottom, and a very confused looking Xavier Wood. If Xavier looked confused before he entered the office, it was nothing to the look that broke across his face as he took in the office's atmosphere. His eyes flickered, befuddled, from Victoire's red face to Ally's shy expression, and finally to Harry, Kingsley, and Teddy standing near McGonagall's desk.

Neville looked worried as he gazed around the office, "Um, is this a bad time Minerva?"

McGonagall sighed, stood up and addressed her office full of students, "All right, now I would like you all to take turns, and calmly tell me what the problems here concern."

Despite her warning, everyone began to talk at once, arguing with each other over who would get to speak first.

McGonagall glared, "QUIET!"

The room quieted down.

"Alright, it seems were going to have to arrange things here so that this will go much more smoothly. Gryffindors over there-" she pointed to the right of the room as the majority of the Weasleys, the Potters and Xavier moved to stand in the corner, "Slytherins over there-" she pointed at the left corner as they complied, "And Ravenclaws in the middle." She pointed to the back of the now clear middle of the room as Lucy and Austin moved.

"Okay, now first, Mr Wood." Xavier moved from his spot and stood in front of McGonagall's desk.

"Yes . . . ?"

"Would you please go stand over there next to Mr Lupin? After I sort out these problems I'll tell you what I'd like you to do."

Xavier nodded in relief as he walked over to stand beside Ted. He was just glad that he wasn't in trouble. Teddy smiled as Xavier came to stand beside him. He liked Xavier Wood; he was a nice kid and a good Quidditch player, despite the two years between them, they were rather close while they went to school together. Another reason why Teddy liked Xavier was that he never seemed a threat to his friendship with Victoire. He was used to guys following Victoire around like a lost puppy and trying to get in between them when they were just best friends. Teddy was extremely glad that Xavier only saw her as a friend.

McGonagall looked at the students left in front of her and tried to figure out how to start.

"Mr Pennington would you please explain to me, as simply as you can, why you brought Miss Weasley, Mr Knott, Mr Steed, and Mr Montague here."

Austin nodded and stepped forward to McGonagall's desk. He spoke pompously, "I heard a ruckus, so I went into the Ancient Runes corridor just in time to see Miss Weasley punch Mr Knott in the face. That is why his nose is bleeding."

Victoire looked at Ally, her face showed her shock. Ally's expression on the other hand was embarrassed but somewhat pleased.

"You hit him?" Victoire asked.

Ally nodded her head, quietly looking at the floor. Knott spoke for the first time since he walked into the office, "I think she broke my nose too." His hand was holding a bloodstained handkerchief to his nose.

"Nice!" Victoire said to her cousin, a bright smile erupting over her face. She put her hand up in expectation of a high-five.

Ally's eyes widened as she looked at Victoire, her hand didn't move. Victoire had no choice but to put her hand back down after the glares that her outburst got from Linkwell and McGonagall. She tried to stifle a smirk as she looked at the look on her godfather's face. Kingsley was trying very hard not to smile at Victoire's response to what Ally did. _At least someone thought it was funny. _James and Fred seemed to have found it funny too; they looked to be ten seconds away from rolling on the floor with laughter.

"And why Alexandra, did you punch Mr Knott in the face?" McGonagall asked her face looked expressionless, but Victoire thought that she could see a bit of humour in McGonagall's eyes.

Ally's eyes were still on the ground, "I was walking down the corridor to my next class when I walked by Colton and his friends. He . . . um . . . said something degrading about me and I told him to go away. I kept walking but he and his friends were following me down the hall. I turned around to confront him when he s-said something _else_. I told him that if he didn't stop harassing me I was going to hex him. He used _expelliarmus_ to get my wand away from me then he pushed me roughly into a wall. So I punched him so he would leave me alone, which is when Austin broke in and started yelling at us."

Victoire glared at Colton as Alexandra said her story. When she was done her story, before McGonagall was able to say anything, Victoire decided to put her two-sickles-worth in, "You did _what_ to her?"

Teddy narrowed his eyes at Knott, watching in case he reached for his wand. Victoire was very upset about how he treated Ally and he wouldn't be surprised if she whipped out her wand and hexed him into oblivion. _Hmmm . . . her temper really _should_ be a turn-off . . . _

Colton's eyes were cold as he glared at Victoire and Ally, "She was the one who threatened and punched _me_. I didn't do anything wrong."

"You verbally harassed her and pushed her against a wall!" Victoire hissed through her teeth as she took a step towards him. All of the adults in the room gave her a warning glance, but it was Kingsley's look that Victoire heeded.

"What exactly did Mr Knott say to you Alexandra?" McGonagall asked trying to get back on track.

Ally's face paled, "Um . . . well . . . I'd really rather not repeat it . . ."

McGonagall nodded, "Would it be alright if Professor Linkwell used _Legilimency_ to see what happened? I wouldn't usually do this but it might be a bit faster."

Ally nodded silently. Professor Linkwell walked up in front of Ally, and looked intently at her as he held out his wand and muttered a few words under his breath. After a minute he pulled his focus back to Professor McGonagall, they whispered for a few minutes before turning back to everyone.

As the professors spoke Victoire looked at Ally and whispered quietly, "What did he say Ally?"

Ally looked up at her cousin and spoke her lips almost completely still, "He said a lot of _inappropriate_ things but I threatened to hex him after a certain comparison he made between your body and mine in specific reference to our _behinds_."

Victoire looked up from Ally and gave Colton a glare so harsh that she was surprised that it didn't affect him physically.

"Okay, Mr Knott. You and your friends will be spending a week of detention with Professor Longbottom for your little interaction with Miss Weasley, and you will each be docked twenty house points. And Alexandra, they way you handled the situation wasn't how you should have so I'm taking twenty-five points away from Gryffindor," Professor McGonagall said.

Ally nodded but Victoire was upset. She was about to open her mouth to say something to McGonagall, about it not being fair that she was punishing Ally for something that Colton started, when she felt a pair of hands come up and cover her mouth.

"Just be quiet Vic you'll make it worse," Ally said not removing her hands until Victoire nodded in assent. Across the room, Teddy was having a fun time watching Ally try to keep Victoire quiet after the punishment was delivered.

"Now, Mr Knott, Mr Steed, Mr Montague, you should all be getting back to class." Professor Longbottom said finally.

"But what about my nose! It's broken; I need to go to the Hospital Wing to get it fixed," Colton complained loudly.

Professor McGonagall looked at Colton trying to decide. She didn't want him to have an excuse to go wandering around the school to get into more trouble. Her gaze flickered over to Victoire as Alexandra removed her hands from her mouth.

"Victoire, you know how to repair broken bones right?" McGonagall asked suddenly.

Victoire's eyebrows rose in confusion but she nodded her head. She wanted to be a Healer when she left Hogwarts so she already had most basic healing spells memorized

"Well, since Mr Knott needs to get back to class as soon as possible, maybe you could help your fellow Head and fix his nose for him."

Victoire was going to flat out refuse, but she saw an odd glimmer in McGonagall's eyes that made her change her answer, "Sure."

The room was quiet as she walked over to the Slytherins. She walked right up to Colton and put her hand on his face. She tweaked his nose back into its' normal position.

"Bloody ow!" Colton yelled, jumping back from Victoire. "What was _that _for?"

"It needs to set back into its' original position before I can heal it."

"Isn't there a spell that does that?" He asked angrily.

"Yes," She said as she narrowed, her blue eyes at him, daring him to say something, "Now hold still." Colton glared at her but thought that his best course of action would be to hold still. Victoire moved her wand as she cast the spell.

"Ouch!"

Victoire's wand arm dropped to her side and she took a step back from the Slytherin.

"You didn't tell me that it was going to hurt," Colton complained.

"You didn't ask," Victoire shot back, her ocean blue eyes cold and angry.

Colton matched her glare, "And how do I know that it's fixed and you didn't just put on some temporary spell?"

Victoire's anger boiled up. On a good day, Colton Knott annoyed the hell out of her. But on a bad day, he could reach a _much_ different level. And today was definitely a bad day, "Well I could smack you across the face again as a test and see if your nose stays in one place."

A real flash of fear went through Knott's eyes. He looked around the room, but realized that the majority of the people in the room would probably side with her if they got into an argument. "Let's go guys." With one last glare at Victoire, he left the room with his friends following behind him.

"Professor McGonagall, would you like me to escort Miss Weasley back to class?" Austin Pennington asked arrogantly.

Victoire had walked back to the Gryffindor side of the room. "He sure as hell better be talking about you," Victoire said under her breath to Ally. There was no way _she_ was going to go anywhere with that Prat.

"That's very nice of you Mr Pennington, but I'm sure Miss Weasley can find her way to class by herself. However, I would appreciate it if you went to stand next to Mr Wood. I have a job for you when I finish here."

Austin's egotistical smile grew even wider and he pranced over to stand next to Xavier.

Ally quietly left the room and McGonagall looked at the group of people she still had to deal with. "Now; James, Fred would you two care to tell me why Professor Flitwick is covered in blue slime?"

Fred smiled broadly while James eyed his Dad fretfully, "Well, Professor Flitwick told the class to charm their matchsticks into needles. Before the lesson however, James and I snuck in and put this clear power all over the classroom where nobody would be able to see it. We charmed the power to go off and turn into this slime when the name of the charm we were working on was said at least twenty times. That way once we were a little ways into the lesson the powder would turn into the blue slime and explode all over the classroom!" Fred's grin had covered his entire face as he finished his recital.

Professor McGonagall and Harry sighed. Rose looked at her cousins, her eyes wide in shock, "You did what!"

James laughed for the first time since he saw his dad in the office, "We pulled a prank Rosie. You can't really say that you're surprised can you?"

Before Rose could answer Victoire commented lightly, "Personally guys, I was expecting something much bigger for your back-to-school prank."

"I'm sorry we didn't meet your expectations Vic. We'll try better in the future," Fred said smiling.

"Really Vic, you shouldn't encourage them," Harry said speaking into his hand. He's been called to McGonagall's office so many times concerning James' behaviour that this situation neither surprised him nor embarrassed him.

"Well, Mr Weasley, Mr Potter, if you give Professor Flitwick the counter-spell that will make all of the slime disappear, you will both only receive five days worth of detention and ten points each from Gryffindor," McGonagall concluded giving Fred and James a stern look.

Fred pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket and handed it to Professor Flitwick. He read the words, waved his wand, and the blue slime disappeared off him. Professor Flitwick was about to escort James and Fred from the room when Harry's head finally snapped up from his hand.

"James, give me the map."

James stopped where he was and his mouth popped open, "But Dad! I've already gotten detention; don't take the map away from me! I need it!"

Harry walked over to his son and spoke calmly, "This isn't a punishment James. I need the map for a little while."

James handed his father the piece of parchment that contained the Marauder's map, "How will I get it back?"

"How about this, when I'm done with it, I'll give it to Victoire and when she feels that you deserve to have it back she'll give it to you," Harry said taking the parchment from James.

"So it'll be up to Vic on when we get it back?" Fred asked Harry and odd look coming into his eyes.

"Yes."

As soon as the word was out of his mouth, Victoire felt herself be tackled by two twelve year old boys. Fred had taken one side of her and James had taken the other; it was like they were trying to squeeze her to death,

"Hey Vic-" Fred started.

"-Have we ever-"

"-Told you how much-"

"-We love you!" James finished.

Rose and Al were snickering as Victoire tried to breathe, "If you two don't let go of me right now I'll make sure you never get that map back."

Fred and James promptly let go of her and she ended up falling over because she hadn't had time to regain her balance.

Teddy started to snicker as he saw the look on Victoire's face as she fell over. He could hear Xavier join in on his quiet laughter as James and Fred reached down and attempted to pull their eldest cousin back up into a standing position. Teddy hadn't realized how much he missed interacting with his adopted family.

When James and Fred righted Victoire the left the room behind Professor Flitwick. McGonagall looked at the remaining students in her office: one Potter, three Weasleys, and two assorted Slytherins.

"So, back to original problem. What happened here Professor Linkwell?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Well Headmistress, I was walking down to the Herboloy Greenhouses when I stumbled across Miss Weasley and Miss Weasley having an argument-"

"Which ones?" McGonagall asked. Teddy noticed that she was trying hard to keep a straight face; she knew very well which Miss Weasleys Linkwell was referring to.

Linkwell's face soured, he hated referring to students by their first names; it made him remember that they were actual people and not the annoying little munchkins he thought them as.

"Victoire and Lucille," Linkwell finally said. When he pronounced Victoire's name he looked as though he had just eaten a vomit flavoured Bernie Blotts Every Flavoured Bean. It was clear that he thought she was wholly to blame for whatever trouble had been caused.

"And what were they arguing about?"

"Well I asked them but they wouldn't stop arguing long enough to tell me. Mr Potter and Miss Weasley were the closest to them but they wouldn't tell me what happened. When I saw that Mr Malfoy had some dried blood on his face I decided that I should just bring them up to you," Linkwell concluded.

Teddy looked at the first year Slytherins for the first time since they came into the room. There was a little white blonde boy with a prominent chin and with blood around his prominent nose, as it was on Knott. The other boy was much taller and thicker with a short, black, boot-camp style haircut.

"Alright then," McGonagall looked at the students that were left as she decided whom to ask to retell the event. Her eyes flickered from Victoire to Lucy and back and forth. She was worried that Victoire's temper might get away from her; she still remembered how she was quarrelling with Lucy as they entered the room. When McGonagall looked at Lucy, she stood up straighter and her eyes glistened condescendingly.

"Well, Victoire, you are Head Girl, how about you tell me what happened?"

Victoire nodded and shot Lucy an anxious glance before going to stand in front of Professor McGonagall.

"Okay, so I was heading down to Herbology when I heard some voices arguing. I turned a corner and saw Rose and Mr Malfoy arguing. Al looked like he was trying to hold Rose back even though his face was also upset. Malfoy was yelling at Rose and his friend was shouting at Al. I was running over to them to stop the fight when Rose shook Al's grip off and punched Malfoy in the face." Victoire stopped to take a breath as everyone looked at Rose in shock.

"You hit Scorpious, Rosie?" Harry asked surprised.

"You need to stop spending so much time with Ally and Victoire," Kingsley comment. When Rose looked up at him, he winked at her before winking at the gobsmacked look on Victoire's face. She decided not to take it personally because it was true.

"I was thinking that she needs to spend less time with her Mother, actually," Harry remarked his green eyes shining with laughter. He thought back to the time in third year when Hermione punched Draco in the face. Seems like Rose beat her Mother by two years.

McGonagall silenced Harry with a look and turned to Rose and Albus, "What were you arguing about and why did you punch him?"

"We had just had our Care of Magical Creatures lesson and we were walking back to the Castle when we heard Malfoy and his friend talking behind us. They were insulting us, and our family . . . then, well Malfoy said that Aunt Hermione was a- he used the "M" word," Al's voice had gotten quieter while he recited the tale.

"So, she is!" The other Slytherin boy called out. His voice was whiny and pathetic. Rose's brown eyes darken as she looked at the Slytherins. Teddy was surprised, _I didn't think that she'd every get angry enough about something to look _that_ scary, but I guess I was wrong._

Professor McGonagall glanced at the first years, "We do not tolerate that kind of language at Hogwarts. Mr Malfoy, Mr Zambini," (Which seemed to be the name of the other Slytherin) "You will each receive three nights of detention with Professor Longbottom, and I'm docking fifteen points each from your house. If anyone catches you using that type of language again, your punishment will be much worse."

The Slytherins nodded but their expressions were sour. Victoire smiled; earlier when Linkwell had found them she was worried because she knew that he wouldn't give the Slytherins a punishment because he loved to pick on all students who weren't in his house.

"And Miss Weasley, like I told your cousin earlier, we do not handle our arguments with muggle-dueling. I'm not going to give you detention, but I'm docking your house twelve points. And as for you Mr Potter, I hope that next time an argument starts, you will succeed in stopping the fight before it gets out of hand," McGonagall looked down her thin nose at Al and he nodded sadly not meeting her eyes.

McGonagall looked at Victoire now, "You said that you stopped their fight after Rose hit Mr Malfoy, but how did Lucy get involved?"

Victoire's expression hardened, "I had the whole thing under control but she barged in and tried to take over even though I had it completely covered-"

"You didn't have it covered at all! You were doing everything wrong!" Lucy broke in glaring at her eldest cousin.

Victoire matched her glare, "Oh and pray tell Lucy, what exactly did I do _wrong_?"

"You didn't follow the rules at all! You were favouring Albus and Rose and if Professor Linkwell and I hadn't come along, they wouldn't have gotten into any trouble at all! You were just going to let them go and blame everything on the Slytherins!"

Ted and Xavier both sucked in a deep breath. Those were fighting words. They knew Victoire well enough that her next outburst didn't surprise them in the least.

"I'm going to get to the part about where you thought that I was favouring Al and Rose, but first what rules _didn't_ I follow?"

"Mr Malfoy got injured and you didn't take him to the Hospital Wing, according to rule fifteen in the Prefect's Handbook, that is the first thing you do after there has been physical violence-"

Victoire cut her off, "He didn't need to go to the Hospital Wing! After I stopped the fight, I healed his nose for him! Then I was about to handle it when you barged in and started giving orders-"

Lucy's face went as red as her hair, "You can't just heal him! You have to file a report that way the teachers would know what happened and it would be recorded for future use!"

Victoire rolled her eyes, "And I was not favouring Rose and Albus! Al was the most calm of the three so I asked for his side of the story first, I was about to ask Malfoy for his side when you came in screeching-"

"I had to step in! You looked so angry I was afraid you were going to hex the poor innocent kid!"

"Well _I'm _sorry if I don't enjoy listening to eleven-year-olds use derogatory language. But are you saying that you actually think that I can't control myself, and that I'd just hex a first-year because he got on my nerves!"

"Yes I do actually. You hexed other people before-" While Lucy and Victoire continued to yell at each other. Teddy glanced at Professor McGonagall slightly surprised that she didn't try to stop the two from arguing. But McGonagall knew better than that, she wasn't going to get in the middle of two people with the Weasley temper. Professor Linkwell on the other hand, must have had less experience with them because he was trying (and failing miserably) to get them to be quiet. Teddy had stood by and was listening to Lucy and Victoire let their anger out (in the form of shouting), when he noticed the air around Victoire's flailing arms shimmering oddly.

He realized what was going on a split second before he shouted her name loud enough to be heard over the noise.

"Victoire!"

Victoire and Lucy stopped arguing once they heard Teddy's voice raise above theirs. Victoire looked at him and noticed that his eyes were strained on her hands. She glanced down at herself and saw that her hands had started to glow red with heat. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath to calm herself and felt some of the heat draining out of her hands. She quickly folded them across her chest. Everyone was staring at her now. Everyone but Linkwell and Austin Pennington were staring warily at her. The later were staring at her shocked; they didn't understand what was going on.

Before Professor Linkwell was able to ask about what Victoire had just done, Professor McGonagall took advantage of the fact that Lucy and Victoire had stopped quarrelling, "Thank-you for your explanation Victoire. Now Lucy, would you tell me what your side of the story is."

Lucy covertly shot Victoire a look of superiority before she began her speech. Lucy was halfway through her narration -it sounded just like Victoire's only insinuated much more that Victoire was doing things wrong- when Victoire felt something in her head. It was like a small tug on the corner of her mind. She spun around swiftly in the direction she felt the pull coming from as she pulled her wand out of her robes.

Thwack!

Victoire's hand that wasn't holding her wand had come up to her mouth as she stifled a gasp. By now, the whole room had fallen silent and were looking in Victoire direction. In front of her, stuck in a body-bind curse, was Professor Linkwell. His wand had fallen out of his hand and he was crumpled on the floor.

"Oh my Merlin," Victoire said eyes wide as she looked at Linkwell.

"What did you just do Vic?" Lucy asked as she ran over to kneel beside Linkwell and preformed the counter-curse on him.

Professor Linkwell stood up and accepted the wand from Lucy without even so much as a nod in thanks.

"I-I didn't mean to curse him!" Victoire said trying to get her bearings.

"Then why did you?" McGonagall asked the question this time.

"It was a reflex reaction! I felt him trying to use _Legilimency_ on me and I reacted," Victoire defended herself, daring to glare at Linkwell. He glared back at her.

"_Legilimency_?" Professor McGonagall asked looking at them.

"Reflex?" Austin Pennington enquired; he was confused.

Professor Linkwell looked unabashed as he turned to McGonagall, "We were getting nowhere so I thought that _Legilimency_ would help us fix this problem."

"It would have been better for you to ask Miss Weasley if you could use _Legilimency_ instead of just using it on her," McGonagall chastised lightly.

"Of course Minerva. I just thought it would be easier. I definitely didn't expect her to curse me like that. To use _Occlumency_ against my _Legilimency_."

He glared at Victoire as he spoke.

"Sorry. Like I said reflex," Victoire said staring at her feet.

"Who in their right mind would teach a seventeen-year-old _Occlumency_ anyway?" Professor Linkwell said cynically.

"Um, that would be me," Kingsley said, speaking for the first time. His smile was huge and affectionate as he saw the small grin cross Victoire's face. He was rather proud of her at the moment.

Linkwell looked like he didn't know what to say. It's not like he could criticize Kingsley Shacklebolt. He was Head of the Auror Office and was the old Minister for Magic.

"Oh."

"But to be fair. I didn't teach a seventeen-year-old how to use _Occlumency; _I taught a fifteen-year-old_ Occlumency_, she's just grown stronger over the years," Kingsley said his smile getting even wider.

"Um, not to criticize you Mr. Shacklebolt, but why would you teach a fifteen year old child how to use _Occlumency_?" Linkwell asked glaring slightly at Victoire, as if it was all her fault.

"Oh, just in case some tired to use _Legilimency_ on her without her permission, you know? Constant vigilance and all that." An even larger smile.

Linkwell nodded dumbly but shot a covert look at Victoire. He opened his mouth to speak but McGonagall beat him to the punch, "Anyway, this argument is pointless and it's going nowhere. All of you are excused so you'd better hurry to get to class."

Professor Linkwell ushered the Slytherins out dotting over Scorpious and wondering whether his nose had been healed properly. Lucy sent Victoire one more glare before leaving. She didn't even bother to say goodbye to her Uncle or her other cousins. Rose ran up to give Harry a hug, "Bye Uncle Harry!" She ran and gave both Kingsley and Teddy a quick hug and goodbye too. Al said a quick 'bye' to his Dad, Kingsley and Teddy, before leaving with her.

Victoire was about to sneak out the door when McGonagall called her name. She spun around slowly and looked at Professor McGonagall.

"Yes Professor?" She said in a bright voice trying to use the ol' Veela charm.

"I'd like you to stay here; I have a task for you."

"Wow, thank-you Professor. But I kinda have to go to Herbology . . ." She looked at Xavier uneasily; they are both supposed to be in Herbology right now.

"I'll send Professor Longbottom a message telling him that you and Mr Wood are busy. He'll make sure that someone from your house gets you up to date on the lesson."

Victoire nodded and looked at Professor McGonagall expectantly. Xavier decided that it was his time to ask about why he was summoned to her office. Xavier and Austin Pennington walked to stand next to Victoire.

Xavier cleared his throat, "So, why am I here Professor?"

McGonagall looked at Kingsley and Harry as if she was trying to figure out how much to say, "Mr Potter and Mr Shacklebolt are here to consult on some _adjustments_ on the castle's security. They would feel better if all of the passages in and out of the school were checked to see what type of condition they are in. Mr Lupin over here was going to do it but since you all ended up in my office, I figured that it would be done a lot quicker with four people instead of one."

Austin nodded pompously thinking her request nothing out of the ordinary. Xavier and Victoire however realized that there was something odd going on and shared a look with each other. After all, they _had _been on patrol the other night when they'd run into McGonagall, Kingsley, and the Minister of Magic. Victoire glanced boldly from her Uncle Harry to Kingsley with a look that was both inquisitive and audacious. The look said I-don't-believe-what-she-says-so-I-expect-you-to-tell-me-later. They also knew that she was going to let them go without actually telling her.

"Alright Professor." Austin had answered for himself, Xavier, and Victoire.

Teddy moved from his spot next to the desk and Xavier and Austin moved towards the door. Victoire watched Harry give Ted the Marauder's Map. She smiled at him as they walked out the door.

* * *

Next week . . . a little Teddy and Victoire fluff!

Yeah, I love the younger kids . . . Hope you liked it!


	11. Getting Caught Up in Catching Up

A/N: Hey, next chapter! This one sorta explains and connectes the last one better to the story. It has some fluff, but also plays a part in the plot.

Diclaimer: Yup I own it! . . . .

. . . . . April Fools! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seriously, not even close.

* * *

Getting Caught Up In Catching Up

"Alright, so how are we to go about this?" Xavier asked Ted as soon as they'd left McGonagall's Office.

Teddy opened his mouth to answer, but Austin spoke first, "What was up with your hands earlier, when you were arguing with Lucy, Victoire? It looked like they were about to be on fire or something."

Victoire openly stared at Austin. _What is up with the stupid questions?_ "Um, I got angry."

Austin rolled his eyes and spoke as though he was talking to a two-year-old, "Yes. But why'd it look like your hands were on fire?"

"Really? And I thought you were a big, smart Ravenclaw?" Victoire said with a raised eyebrow.

Austin stared at her until she rolled her eyes. She decided to answer him because they weren't going to get anywhere otherwise, "I'm part Veela, and do you know anything about Veelas?"

"Yes, I'm not an idiot."

Victoire bit back her retort, "Veela are known to have short, wicked tempers. When they get angry, they can harness the power of fire and use it to their advantage. Throw fireballs and stuff like that. When I get angry, my hands start to create fire, sometimes without my knowledge."

Austin nodded and looked her up and down. Several times, like he was trying to decide what to make of her. He'd never really seen this side of her before. Sure he'd seen her when she was acting snobby and mean, but he'd never actually seen her angry or enraged like she was in the office. Pennington was actually trying to decide if she was worth chasing after anymore.

His staring was getting out of hand, so Teddy angrily cleared his throat. "We really need to get to work. If you don't want to of course you can go back to _class_, but I have an actual _job_ to do." He narrowed his eyes at Austin. It was a silent challenge.

Austin looked back angrily. Teddy and he didn't get along well. Back in Victoire's fifth-year, (Teddy had been a seventh), Austin Pennington had tried to spike her drink with a love potion after failed attempts at getting her to give him the time of day. Vic had told him about the incident -it was only by fluke that she didn't _actually_ drink the potion- she didn't go to any Professor with what happened because she preferred to deal with problems her own way. Teddy on the other hand, had been extremely livid that someone had tried to take advantage of his best friend. He ended up getting into a physical fistfight with Pennington after tossing a few curses at him. Professor Longbottom was the one to break it up and had taken them to McGonagall's office. The only part of the incident that they were able to keep secret was Victoire's involvement, she didn't get into any trouble, but both Teddy and Austin had gotten three weeks worth of detention. They'd hated each other ever since.

"Fine, how should we do this then, Mr Auror-in-_training_?" Austin almost snarled at him.

"Pairs would be best," Teddy said shortly. Trying to ignore Austin's presence and speaking to Xavier and Vic.

"Okay. Austin and I'll work together, and you and Vic can pair up," Xavier said easily, covertly winking at Victoire as he spoke.

Austin looked upset by his suggestion but he waggled his eyebrows at Victoire almost evilly, "Sure, I just thought that you'd want to be paired up with Victoire, Xavier. After all _I've _heard-"

Victoire cut him off unceremoniously. She shot Teddy a worried look when she saw him raise his eyebrows confused, "Sounds good to me. Let's go Teddy!" She grabbed his arm and started to drag him away.

"Wait! How are we going to separate the school areas?" Xavier asked before she'd dragged Teddy out of hearing distance.

"We've got the map so we'll take all the secret entrances and you guys can take all the obvious ones," Victoire called over her shoulder decisively as she towed Teddy away.

Once they'd walked far enough away from the others, and when Victoire was satisfied that there was no one around to hear them, she pulled Teddy behind a tapestry on the third floor that held a secret passage.

She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. She could feel his chest move with his quiet laughter as his arms tightened around her back and he squeezed her in return. They held each other for several minutes before Victoire spoke. Her tone was muffled against his chest, but he could her sweet voice perfectly.

"What are you guys actually doing here?"

He moved a hand up to her head and ran his fingers through her shiny, silver-blonde hair, almost absentmindedly as he answered, "Harry's now in charge of the castle's protection. We're here to work out what new spells and precautions are needed. I'm supposed to check all of the entrances."

Victoire moved back so she could see his pale, heart-shaped face. His eyes were his normal deep, sapphire-blue and his hair was in one of her favourite shades. A bright turquoise blue.

"There has to be more to it than that. It's the first week back and you, Harry, _and_ Kingsley are here working on the castle's protection?"

Victoire's ocean-blue eyes were staring at him beseechingly. He had a hard time not telling the truth right there and then, "Vic, you have to trust me when I saw I can't tell you."

Victoire looked into his eyes for a minute and knew that he was telling the truth, "Okay, but will I ever know?"

Teddy pressed his lips delicately against the smooth skin of her forehead, "Yes, you'll find out soon enough. Definitely by the end of the week."

Victoire sighed as she breathed in Teddy's scent, "So I was right, there is more to this than just some extra protection spells."

Teddy nodded seriously, "Of course you're right. I'm just sorry that I can't tell you yet. Trust me, it's killing me, just standing here and not telling you."

Victoire smiled flirtatiously up at his face, "Well I know a way we can fix that little problem."

Teddy smiled, knowing where her thoughts were going, "And is that something, something that's going to keep my mouth busy so I don't feel tempted to spill the beans?"

"If you're lucky," she winked at him.

He laughed lightly before pressing his lips to her plump, smooth, pink ones. Victoire smiled into his lips and deepened the kiss; her hands reached up to his head and ran though his silky smooth hair. Teddy adjusted his arms so that one was across her back; crushing her to him and the other was in her long silvery hair. Victoire took his bottom lip in between hers and pulled on it gently. Teddy broke away from her and rested his forehead against hers' as he tried to catch his breath.

She was also breathing heavily as she smiled up at him, "Merlin I've missed you."

She pressed her head against his chest again and squeezed him tight. Teddy was still breathing rather raggedly as he held her tightly to him, "Ditto. We're somewhat pathetic aren't we? It hasn't even been a full week yet."

"Hmm, we're not pathetic . . . we're just extremely affectionate people," Victoire said, grinning at him.

Teddy smiled in return, "Extremely affectionate people who have a task that needs to be completed."

Victoire's lips turned into an attractive pout, "Really Teddy? We have a perfect opportunity here to _spend some time together_, and you want to go around and do the tasks Harry gave to you?"

Teddy pulled out of Victoire's arms but grabbed her hand in his. He slowly brought it up to his lips and kissed it before smiling playfully, "Yes, because it's my job remember? I'm and Auror."

"A very _delicious_ Auror," Victoire said winking saucily at him.

Teddy rolled his eyes but smiled broadly. He kept her hand and pulled her out of the passageway, "That one's clear. Where's the next one?"

Victoire pulled out the Marauder's Map (the magical map of the Hogwarts ground that showed where anybody in the castle was at any time). She glanced at it and found a secret door a few corridors away behind a suit of armour.

"So," Teddy started as they walked to the next corridor, "what was Pennington" -he spat the name- "alluding to when he said that thing about expecting Xavier to want to work with you?"

Victoire didn't blush, but she _did_ fidget under his curious gaze, "Um . . . well . . . there's a rumour going around that- that Xavier and I are dating . . ."

Teddy looked at her obvious discomfort and tried to smile reassuringly, "Really . . . well that's interesting. I always though Xavier was too Quidditch obsessed to recognize a smart, funny, pretty and talented girl. It only took him what, seven years to figure out you were a catch? Personally, I thought I'd take longer."

She let out a sigh of relief when she heard his casual teasing tone, "I thought you'd be upset . . ."

"It's just a rumour Vic. I wouldn't be upset with you because of a stupid rumour."

"It wasn't myself I was worried for . . ." Victoire said looking at the ground as they walked.

"You were afraid I'd be angry at Xavier, weren't you?" Teddy said trying to catch her eye.

After a minute, she looked up, met his eyes, and nodded. Teddy threw an arm around her waist (checking to make sure that the corridor was clear of people first) and pulled her in for a tight one-armed-squeeze. "Unless I was imagining the wink Xavier gave you when he suggested that we partner up, I take it that you told him about us being together?"

She snorted, "Yeah right. The nosey Git figured it out. He walked into James' and Fred's compartment on the Hogwarts Express when James was regaling Fred of the tale of how he caught us snogging. Then he realized that I was totally out of it at dinner that night, added that to some feelings he'd picked up from reading the _letters_ you wrote him over the summer and he came to the hypothesis of us being together."

Teddy nodded, "So who else knows now? Obviously not Kingsley since he hasn't tried to murder me yet . . ."

Victoire sighed sadly, "I-I haven't had any time yet . . . I still want to tell him in person but in Professor McGonagall's Office surrounded by a bunch of random Slytherins and nosey cousins just _didn't_ seem like the proper time . . ."

Teddy sighed, "I'll leave this to you because he's _your_ godfather, but I think you should tell him as soon as possible because the longer you wait, the more awkward it's going to get when he asks how long we've been together."

Victoire nodded, it's not like she didn't want to tell Kingsley. In fact, she was more excited to tell him about her dating Teddy than any other boyfriend of hers' she'd introduced him to in the past; there was just never the right time . . .

"Yeah, so Xavier knows, James and Fred know of course, and apparently they already told Rosie and Al. Oh, and Ally didn't know about it at all until stupid Dom had to let it slip when she saw her talking to Louis," Victoire said reciting the list of people who knew their 'secret'. She started to think that she wouldn't be able to call it that for much longer.

Teddy heard a small amount of anger in Victoire's voice as she alluded to the story about Ally, Dom and Louis, "I hear a story there! How exactly did Ally find out?"

Victoire sighed, not wanting to relieve the feelings of worry and anger she felt when she looked into Ally's face and saw her betrayed expression. "Well, the other day we were eating breakfast and all was going great, when Ally decided to stand at the back of the Hall and exclaim my full name and make a scene in front of the entire castle. Turns out, Dom had accidently spilled the beans about you, and me and Ally was livid about me not telling her myself about it. We got it all worked out though, and she promised me that she was angry at me for keeping it a secret, she was just upset that Xavier knew before her, but I think they got all their feelings out when they played tug-o-war with me as the rope . . ."

Victoire was starting to ramble and Teddy had decided that he'd heard all necessary information that he was going to get. He cut her off with a quick peck on the lips. Victoire looked up at him a little dizzy, "Wow, I should ramble more often."

Teddy laughed, "Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but Dom, Louis, Ally, James, Fred, Xavier and probably all of the little cousins know by now?"

Victoire nodded, "Yes. Oh, and I finally had to tell Sandra because she said I was acting way too odd."

"Odd how?"

"Apparently, you're rubbing off on me Teddy. When Pamela and her cronies were harassing me about whether or not I was dating Xavier, instead of blowing a gasket and hexing or cursing them like I normally would, I just ignored them and turned a shoulder. Sandra was really worried about me; she thought I was sick or something."

Teddy chuckled lightly, "Oh, so my more passive nature is rubbing off on you is it?"

"Yes, and it'll probably be a major setback in concerns to my duelling skills," Victoire said only somewhat jokingly.

Teddy's voice was tender when he spoke next, "Don't feel bad Vic. You're not the only one acting different. At least you don't look any different. Anytime I let my mind wander or daydream about you -which is has been happening _a lot_ considering how boring the office work has been lately- I end up looking like this."

Teddy moved his eyes into a screwed up position for a minute. When he was done, his shaggy but stylish blue hair had turned into a shiny silvery-blonde colour. His skin had gone from pale white to a silvery tan colour, and he even had a smattering of golden freckles across his nose. His eyes had changed from deep sapphire blue to a sparkling ocean blue-green shade. He was a guy version of Victoire and she could easily recognize her features on his face.

"You unconsciously morph into me when you're daydreaming?" She was stuck between fighting the urge to laugh and the urge to tear up. As funny as it was, it was still incredibly sweet.

"Yes, and it almost got me in trouble multiple times. I always feared that it would happen without my notice and Kingsley would come along, see, and start asking awkward questions. Harry was good about it, he'd tell me whenever my hair turned blonde; Uncle Ron on the other hand would burst out laughing and fall off his chair from the mirth."

Teddy stopped talking and moving. They'd gotten to the next secret passage. They slipped behind the statue of armour and Teddy started waving his wand around as he performed some non-verbal spells. Victoire leaned against the cold, stone, wall as she watched him work. _Godric I've missed him. How am I going to make it through this year without him? I love him so much . . . I can't stand spending so much time away from him . . ._

"Vic?"

Teddy's voice broke through her reverie, "Huh?"

He smiled at her, "This passageway's secure. Where's the next one?"

"Uh . . ." She couldn't find any words to use. Her thoughts scrambled as she looked at his gorgeous face. He'd changed his hair back to blue and his eyes and complexion back to their regular colours. She was too busy watching the light shine off his hair in a blue glow. He was so handsome.

Teddy's smile had fallen; he walked over to her and loosened the Map out of her slack grip. He gazed into her eyes, "You alright Hon?"

Victoire blinked her eyes and tried to focus on what was going on in front of her. Her previous inspection of Teddy had led her to some rather nice daydreams.

"Yes," she answered a little breathlessly.

Teddy gave her one last look before glancing down at the Map to find their next destination.

Victoire tipped her head to the side as she watched him. His blue eyes were bright as the roamed attentively over the Map and his dazzling lips were pursed as he inspected the corridors and the towers. She felt an unusual stab of jealousy as she observed him. _I won't get to see him again, in _who_ knows how long, and he's spending our time together staring at the ink on an old piece of paper when he should be staring at _me_._ She longed for his eyes to be roaming over her instead of the paper and for his lips to be pursed against hers' and not just in the air. Victoire snapped, she only had a certain amount of time to spend with Teddy and she was going to make the most of it.

She paced over to Teddy, grabbed the Map from out of his hands, and put it in the pocket of her robes.

Teddy looked up at her in shock, "Vic? What are you-"

He was cut off when Victoire shoved her mouth firmly against his. She placed her hands on his chest and pushed him back until his back was pressed against the opposite wall of the tunnel. Teddy's muffled response had turned into a small moan and he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him. He turned the around and suddenly Victoire could feel the cool stone of the wall against her back.

When she moved her mouth to kiss his neck Teddy took the opportunity to speak in gasps of breath, "What's. Going. On. Vic?"

She moved her mouth back to his, and he kissed her deeply; apparently not caring for a response. After what seemed like forever, Teddy moved his lips to shower her face with sweet kisses.

"Sorry," She said breathlessly answering him, "You just looked so damn handsome."

He stopped kissing her and leaned his forehead against hers'. He looked down at her with his amazing sapphire eyes, "Back at you."

"You think I'm damn handsome?" Victoire said her lips turning up into a smirk.

Teddy's eyes sparkled, "It would have been considered a compliment back in the seventeen hundreds. Handsome was a word used to describe women back then."

"Well, I think since I'm part Veela you'll need to come up with a much more unique word to describe how completely and absolutely gorgeous and sexy I am."

"I don't think Aunt Hermione or Uncle Percy would be pleased to hear me making up random words. They would think that it was a disgrace and insult to the English language."

"Yes, well it is _me _we're talking about. You're allowed to create brand new words because everyone knows that the old ones do _not _do me justice."

Teddy smiled at her; he missed talking to her. Conversation was always easy for them, fun and light-hearted, but it could change into serious and heartfelt in a minute. It had just been _so_ easy for them as they grew up. Becoming best friends had been so easy. Teddy had thought that changing their relationship into something else was going to be hard. But he soon realized that it was just as easy as before, as if it was the natural trail their lives were supposed to follow.

"As much as I'd love to just stay in this corridor and continue snogging you until we're gone for so long that it makes Kingsley and Harry suspicious . . . we need to get this job done," Teddy said looking sadly down at Victoire.

Victoire pouted, "We can always blame this on my Veela charm," she lifted a hand up to his face and lightly ran it across his cheeks as she leaned in and moved her lips next to his ear, "say that I seduced you," she breathed quietly. Her sweet breath tickling the hairs on his neck.

Teddy took a step back from Victoire, closed his eyes, and took a very deep breath. His eyes were still closed when he spoke next, "We really need to get going Vic . . ."

Victoire sighed. She knew that it was a long shot that she was going to be able to distract Teddy away from their initial job. She was just happy to see that he seemed to be both physically and mentally arguing with himself over their next move. She grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the passageway and down the next corridor, a large smile on her face because she knew that she'd somewhat won.

They only had about three more passages left to check when Victoire stopped suddenly in the middle of the hall. She was looking at a bare stretch of wall with a very intent look of concentration on her face.

"What are you doing Vic?"

"I told Xavier that we would take all of the secret entrances on the Map, but do you think he checked this one?"

Teddy looked at the wall, knowing very well what was hidden, "Vic, you know that the Room of Requirement isn't on the Map."

Victoire rolled her eyes at him, "Of course I know that Teddy. I was just wondering if you think that it falls under our jurisdiction or not? Someone could easily use it to create a passage to get outside of Hogwarts."

Teddy considered that. She did have a good point. "I'm not sure, but this is definitely something I'll have to discuss with Harry, see if we'll need to station someone there."

Teddy had finished speaking and had moved a few feet along the hall when he realized that Victoire wasn't with him. He turned around and saw her staring wide-eyed at him. He was confused at the look she was giving him. What had he said to surprise her?

"What did you just say?" Her voice was mechanical and impassive.

"About what Vic? What's wrong?" Teddy asked scared now.

"What did you say about stationing someone there?"

Teddy's face and hair drained of all colour. Crap! I said way too much. But I can't tell her the truth, we promised not to. Then again, she does already know that something else is going on . . . but apparently, she didn't think it was big enough for a person needed for surveillance . . .

Victoire was giving Teddy a calculating look as he pondered what to say, she broke the silence first, "Tell me what you meant Teddy. And it better be the truth." She added when she saw his face. She could tell that he was presently debating on whether to tell him the truth or not.

"Listen Vic . . . I didn't mean to say that . . . I'm not going to pretend that it wasn't _anything_. Because it was. But it's part of the thing that I can't tell you about. You have to understand that. It's not because I don't want to, because I do, I just _can't_-"

Victoire cut him off, "Calm down Teddy, geez. You look like I just dared you to go prance through the Slytherin Common Room naked singing one of the Sorting Hat's songs."

Teddy shuddered at the unpleasant image that just popped into his head. It vaguely reminded him of a dare that they'd given Xavier Wood back when they were in their fifth year when they were playing Truth or Dare in the Gryffindor Common Room. Sadly, Xavier had opted _out_ of that particular dare.

"Is there _anything_ you can tell me about what you, Harry and Kingsley are actually doing here?"

Teddy thought for a minute, "I can tell you that this is all just extra safety precautions for everyone in the castle."

"Just extra?"

"Yes, this is Harry and Kingsley being overly paranoid, and careful."

Victoire nodded her head, her mind still racing as she tried to figure out what was going on. She thought that if she guessed and she was close enough Teddy would tell her. Unfortunately, she didn't have any good guesses.

"Alright. Where is our next stop?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"For the love of Godric Gryffindor! Will you just shut up Pennington?" Xavier Wood asked as they rounded the corridor.

Austin Pennington had spent the last hour talking non-stop about, what seemed like, the most annoying and boring things he could think of, and Xavier had finally had enough. Xavier was usually known for his patience and perseverance when it came to dealing with, well pretty much anybody. He could withstand the most stuck-up Slytherin, the most know-it-all Ravenclaw, the most pig-headed Gryffindor, the densest Hufflepuff, and even Professor Linkwell's unfair attitudes. He seemed to have reached his limit with Pennington though. _Merlin, either he's gotten more annoying than last year, or my attention span has been shortening from spending time with Victoire. Hmmm, it's probably a bit of both . . ._

Pennington glared at Xavier haughtily, "Well Wood, I'm sorry if I'm boring you but I was raised to be polite and speak to the people I am with. I guess Mummy and Daddy were too busy being big Quidditch stars to teach you the same manners."

Xavier narrowed his eyes. Oh, so now he's calling out my parents. Godric, this guy's an arse. Victoire owes me big time for insisting that she work with Ted.

Xavier's face lightened when they came up to a Gargoyle statue. He tersely announced the password and walked up the stairs to the Headmistress' Office. Xavier knocked lightly on the wooden door and walked in as it opened for him. As they entered, Xavier saw Harry Potter and Kingsley Shacklebolt still bowed over Professor McGonagall's desk. They moved as the two Head Boys entered.

"Mr Wood, Mr Pennington, how did it go?" McGonagall asked.

Austin moved in front of her desk and began telling a long-winded tale of what he and Xavier had accomplished the last hour. Xavier interjected after he had spoken for five minutes and had said nothing pertaining to their mission.

"We checked all of the obvious passages in and out of Hogwarts and found them perfectly intact," Xavier said looking at McGonagall.

He then glanced at Harry and Kingsley, "Ted didn't tell us what you were planning on doing, but if you were going to layer them with protection spells it should work fine. I didn't see anything that would cause a loophole in a spell or charm."

Harry nodded gratefully, "On a completely unrelated note. Xavier, you know a lot about flying," it was an observation and not a question. After all, Xavier's father had taught Harry all he knew about Quidditch and taught him how to become a better flyer, "do you think someone would be able to break through the anti-flying protection spells that surrounds Hogwarts?"

Harry knew that Xavier was the kind of student who would have _actually_ read _Hogwarts a History_ and would know what rather defences the castle grounds had.

"I'm not sure. Every spell does have its loophole. If you really wanted to know, I would assign people to try to fly into Hogwarts and see if any of them can find their way through the protection spells." Xavier said finally.

Harry nodded, appreciative for the advice. If the Tournament was going to go as planned, testing the defences like that was a good idea.

"Where are Miss Weasley and Mr Lupin?" McGonagall asked as she looked around the office, realizing that they were missing.

"Oh, they took the Map and Victoire said that they were going to check all of the secret entrances," Xavier answered helpfully.

"Yes, that'll probably take a longer time than all of the normal entrances," Harry said smiling; as if he was enjoying an inside joke.

"Yeah, those two are probably doing a very _thorough_ sweep of each passageway," Xavier said smiling like Harry had a minute before.

"Yes, that's something they have in common. They like to be thorough," Kingsley commented absentmindedly as he stared at the piece of parchment in front of his face.

Harry's face turned bright red and be burst out into laughter. Xavier held his mirth in, but just barely. It was obvious that Kingsley didn't hear the suggestiveness of Harry and Xavier's comments or he wouldn't have commented as blindly as he did. Even though Xavier knew that Kingsley didn't know about Victoire and Ted yet, he was surprised that he couldn't hear the implication in the conversation. _Well, it seems that Vic really has her work cutout for her. Kingsley isn't the least bit suspicious as to what is actually going on . . ._

Xavier's inner musings were interrupted by the door opening. A minute later Victoire and Ted walked in laughing their heads off about something.

Everyone in the room turned to stare at them. It was obvious that they felt no discomfort in being the center of attention because they looked as though they were about ten seconds away from collapsing to the floor from their hilarity.

"What's so funny?" Austin asked annoyed at the scene they were causing. Ever the Ravenclaw, he was upset that they weren't acting like the adults they should be.

It took Ted several attempts until he was able to speak between the giggles, "You wouldn't find it funny."

"Oh really?" Pennington asked his face hard. It was a challenge.

"Really," Victoire said finally sobering up. She gave Austin a glare full of distain.

"Anyway," Harry commented before Victoire and Austin could get into a fight. He'd already heard about two of his nieces getting in trouble for punching people in the face today, he wasn't excited to see the total reach three. "How did your search go?"

"Every passage was secure. But Harry, we need to talk about the Room of Requirement," Ted reported.

"What about it?" Harry asked interestedly.

"Um," Teddy looked around and saw Xavier and especially Victoire staring at him attentively. "This is something that we should speak about _in the Office_."

Harry understood the hint Teddy was giving him, and so did Professor McGonagall. She looked at her students, "Thank you for your help, but I think it's time for you all to go to your next class."

Austin nodded, made a small arrogant speech about how it was a privilege to be asked to help, and then left the room before Victoire could glare at him again.

Once Austin was gone, Victoire turned to look at Kingsley expectantly, "Are you going to tell me what's going on, or are you just going to let me assume the worst?"

Xavier, Harry and Teddy sucked in a breath.

Kingsley considered his goddaughter, and for once, he wasn't able to give her what she wanted, "I'm sorry Princess, but I can't tell you. You'll find out soon enough."

Victoire expected his answer but it still stung a little. He always gave her what she wanted; at least she knew that he would answer her next question because he'd denied her last, "When is soon enough?"

Kingsley sighed and looked at Harry and Professor McGonagall, they nodded, "I'd say Friday night."

Victoire nodded, pleased that she got an answer. "Alright, let's go Xavier."

Xavier nodded his head and went to the door. He opened it in a gentlemanly fashion, waiting for Victoire to go through first. Victoire walked over to her Uncle Harry and gave him a quick hug before going to stand in front of Kingsley. Kingsley smiled at her brightly and pulled her into a tight embrace. Lastly, Victoire shuffled over to Teddy and gave him a quick squeeze.

Teddy hugged her back tightly before letting her go. It was hard he wanted to keep her in his arms. But he knew that he had to let go. She needed to get to class; he needed to go back to the Ministry. He was really starting to hate the two years that have been keeping them apart. She smiled at them all before leaving the room with Xavier.

Once they left McGonagall, Kingsley and Harry began another discussion on the security measures for the Tournament. It was good thing that Teddy didn't need to comment, because his thoughts were occupied with a pretty, blonde girl at the moment.

* * *

Hope you liked it, leave a comment if you like!


	12. Some Rather Exiting News

A/N: Hey, I know it's been a while . . . my excuses are lame but true. I had about four projects in English alone due within the span of a week. No to mention all my other work, then we went on a family vacation for a week I didn't have time to write . . . but I'm back now and I should be able to get back into a regular updating schedual.

Thanyou to everyone who has reviewed, favourited, or added me to alerts. I hope you enjoy this new chapter and have a Happy Easter!

Disclaimer: . . . . . . N . . . O . . . T . . . . . . M . . . I . . . N . . . E . . . . . .

* * *

Some Rather _Exciting_ News

The rest of the week had gone on smoothly enough. Rose and Al stayed out of trouble and even earned back the points they'd lost for Gryffindor with their amazing intelligence concerning their first-year spells. Ally refrained from punching any other Slytherins in the face, despite some nagging and unhelpful comments from Victoire about them probably deserving another broken nose. The prank which Fred and James had pulled earlier, that had earned them five days of detention _and_ had caused Victoire to lose a little faith in the pranking prowess had actually turned out better than it seemed. It turns out, that even though the blue slime could be vanished away, it left behind an irritating itch that wouldn't go away no matter how hard you scratched. Professor Flitwick and half of the school's second-years had to go around the school for the rest of the week scratching like crazy, because there was no spell that would take it away. Victoire had gone to her cousins and apologized for jumping to conclusions about the lameness of their prank before it had fully developed. They politely forgave her. Because their prank was worse than what they'd already be given detention for, Professor Linkwell was bent on getting them more time in detention. They narrowly avoided an extra month's worth of lines, thanks to Louis' incredible and persuasive sweet-talking. As Louis had predicted, James and Fred dragged him into the middle of their argument over detention. Because Louis is a guy, other people don't expect him to have the same Veela charm or potency that his sisters have, therefore, they don't realize that he can sweet-talk them into doing pretty much anything he wants. He got James and Fred out of extra detention thanks to a tiny technicality.

It was Friday and lessons were over for the week. Victoire was hoping up and down as her, Xavier, and Chris made their way from their last lesson of the day to their Common Room.

"What are you so excited about Vic?" Xavier asked watching her as she bounced. He knew that she moved when she was excited and agitated.

Victoire opened her mouth, but Chris answered for her, "It is Friday Xavier. Why shouldn't she be excited?"

Victoire looked at Xavier, "Yeah, _Friday_."

Xavier looked at her with a blank expression before he understood the emphasis in her voice. They had just entered the Common Room and Chris left them to go up to his dormitory and change. Victoire dragged Xavier over to a table near the one of the windows; they sat down across from each other.

"Vic . . . I know that Kingsley said that we'd find out today . . ."

Victoire could see where he was going with this, "But?"

"But what if he . . . wasn't exactly telling you the truth?"

"Xavier, Kingsley wouldn't lie to me about this," Victoire said firmly. She wasn't upset with Xavier for inferring that Kingsley had lied to her. They may have been friends for years, but even he didn't know how strong of a bond they had.

"Really Victoire, are you _honestly_ telling me that you don't think Kingsley has ever lied to you before to protect you? That neither your parents, nor your Aunts or Uncles have _ever _lied or watered down the truth to protect you or your cousins?"

Victoire rolled her eyes. He knew what he was getting at, "Xavier, I _know_ that my family has lied to me before to keep me safe. But they're past that!"

"Oh really? How do you know?"

"Because I'm of age now! I got the whole story on my birthday. Every little detail, every little feeling, every little tear. Trust me, I know that they were telling the truth because I had nightmares for a week after that night, and that was before they even showed me their memories with a pensive."

Xavier looked at Victoire; her expression was completely serious. He knew that she truly believed that she'd heard the whole story, and he wasn't one to judge. His parents have told him everything they knew about what had happened before and during the Last War. His Mom had even told him about what happened when she was cursed by that evil necklace someone had _imperiosed_ her to sneak into the castle. But he knew that his knowledge of the events wouldn't come anywhere close in detail to what Victoire would have learned from her family.

"So you think Kingsley was telling the truth about us finding out tonight?" Xavier said coming back to the original topic.

"I _know_ that he was telling the truth," Victoire answered firmly and resolutely.

Xavier nodded. It was her family, who was he to say that she didn't know them as well as she thought she did. They changed the topic of conversation quickly after that to the Potions homework they had gotten over the weekend.

Victoire had just finished a rather long rant about what she'd like to do with the poison they were brewing for Potions class -she was still debating on whether it would be easier to slip it into Austin Pennington's or Colton Knott's morning pumpkin juice- when something that had been nagging Xavier from their previous conversation made him ask.

"You found out the whole story on your birthday?"

Victoire was slightly surprised at the change in topic but she nodded her head, "Yeah, my family decided that everyone will find out the whole story when they become of age. Teddy learned it two years ago, and I learned it in the summer."

Xavier's face creased, "So you're saying that Ally doesn't even know the full story?"

"I don't know the whole story about what?"

Xavier looked beside him as the Weasley in question pulled out a chair and sat down. She placed her books down on the table and smiled happily at the two Gryffindor Heads. Victoire put on a dazzling smile as her cousin looked at her. But Xavier didn't have the same nonchalance; he sat there staring at Ally with his mouth hanging open and no words coming out.

The humour in Ally's eyes quickly turned to worry, "Xavier . . . are you alright?"

He nodded lightly still staring at her. _Why am I tongue tied all of a sudden? Speak you idiot!_

Ally had resorted to snapping her fingers in front of his face to try to get a stronger reaction out of him. She turned to her cousin, "Vic, what's wrong with Xavier?"

Victoire's smile widened larger than the Cheshire cat's; "I don't know Ally. One minute we were talking about Potions, the next you came by and he totally froze up."

"Um, okay . . ." Ally turned to look at Xavier again.

Xavier met her eyes and tried to sum up the energy to say something. But he couldn't, for some reason he was intimidated by the soft, completely non-threatening, look on her face as she gazed concernedly at him.

"I'm sure that if we keep talking he'll snap out of it sometime," Victoire said cheerfully. She was really enjoying this new development; the one where it seemed that Xavier couldn't say anything while Ally was in his presence. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on inside his head, but she knew that it was definitely something she could extort later.

"Alright . . . so what don't I know the full story about?" Ally asked going back to her original question.

"I'm not sure," Victoire said feigning innocence, "Xavier was just about to explain it all to me when you popped up."

"Oh," Ally looked at Xavier for a minute before looking back at Victoire, her cheeks flushing, "If this is something private between the two of you I can just go . . ."

Victoire stood up before Ally could, "Of course not Ally. What Xavier has to say _does _concern you after all. In fact, I think I'm the one who doesn't belong."

With that final statement, Victoire moved to leave her favourite cousin with a, currently inanimate, Quidditch-obsessed-Head-Boy. Ally yelled after her before she could go away.

"Wait! How do I get him to snap out of this?"

Victoire looked back at them sitting next to each other at the table, "Kiss him, if he doesn't react to _that_ then there's definitely something wrong with him."

Ally's face turned red again at Victoire's suggestion. Before she could contemplate her move, Xavier jumped a little in his seat, and ended up falling off his chair. Apparently, he had heard Victoire's suggestion too.

Victoire walked away laughing at the look on both Ally and Xavier's face.

When Victoire had disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dormitories Ally looked down at Xavier, who was still on the floor, "You okay Xavier?" She reached out a hand to help him up.

Xavier looked up at her and took the outstretched hand. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to talk, but he was at least able to move now. He got up and sat back down in the seat he'd just vacated.

Ally had to repeat her question because Xavier hadn't given her an answer.

Xavier looked at her again, determined to answer this time. But he lost his train of thought again when he looked into her deep brown eyes.

"Ugh . . ."

"Xavier?"

She leaned closer to him and for a minute, he thought that she was going to take Victoire's suggestion seriously. He wished that she was going to take the suggestion seriously- _Whoa. Hold it there boy. Xavier what are you thinking? You don't actually _want_ Ally to kiss you, do you? Well . . . yeah, why not? She's pretty, and she's smart, and funny, and talented, and an amazing Quidditch player . . ._

Xavier shook his head. He had no idea where those thoughts and feelings had come from but he knew that right now was _not_ the time to dwell on them.

"I'm fine Ally."

Ally smiled brightly when she saw that he was working again, "Good, so what don't I know the full story about?"

Xavier racked his brains for a minute. He couldn't tell her that she didn't know the full story about what happened to her parents during the Last War. That would be awkward and random, and not at all his place to say something. Why Victoire had told her that it was her business in the first place confused him. It wasn't about her at all. The only reason he had asked Victoire that question in the first place, was that he wanted to know for future reference so he wouldn't let anything-important slip.

"Oh, um . . . you don't . . . you don't know the full story about what happened at breakfast after you left."

Ally looked at him confused, "Oh. Okay, so what happened after I left?"

"Um, it's not very important . . . you should just know that-that Kyle and Sandra ended up getting into a little argument after you left. And it was about . . . about an article. In the _Prophet_, it said something about House-elf rights and they got into an argument about it. So, just so you know, don't mention House-elf rights in front of them, okay?" Xavier invented wildly.

Ally eyed him in disbelief, "An argument over House-elf rights?"

Xavier could hear every layer of sarcasm she put into that sentence and knew that she didn't believe him for a minute. "Um, yeah. So don't mention it."

The scepticism disappeared from her face, and was replaced with an emotion Xavier couldn't name. She looked at him with tender brown eyes, "Xavier . . . if there's something you need to talk with me about . . . you know you can, right? I mean . . . you can tell me anything- anything you want."

Xavier smiled lightly and found himself having a hard time breathing, "Ally . . . I-"

Xavier was cut off when Ally jumped at him and pushed him off the chair and onto the floor.

He looked at her in shock, "Ally why did you-?"

He was cut off again, but this time it was by a loud shattering sound. Xavier and Ally's head swivelled up to see a huge hole through the glass window right where they had been sitting.

"Ally! Xavier! You guys okay?" James Potter asked as he ran up to them. His hands were covered in what looked like some sort of black powder. Before Ally or Xavier could answer, Louis and Molly Weasley ran over.

Molly Weasley was the youngest daughter of Percy and Audrey Weasley, and was in her fourth-year. She had the characteristic red Weasley hair, freckles, and pale skin. She was the only one of Percy's children to make it into Gryffindor; Lucy was in Ravenclaw, and Baxter was in Hufflepuff.

The minute she came over, she started yelling at James for being inconsiderate and immature. Louis had the same sort of black powder on his hands that James had. He also looked like he was about to give James a tongue-lashing, when he actually looked at Ally and Xavier.

He smiled a dazzling white smile, which scarily resembled his elder sister's, and spoke, "You guys know you can get up now, right?"

Ally's face turned red when she realized that she was lying on top of Xavier. She quickly got up, and Xavier followed her lead. Before either of them could ask what happened, Victoire came jogging up to them.

She had changed out of her school robes and into Muggle jeans and a t-shirt, "What happened here?"

James looked unabashed, "Uncle George sent us this tester product for the store, it looked like a fanged Frisbee, and Louis and I started throwing it back and forth to each other. Molly came up to us and was about to tell us off for playing with it -even though she _doesn't_ have a prefect's badge- when it shot out of my hand like it was being propelled by something. It shot threw the Common Room and went near the table where Ally and Xavier were sitting. They got down just in time and it soared right past where they would have been and right through the window!"

Victoire sighed and repaired the window with a non-verbal spell. She inspected Louis and James' hands and decided that the Frisbee was propelled by some sort of explosive powder. She told them to go away and get cleaned up for supper, and turned to Xavier and Ally.

"Way to pay attention to what was happening in the Common Room Mr Head Boy."

Ally saved Xavier from answering, "It's my fault Vic. I was distracting him."

Victoire raised an eyebrow, "And what exactly, were you doing to distract him?"

Xavier's face turned red but Ally answered seemingly unperturbed, "He was telling me not to mention House-elves because of Sandra and Kyle's argument."

Victoire's face was bemused. She had absolutely no idea what Ally was referring to, "What fight?"

Ally smiled broadly at Xavier, giving him a look that said ha-ha-ha-I-just-caught-you-in-your-lie. Before Ally could verbally call him on his lie, Xavier tried one last time to save his skin, "You know Vic. The fight about House-elf rights they had _after_ Ally left the breakfast table this morning. It was in an article in the _Prophet_. The thing that Ally _didn't know about_."

Victoire studied both Ally and Xavier before she spoke next. Ally was glaring at Xavier, but her face still held a hint of playfulness. Xavier was pleading Victoire to play along with his eyes. Victoire decided that he was so pathetic she should put him out of his misery.

"_Oh!_ Yeah. Their House-elf argument."

Ally looked at Victoire incredulously but couldn't call her on it. She sighed and glanced at Xavier, he was purposely avoiding her gaze.

"Alright. Well, I'm going to go change out of my school robes." She left after she spoke; leaving Xavier at Victoire's mercy.

Victoire's wicked smile was starting to frighten Xavier, "Yeah, I should go change too."

He walked away but Victoire followed him; still smiling, "So . . . what exactly was going on when you were MIA there?"

Xavier tried to ignore her. He'd gotten to the foot of the boy's dormitory stairs. He'd expected her to stop following him; apparently, he didn't know her that well. She followed him up the stairs repeating the same type of questions over and over until he rounded on her.

"I don't know okay! I looked at her and my mind froze up! I don't know why, so stop asking me!"

Victoire smiled brightly, she'd heard exactly what she wanted to hear, "'Kay Xavier. See you at dinner!" With that last comment, she turned around and skipped back down the dorm stairs to the common room.

* * *

"Vic, you really need to learn some table manners," Ally commented as she stared across the Gryffindor table at her cousin. As usual, Victoire was shovelling obscene amounts of food into her mouth like it was her last meal for a while.

Victoire swallowed her food before speaking, "I do have table manners Ally. I just choose not to use them." She could her Chris' deep laughter from beside her, and across from her, Kyle and Sandra giggled around their mouthfuls of food.

Surprise, surprise, Xavier seemed to agree with Ally's comment on Victoire's table manners, "Ally, if you think she's bad now, wait till Quidditch season starts. She's going to be eating so much more because of all the energy we'll be using for practice; we're not going to want to be sitting near her in the 'splatter zone'."

Victoire made a face at the pair of them, "You guys are so hilarious." The food in front of them changed into desert and Victoire started to shovel in even more food.

Ally wrinkled her nose as she cut delicately into her own dessert, "Imagine the horror on your Mother's face if she could see you now." Fleur was in the habit of admonishing Victoire's table manners. Hogwarts was one of the only places she could just eat and eat without worrying about her Mother berating her.

"I don't think you're going to have to imagine," Sandra said staring befuddled up at the platform that held the Head's Table.

Victoire looked at her best friend in surprised and then looked at where her friend was staring. Her mouthed opened with an audible 'pop'. Standing next to the Head's table talking to Professor McGonagall were Bill and Fleur Weasley, and Harry and Ginny Potter.

"Vic, what are they do-" Ally had started to talk but was cut-off by the sudden arrival of Fred and James. They sat down beside Chris on the bench.

"Vic, do you know why our parents are here?" James asked; his eyes still stuck on his parents' forms.

Victoire shook her head; she was just as confused as James and Ally, "No I don't. I mean, I kinda thought your Dad might be here, but I don't know why Ginny or my parents are-"

"Vic! What are Mamma and Dad doing here?"

Sitting down on the bench next to Ally were Dom and Louis. Dom had been the one to question their parents' appearance.

Victoire repeated the sentence that she had been saying to James and Fred when her sister had interfered.

"Why would you think that Uncle Harry would be here?" Louis asked also looking at the Head's table.

"Well it's because . . ." Victoire was cut off for the third time. But this time it wasn't a verbal interruption. Her view was also on the Head's table. She had been watching Professor McGonagall as she tried to convince her parents and her Uncle and Aunt to sit down at the newly extended table. They had just taken their seats when four more people walked in Kingsley Shacklebolt, Teddy Lupin, Percy Weasley, and Ron Weasley. The Hall had begun to get quiet as the new arrivals came in. Almost everybody in every house were staring up at the Head's table as the last person (Kingsley) was seated.

Molly and Rose Weasley and Albus Potter's arrival near Victoire brought her attention back to what she was saying. Rose, Al and Molly had seated themselves beside her by the time she got her bearings.

"What are they doing here?" Rose asked. Her brown eyes were staring up at Victoire. At times like this, Victoire wished that she wasn't the eldest of all of them. They always turned to her for answers first even though she may not even have the answer.

"I don't know Rosie. I'm just as confused as all of you are. I have no idea why_ any_ of them are here." The last part was a lie. She had decided against explaining to them about the whole, Teddy-and-Kingsley-were-hiding-something-serious-from-her thing, it would take too long to explain and she didn't want to worry them. It was a needless point anyway, they were obviously about to figure out what it's about.

Most of the students had abandoned their dessert; they were either staring up at the new arrivals at the Head's table, or at the Weasley and the Potter children. Victoire could both feel and see the eyes on her and her family at the Gryffindor table. She looked around the Hall to see if she could tell who was staring at her. Most of the older students who were in Victoire's year were staring at her, she could also see that Baxter was getting a bit of unwanted attention over at the Hufflepuff table, and even Lucy seemed to be annoyed at the stares she was getting at the Ravenclaw table.

Victoire turned away from the eyes of her fellow students and looked particularly at Ally, "Do you think Mamma saw how I was eating?"

Dom spoke before Ally, "You weren't shovelling your mouth full of food again were you Vic?"

"I was hungry! What is with all of you and my eating habits?" Victoire cried glad that they were breaking the awkward silence that had elapsed around them since the arrival of Kingsley.

"It's because they're disgusting," Xavier said matter-of-factly going back to his dessert. His complete nonchalance was in direct contrast to the tension they were all feeling from mysterious arrival of the Potters, Weasleys, Teddy, and Kingsley.

Victoire glared at him, "Thanks Xavier, I'm really feeling the love."

"Maybe you should just break up with me," he said smiling slightly.

Victoire rolled her eyes. Half the Castle was still under the (incredibly delusional) impression that they were dating. "I'll get right on that."

Victoire looked down at her plate and moved her fork around it. Underneath the table, her legs were vibrating from how hard she was tapping her feet against the floor.

Louis easily saw his sister's unease and opened his mouth to say something brotherly and supportive, but a movement at the Head's platform called his attention and made his comment change, "What in the world is Minister Flannery doing here?"

Everyone's heads moved to the direction Louis was staring in. Walking up onto the platform was the Minister for Magic. Professor McGonagall, Kingsley, and Harry got up from where they were sitting and walked over to him. They had a quick conversation before breaking apart. Professor McGonagall and the Minister walked over to the podium while Harry and Kingsley stood back behind them. Fleur got up and moved to stand beside them.

Professor McGonagall cast a voice enhancing on herself, and cleared her throat to get all the students attention.

"Good evening everyone, I hope you all enjoyed the meal."

The students just stared back at her wordlessly. She had their undivided attention.

"I am sure by now that most of you have noticed that we have some visitors," McGonagall began, gesturing toward the newcomers.

"Right next to me is Minister Flannery, and he has some, rather _exciting_ news to announce."

Flannery took over, "This year we have decided to re-instate the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and it will be held at Hogwarts."

There was dead silence throughout the Hall. Victoire felt her mouth drop. She instinctively glanced across the table at Xavier and Ally. Their faces would have been comical if it was any other time. They were wearing the exact same expression; wide eyes, opened mouths, and pale faces. Victoire knew that the dread and disbelief in her eyes were the same as that in Ally and Xavier's.

_The Tri-Wizard Tournament, is that why Mamma and Uncle Harry are here? Because they're the previous champions and he wanted it to seem like they agree with his decision. Wait a minute, why would they agree with this? They hated their time in the Tournament, both Mamma and Harry still even have nightmares about it. They can't be in agreement with this, they can't. _

"Because of the controversial nature of the last Tournament," Flannery was saying. Victoire rolled her eyes, _controversial, Cedric Diggory died as Voldemort tried to murder Uncle Harry. There is a reason why they haven't had another Tournament since._

Flannery continued, "This time there will be much more protection for the Castle and the students and champions. There will be several Aurors on duty during all times of the day patrolling and guarding the Castle. We don't want to worry you; the Aurors are just for extra protection. They shouldn't get in the way of your daily habits, and you should be able to get on as if they weren't even there."

Victoire glanced up at Kingsley, Harry and Teddy. _That's why they were here earlier in the week. They were working on a guard schedule._

"Anyway," Flannery persisted, "The rules of the Tournament have been tweaked a little. I am sure most of you are aware of the _troubled_ history of the past Tournaments. But the tradition of using the Goblet of Fire will continue. The only difference will be that all students who are of age, _and _have had seven years of schooling, will have their names placed for them in the Goblet. All seventh-years from Hogwarts, Beauxbaxtons, and Durmstrang are eligible to be picked out of the Goblet."

The initial shock of the news had subsided slightly and some whispering broke out through the Hall. The main topic was the fact that the students wouldn't have a choice on whether they wanted to volunteer for the Tri-Wizard Tournament or not.

"All eligible seventh-years from Beauxbaxtons and Durmstrang will arrive at Hogwarts by the end of the month. All of the names will then be placed in the Goblet and the Tri-Wizard Champions will be chosen on October 1st. Because of all of the extra people the Castle will have to accommodate, I expect the students of Hogwarts to be gracious and friendly hosts to our foreign friends." Flannery looked around at all four tables before taking a step away from the podium and allowing McGonagall to step forward.

"Thank you Minister, for that interesting announcement. Now, students, the feast is over and I'm sure you are all excited to go to bed and rest up for an exciting weekend."

A loud series of thumps echoed through the Great Hall as the table benches moved back to allow the students to leave.

Victoire stood up quickly and looked at Xavier, "Make sure everyone gets back to the tower, okay?"

Xavier nodded, and Victoire turned away from him and began to stride toward the platform at the front of the Hall. Xavier didn't need to ask what she was doing. He knew what was going to happen.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed! I know it seems like a little bit of a clif hanger but I promise that you'll get to find out where it goes very soon!

Oh, more good news! There's some Teddy in the next chapter as well as a bit of a development in the Xavier/Ally _situation_ . . .


	13. Family Promises

A/N: Hey, well, you guys suckered me into giving you another chapter sooner than I expected . . . speaking of, thank-you all for all the great reviews, to all my new readers who added me and/or my story to thier own respective alerts, and too everyone who just reads my story it means a lot to me.

Disclaimer: Do Not Own . . . Do Not Own . . . Do Not Own . . . Do Not Own . . . Do Not Own . . . I know I sound like a broken record but that disclaimer should cover me for the next few chapters or so :)

* * *

Family Promises

Victoire could hear footsteps behind her as she marched over to the platform holding the Head Table. They indicated that she was being followed, she knew without having to look that it would be her cousins, they all seemed to have been as shocked as she was. She got to bottom of the step and looked up at the slightly raised platform with crossed arms. She had obviously been seen by her parents because Fleur was quickly trying to end the conversation she and Harry were having with Flannery.

Flannery noticed that not only was Fleur distracted, but that Harry was also ignoring what he was saying. The Minister turned around looked at what was holding their attention. His eyes narrowed slightly when he saw the children. He sighed and ended his conversation, letting Harry and Fleur loose.

Harry, Ginny, Fleur, Bill, Ron, Percy, Kingsley, and Ted converged on the kids. There was a slight flurry of activity as Al, James, Rose, Molly, Lucy, Baxter, Louis, and Dom quietly hugged their parents in greeting. However, Victoire didn't move. She stayed rooted in place, arms folded across her chest and an unreadable expression on her pretty face.

Once the greetings were out of the way, the large group lapsed back into silence. All eyes were on Victoire; waiting for her to make the first move. Victoire's eyes had been roaming over each of the adults faces. She took in her mother's saddened expression, but was fixated on a different face. Her ocean coloured eyes locked on Kingsley's coal coloured ones.

Teddy, who had grown uncomfortable with the silence, broke it first, "Go ahead and say it Vic."

Victoire's eyes fluttered quickly to his expression before going back to Kingsley. Her question was directed at him, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kingsley's eyes were pained, he knew that Victoire wasn't going to take this well. The Tournament was one thing, but under normal circumstances, she would be able to handle it and everything that would have come with it. It was the fact that they had known and not told her that was hurting her.

"Vic . . . we had to promise not to tell anyone. If it had gotten out Flannery would have had my head . . ."

"You really think I would have gone around gossiping about it to everyone?" Victoire almost snapped.

"No of course not Victoire. It's just that-"

"That it wasn't his job to tell you," Percy Weasley cut in, not understanding why his niece was blowing all of this out of proportion. "Kingsley would have compromised both the Tournament and the Ministry if he had told you Victoire. He did the right thing. It was none of your business until the Minister decided that it was time to inform every student in Hogwarts about it. You were informed tonight. I don't see the problem here."

Victoire turned to look at her Uncle. She had to swallow the retort that was on the tip of her tongue, (Percy was the Head of the Department for Magical Cooperation; he was one of the only Weasleys' who was truly ecstatic for the Tournament). She tried to compose herself before answering him, "It's a big deal because it's the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Everything from the past is going to be dragged back up and flashed around in the news. Oh, and not to mention the new stupid rule saying that every seventh-years' name has to be put in the Goblet. What's going to happen when someone who doesn't want to be in the Tournament has their name picked? What then? I can't even believe that Mamma and Uncle Harry are even showing their support for this! "

Victoire's voice had gone from slight anger to hysteretic by then end of her rant. Her cousins had all seemed to develop a sudden interest in either the room around them or their shoes, because they were neither looking at her, nor the adults. Fleur's eyes had started to tear up and she was afraid that if she said anything to try to console her daughter that they would spill over. Harry swallowed tightly. It was time for explanations.

"It's okay Vic. I have everything under control. You don't think your mother and I wouldn't have agreed to this if there was any chance that we'd be able to stop it, do you?"

Victoire took a deep breath, "I guess not . . . but what about everything else?"

"We only agreed to support the Tournament under two conditions. Number one, the Minister had to arrange a special press agreement that would control who the press would be able to talk to, and what they can write about -that should cover anything bad being brought up. And number two, I'm in charge of protection inside and outside the Castle for the entire duration of the Tournament."

"So that's why you were here earlier this week?" Victoire asked.

"Yes, we were arranging protection," Harry answered freely, glad the discussion was moving away from the previously tense topic.

"So you're going to be here _all _year?" Victoire asked looking from Harry, to Ron, to Kingsley, her eyes ending with Teddy.

Ron smirked, "Yup, _all _year." He waggled his eyebrows in Teddy's direction.

Victoire looked up at her Uncle and narrowed her eyes. This was not the time for him to be trying to put snide, suggestive comments about her and Teddy into the conversation. Especially since Kingsley didn't know yet.

"Wait. Who's going to be here all year?" James asked his voice suddenly worried. His father being here would definitely dampen some of his and Fred's pranking plans.

Harry looked at his eldest son, "Myself and Uncle Ron will be here almost every day because we'll be overseeing the Aurors who will be stationed here. Kingsley will be here a lot too, but not as often as we will because he has the entire Auror division to look after. Fleur and Bill will be here sometimes too, because she has to seem as though she's supporting the Tournament. Oh, and Teddy will be stationed here for the entire year."

Al looked happily at Teddy, "You're going to come here every day?" His voice was pleased; he had always treated Teddy like an esteemed older brother.

Teddy smiled at the enthusiasm in Al's voice, but Harry answered, "Actually, I'm trying to convince McGonagall to allow some of the Aurors to stay here. It will cut down on transportation time."

"Wait, Aurors are going to be staying _here_, in the castle?" Dom asked her eyes lighting up at the idea.

Harry looked a little uncomfortable -Dom was a known flirt- but he answered his niece. He shot Bill a glance before continuing, "Yeah, um I'm hoping that some of them will be able to get rooms."

"So, Uncle Harry, how often are you and Mamma going to be here this year?" Louis asked before Dominique could start giggling about good-looking, young Aurors.

"We weel be 'ere for all of ze tazkz. But we will alzo 'ave to come 'ere for prezz reazonz when ze championz are peecked," Fleur answered.

Harry nodded, "They also might want us to come here so they can write articles about the last Tri-Wizard Tournament."

The kids nodded. None of them were going to say it, but they weren't really excited about the fact that their parents, aunts, and uncles would be wandering around the school for the whole year. They all enjoyed the freedom that Hogwarts gave them -the little freedom they could have with siblings and cousins all over the place.

"Which brings us back to you Victoire," Harry was saying.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. You're going to have to be very careful this year. Especially with the press, everyone else is underage; the press can't run anything they say unless we preview it first. But your seventeen, they can take anything you say, twist it as much as they want and then run it and completely embarrass you."

Victoire looked surprised, "Why would they do that. I'm just a seventh-year student."

Harry smiled sadly, "You're not just a seventh-year Vic. Your mother is Fleur Delacour and your uncle is Harry Potter. If that wasn't enough reason to try to take advantage of you, which it is, you are the only one from the family whose name will be going in the Goblet. There many reporters will probably be interested in talking to you before the names and picked."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Perfect, just perfect."

"Wow Vic, I feel really sorry for you. You're actually going to have to think about what you say before you open your big mouth and talk," James said with fake concern.

"James! I swear to Godric Gryffindor, if you say one more thing-"

Fred shook his head, "Old habits die hard I suppose. You're going to have to do better than that Victoire."

Victoire gave her mischievous cousins a death glare to share. They automatically took a step away from her.

Ginny spoke for the first time, "It's really getting late. You children should be in bed." She gave Victoire a certain look, and Victoire knew that she wasn't included in that suggestion.

Ally noticed the significance of the look Aunt Ginny had given Victoire, so she started to herd the younger kids away. The Gryffindors said goodnight to their parents and followed their bossy cousin to their tower. Lucy made sure to escort Baxter back to the Hufflepuff dorms before making her way to Ravenclaw tower.

Victoire was left alone with the rest of the adults. She looked expectantly at them.

"Listen Victoire, we wanted to talk to you about the Goblet of Fire," Kingsley said, looking at her very seriously.

"It's a very old, powerful, magical item. It will only pick the best and most competent student from each school to participate," Harry was saying. "Traditionally, if your name was picked you wouldn't be allowed to back out. You were bound to the Tournament the moment you placed your name in the Goblet. But, this time, you don't get a choice. The Minister said that he's going to try to work it out so that a person can turn down the option to compete if they want to. We're not sure yet if that's going to work, but . . ."

Victoire nodded. She understood what Harry was saying, she just wasn't sure _why _he was saying it, "Harry . . . why are you telling me this. I don't get it."

Harry walked over to his niece and placed his hand on her shoulder, "Vic, your name will be going in that Goblet. We all know that you're a very bright, capable witch . . . if on the _off_ chance that your name is the one picked . . . there is no shame in opting out of the Tournament . . ."

"You want me to pass on the Tournament if I get picked?" Victoire asked surprised. That's not the way they do things in her family; they take what they get and make the best they can out of it. She _was_ a Weasley after all . . .

"Do not zay eet like zat Victoire, we would all juzt feel more comfortable eef you turn down ze option, eef you juzt so 'appen to get peeked." Fleur said walking over to her daughter. They were the same height, so it was easy for Fleur to put her arm around Victoire's shoulders.

"You want me to promise not to compete in the Tournament? What you don't think I could handle it?" Victoire said angrily looking at her mother.

"No, of course not Vic. We know that you're one of the best witches of your age, that's why we're worried about you being picked. This isn't a big deal, we just want you to promise to turn down the Tournament on the off chance you are picked. Which is only, like, a one in a thousand chance . . ." Bill said walking over to stand by his daughter's other side.

Victoire narrowed her eyes, she looked at her Godfather, "Fine, I promise to drop out if I get picked for the Tri-Wizard Tournament," Kingsley smiled at her and her parents squeezed her tighter, "But for the record, I'm only saying this because, one, I'm taking pity on you all for being extreme worry-warts-"

"It's actually pronounced _constant vigilance_, Victoire," Teddy smirked at her.

Victoire rolled her eyes playfully at him and continued, "And because number two, I'm captain of the Quidditch team and if I get picked, Xavier will forever harass and terrorize me about being too late or busy for practices because I'll have been occupied with the Tournament."

Teddy smirk grew larger, "Are you saying that you're more scared of Xavier Wood than you are of competing in the Tri-Wizard Tournament?"

"Duh."

The majority of the adults joined Victoire and Teddy in their light laughter, except Ron. Victoire was the first one to notice the sober look on his face.

"Is there something wrong Uncle Ron?"

"Um . . . I not entirely sure of the correctness of what I'm saying, but when the last Tournament was on, Quidditch was cancelled for the year."

Victoire's eyes widened. She remembered hearing about that from Xavier, it had been his father's last year at Hogwarts and he hadn't been able to play. He was still scouted, but you have a much better chance of getting an offer if they actually see you play during the year.

"Bloody hell. I hope that Quidditch will still be allowed to go on."

"And if it's not, you might not want to be the one to tell Xavier about it," Ginny said. She was serious about her warning but her eyes were bright and she was trying to hide an amused smile. Victoire shrugged it off; Ginny was probably just imagining Xavier's reaction if he found out. She couldn't lie, it would be interesting; if anyone's head would come close to spontaneously exploding, it would be Xavier Wood's when and if he found out that Quidditch was cancelled for a year.

"Is it going to be cancelled though?" Victoire asked looking from Kingsley to Harry for an answer.

"I don't see why it should be," Harry replied, "they cancelled it last time because they were worried about too much stuff going on at once. There is going to be even more protection so it should be safe. Plus, this Tournament was a last minute thing; all of the preparations for this year's Quidditch season would already be under way."

Victoire nodded satisfied. She wasn't as Quidditch obsessed as Xavier was, but she wasn't captain for nothing, she did love Quidditch.

"Well, I don't want to be a Prat, but it is past curfew and Victoire should really be getting back to her dorm," Percy said suddenly as he glanced down at his watch.

"Okay," Victoire turned to hug her mother and kiss her father on the cheek. She gave her aunt and uncles a quick round of hugs, and ended with Kingsley.

He squeezed her tight as her whispered, "Goodnight Princess, sweet dreams."

Victoire stepped back and contemplated the last issue: Teddy. She was trying to figure out how to say goodbye to him without being to ardent and open herself up to awkward questions from Kingsley. Right now wasn't the best time to open up on the whole Victoire-Teddy-dating-situation; she was very tired. Thankfully, Ron decided that now was the time to do his good deed for the day. He innocently suggested that Teddy walk Victoire up to the portrait hole just in case. Constant vigilance and all that stuff Ron had said. Kingsley had agreed whole-heartedly, nothing was too cautious when it came to Victoire's protection. Teddy quietly consented and followed Victoire up the stairs, down the hall, and out of view from the other adults after Harry had told him that he would be waiting for him in McGonagall's office after he had escorted Victoire back to her dorm.

Teddy had escorted her halfway to the Gryffindor dorms before the silence had broken. It was innocent enough. They had walked so closely together that she just moved her arm out slightly and slipped her hand into his.

Teddy stopped right where he was; he couldn't have been more still if someone had put an immobilization spell on him. When Victoire met his stony gaze with confused eyes, he quickly looked around them and pulled her into an alcove.

"What's going on Teddy?" Victoire asked whispering. Her hand was still clutched around his.

He looked down at their entwined hands and felt his face go red, "I . . . we- Vic you can't just grab my hand like that."

"Why not?" Victoire asked, the question was innocent enough, but Teddy could hear an underlying tone that challenged him.

"Vic, what if one of the Professors' had come by, or Filtch, or a Prefect patrolling around, or a ghost, or even a house-elf, we have to be careful."

"Why?" Victoire asked again. Her tone had lost its' careful naïveté and was now outwardly demanding.

Teddy cupped Victoire's face in his free hand; he locked his dark sapphire-blue eyes on her sea-blue ones, "Vic . . . we're going to have to be careful this year. I'm going to be here every day and we have to act as if we're nothing more than best friends. It's inappropriate for Aurors to be in romantic relationships with students that they're supposed to be guarding."

"Wait, you're not breaking up with me, are you?" Victoire asked her eyes widening.

Teddy shook his head quickly, "Of course not Vic. I love you. We just have to be careful. We can't let anyone know about us. You're going to have to have promise not to go around spilling our secret; if anyone finds out, I'm going to be taken off guard duty. Harry and Ron already know, but they trust me to be professional while I'm here . . ."

Victoire nodded, "So, I'm going to have to behave myself then?"

Teddy smiled at the artful expression on her face, "Yes, in public . . . in private you can act however, you like . . ."

Victoire smiled briefly before putting her arms around his neck and pulling his face down to hers'. The kiss started out sweet but quickly became more passionate. Victoire had to break away from Teddy mouth after a several minutes to catch her breath. Teddy's lips just moved down to her neck.

"But what about Kingsley? I have to be able to tell him," Victoire said breathlessly trying to arrange her scattered thoughts.

Teddy whispered against her skin, "I know it's important to you, so I'll let you tell him. I just hope that he trusts me enough to be professional while I'm on duty."

Victoire moved his head up with her hand so that she could look into his eyes, "Of course he knows you're going to be professional about it. You're a very responsible person. Hell, you're still the only person I've ever seen that can get dependable and take the lead in a project even when they were put under a confundus charm."

Teddy's face turned red as he thought about the incident from four years ago when Lucy had been arguing with Dom over the correct way to cast the confundus charm, which Victoire had alluded to.

"Hey that wasn't my fault. Anyway, Harry and Ginny were counting on me to get all of you organized for the party and get all of gnomes out of the garden . . ."

Victoire laughed angelically as she remembered that day, "Merlin you were so cute that day, when you were confused and everything."

Teddy smiled and captured Victoire's lips again for a long kiss. He broke away after what felt like forever. Victoire made an annoyed sound and her pink lips automatically dropped down into a pout.

"It is late and I have to get you back to the tower. You are incredibly cranky when you don't get enough sleep, and everyone will be trying your patience tomorrow as it is; asking you questions about the Tournament and all."

Victoire sighed at his flawless logic and followed him out of the alcove. She slipped her hand in his again as they continued walking. Teddy looked at her and rolled his eyes. Since he didn't say anything, or try to pull away, Victoire took that as permission to keep her hand where it was. There seemed to be a new spring in her step as she walked down the corridors with Teddy's hand in hers'.

They had stopped a few paces from the Fat Lady for Victoire to give Teddy a long and lingering goodbye kiss, before she entered through the portrait hole. Victoire was walking with her wand alight and held out in front of her so that she could see where she was going, and wouldn't trip over anything, when she suddenly came to a dead stop.

Her eyes looked as if they were going to jump out of her sockets. Her gaze was stuck on the long couch to the left of the Common Room. Lying together on the couch, fast asleep were Xavier Wood and Alexandra Weasley.

Victoire being the kind cousin that she was, decided to wake them up now instead of just leaving them there for the rest of the House to see when they got up the next morning (even though it would fix her problems about people thinking that she and Xavier were together). However, before she did her good deed she did what any friend, cousin, and Weasley would do. She decided to preserve this moment for future black mail.

She silently summoned her camera from her trunk in her dorm room. It came flying down the stairs; she caught the small pink and purple coloured projectile before it could fall to the ground. Victoire positioned herself properly so she could get the best shot possible. It was a Muggle camera (the one that her Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione had given her for her fifteenth birthday) so she had to turn the flash on because the room was so dark. She knew that the flash of light would probably wake them up as soon as she took the picture, so she only had one chance.

She crept close to them and pressed her finger down on the silver button on top. A bright flash shone through the room for a minute, disappearing as fast as it came.

Victoire's guess had been correct; the light woke the sleeping pair up. Ally ended up rolling off the couch (and Xavier for she had, sort of been lying on top of him), while Xavier struggled to keep himself on the couch and not fall onto the ground with her. Xavier and Ally were looking in Victoire's direction with tired expressions. He was rubbing his eyes like a sleepy child, and she was rubbing her head because she hit it as she fell to the floor.

Victoire's smile widened smugly when the look of recognition came over Xavier and Ally's faces, "Don't mind me. I didn't mean to wake you. You both just looked so cute that I thought I'd document it for the future."

Xavier's eyes widened as he saw the Muggle camera in Victoire's hands, he knew what it did, "Delete that picture Vic!"

Victoire fluttered her eyelashes in an attempt at innocence, "Why would I do that Xavier? It's an adorable picture and in ten years, you'll thank me for taking it because it will bring back wonderful memories. And if you don't thank me then, no problem, I'll probably get a lot of money out of it anyway."

"Money?" Ally asked confused as she moved from her spot on the floor, to sit on the couch beside Xavier. She had only been slightly paying attention to their conversation.

"Yeah," Victoire answered lightly, swinging the camera strap around her finger as she walked over to them and sat down on the edge of the coffee table, "When Xavier's a big Quidditch star and the papers and magazines start digging around for pictures of him in his youth. This will be a perfect one," she was now looking at the display of the picture she had just taken, "Because it looks very compromising." Victoire turned the camera around so that the subjects of her picture could see themselves in their sleeping glory.

Ally and Xavier's faces turned red as Victoire continued her monologue, "It's not _that _racy. But it's the closest thing to scandalous Xavier's ever done in his seven years here at Hogwarts. Of course, he could always get a girlfriend, the year's young; he'd just have to find someone who wouldn't mind being second in his heart, after Quidditch of course."

"We weren't doing anything wrong, nothing happened," Xavier blurted out a little late.

Victoire laughed quietly, "Duh, I know that. If I thought you'd done something Xavier, you be on the receiving end of some choice hexes right now instead of a lame picture prank."

Xavier didn't know how to respond to that. It was a good thing Victoire didn't think anything had happened between him and Ally (because nothing _did_ happen) but he also felt strangely sad when he realized that nothing had happened between him and Ally, _Whoa! What am I thinking? Merlin I hope Victoire isn't as good a Ligilimens as she is an Occulmens._

"So . . . is one of you going to plead your case and explain to me what happened or do I actually had to start firing jinxes at Xavier?" Victoire asked, a little uneasy that her last comment had gotten no response except a reddening of both their cheeks, _Godric I hope I don't have to start cursing Xavier . . . he's a good friend and all, but family _does_ come first . . ._

"No you don't have to hurt Xavier. We got everyone to go to bed but decided to stay up and wait for you to come in because we were worried about you, I guess we kinda fell asleep," Ally answered sweetly. Her cheeks were still tinged red from her previous blush, but Victoire chalked that up to her not able to be cavalier about the position her and Xavier were found in.

"Yeah, so how'd the private meeting with your family go?" Xavier asked Victoire as he yawned. _Ally must have already filled him in on everything else,_ Victoire thought.

"Nothing much," she replied shrugging. She stood up, "It can wait till tomorrow. I just really want to go to bed now. Coming Ally?"

Victoire added the last part when she made it to the foot of the stairs that led up to the girls' dorm rooms.

Ally hastily got up from her position on the couch and walked over to Victoire, "Yeah, I'm coming."

"Wait!" Xavier called after them. They were halfway up the staircase when he was stopped by the spell at the bottom of the stairs.

"Vic, are you going to delete that picture?"

Victoire smiled wolfishly, "No Xavier. I told you I'm keeping this for later when you're named Quidditch's most eligible bachelor."

"Victoire!"

Victoire laughed at the stricken looks on both Ally and Xavier's faces, and decided to take pity on them.

"Until then, I promise you both that no one else will ever see this picture."

* * *

Oh . . . where is this going to go? Well there are lots of options . . . I guess we're going to have to wait 'till next week to find out.

Hope you enjoyed!


	14. Off Limits

A/N: Hey next chapter! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed or favourited, I love all the feedback I've gotten!

Warning! This chapter has Colton Knott bashing and a little bit of fluff . . . Not to mention some awesome Harry and, especially Ron moments! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: See last chapter

* * *

Off Limits

"Hey Victoire! What advice have Mummy and Uncle Harry given you about the big scary Tournament? You should probably spend more time listening to Potter seeing as he didn't end up getting almost eaten by the foliage from the last tasks' maze."

Victoire turned around to see where the haughty, taunting voice was coming from. Anastasia Greengrass, seventh-year Slytherin and pain-in-the-arse-extraordinaire, was standing there, a devious smile plastered on her thin, white face. Beside her, giving her an even haughtier look was Colton Knott and his crony Lorenzo Steed.

Victoire rolled her eyes at the Slytherins. It had been almost a week since Minister Flannery had come and announced that the Tri-Wizard Tournament would be going on, and the students in the green and silver still had a mess of jokes about her family's participation in the last Tournament. The first day or two had really bothered her, but as the jokes continued, they got lamer and stupider. Now, when a Slytherin tossed a joke out trying to daunt her, she would shrug it off instead of letting it get to her.

Xavier and Chris had been walking with her, and had stopped when she did. Xavier discreetly placed his hand on Victoire's arm and squeezed it. It was a warning. Victoire shrugged Xavier's hand off and faced the Slytherins, "If you're going to try to make fun of myself and my family, you might want to get some better jokes. What you just said was so pathetic that I'm not even going to dignify it with a witty response."

Victoire turned on her heel and stalked away from the Slytherins. She was walking fast because she was agitated, so Xavier and Chris were practically running to catch up with her.

"Wow. I'm proud of you Victoire. That took a lot of restraint," Xavier said when they'd caught up to her outside the charms classroom.

Victoire looked at her feet, "Don't praise me; it was a really bad joke. I thought Slytherins were supposed to be cunning."

"We are it's the ones like Anastasia who spend more time on their hair than on their homework that give us a bad name."

Colton Knott had followed the Gryffindors to the charms classroom because they share the class. He stopped at the doorway where they were standing and looked directly at Victoire, "But I don't expect you brawny, brainless Gryffindors to understand that."

Victoire flounced right by him and went to sit in her desk. Xavier and Chris took the seats on either side of her. A few minutes before class was about to start, Sandra and Kyle walked in holding hands and giggling. They sat down in the desks in front of Victoire and Xavier.

Colton Knott looked at them from his seat across the classroom, sneered and loudly began talking to his friends, "It's so disgusting watching people and their repulsive public displays of affection."

Sandra and Kyle's faces turned red. Victoire spoke, "Don't worry, he's just jealous that nobody wants to display any affection towards him whether it's in public or not."

Knott heard Victoire's cutting remark and walked over to her.

"Weasley, if you want to hold my hand you can go ahead and ask. You don't have to continue playing hard-to-get."

Victoire narrowed her eyes, "I'd rather hold the hand of a blast-ended-skrewert."

"Well, that's obvious, but we weren't talking about your relationship with Wood. We were talking about you repressing your feelings for me."

Xavier glanced at Victoire and spoke under his breath, "Did _he_ just infer that I was a blast-ended-skrewert?"

Victoire pushed him away, "First of all, Xavier and I do _not_ have a relationship. Second, the only thing I have to repress when you're around is me, is my breakfast."

Knott opened his mouth to (no doubt) say some other snide comment, when Professor Flitwick walked into the class. He asked everyone to put their wands away and to take out their quills and parchment to copy the notes off the board.

Halfway through the note, Victoire saw a little paper airplane land on her desk. She looked up; not sure where it came from. She shrugged her shoulders and unfolded the airplane.

. . . Three champions will complete three tasks . . .

. . . And thwart the one with many masks . . .

. . . A task for each, they'll need to lead . . .

. . . To stop evil before it can seed . . .

. . . The final task does not mean this ends . . .

. . . To foil peril, you must work with friends . . .

Victoire read the words at least five times over and she still didn't understand what they were saying. She glanced back up from the parchment to look around the room. Every head was either fixated on their paper, or at the board. No one was watching her or waiting to see her reaction to the words written on the paper. She finally got tired of trying to comprehend the words and slide the piece of parchment onto Xavier's desk.

"Can you tell who wrote this?" She whispered.

He took the parchment and gazed at it. His eyebrows rose, and then fell in confusion, "Can I tell who wrote what?"

"The note, rhyme, riddle, whatever it is."

"There's nothing written here Vic," Xavier whispered giving the paper back to her.

"What are you talking about Xavier? There's a whole riddle on there . . ." Victoire was getting annoyed with the confused look on Xavier's face. She looked down at the parchment intending to draw a huge circle around the writing so that the blind Git can see it. Her quill fell out of her hand as she saw looked at the parchment. It was blank.

Victoire could feel Xavier's eyes on her face as she moved the parchment around and looked at every part from every angle; trying to find the words she'd just read.

"I swear there was a whole six lined riddle on that parchment, it rhymed and everything!"

Xavier looked at the parchment again; it was still completely blank, "If you say so Victoire . . ."

He went back to copying out his notes. Victoire glared at him for a minute before pulling out her wand. If he didn't believe her, she'd just have to show him. She cast eight different types of wordless spells that were supposed to show any hidden writing. None of them showed anything. Victoire was resorting to using spells to show if any magic had been used on the parchment to erase or cause the words to disappear, again it came up with nothing.

"Ugh!"

"Is there a problem Miss Weasley?" Professor Flitwick asked standing up behind his desk.

Everyone's eyes were on Victoire. She was exceedingly glad at that moment that her Veela blood outweighed the genetic quirk most Weasley's have that causes them to blush as red as their hair. She hadn't meant to verbally express her frustration with the blank piece of parchment.

Victoire put on a charmingly bright smile, and lied easily, "No Professor. My quill just keeps breaking, and it's getting frustrating."

Professor Flitwick raised an eyebrow, "Did you try a _reparo_ charm?" Victoire could hear the soft sniggering of the Slytherins' from across the room.

"Yes Sir I have, but it doesn't seem to be working well. I think that my cousins may have charmed it to be unreliable. Don't worry though I'll borrow another one. I apologize for disturbing the class, it won't happen again," she ended her speech with another dazzling smile. Flitwick merely nodded his head and waved his wand so that the next set of notes would appear on the board.

Victoire waited for everyone to stop looking at her before she reached over to the desk beside her and plucked a black quill out of Chris' hand.

He looked up in surprised, one of his eyebrows raised questioningly. She stuck her tongue out at him and went back to writing her note, as he pulled a brand new quill from out of his bag. She knew that there was actually nothing wrong with her quill, and that the whole story she'd just fed to Flitwick was a tiny little white lie, but she wanted to keep up appearances. So she nicked Chris' quill to keep everyone happy.

There was about fifteen minutes left in class when a knock issued on the door. Flitwick opened it with his wand. A fifth-year Hufflepuff prefect walked in. She looked shyly around the room and squeaked out, "The Headmistress would like to see Mr Wood, Mr Knott, and Miss Weasley in her office right away."

Professor Flitwick nodded his head at the students as they picked up their items and followed the Hufflepuff out of the room. She walked quickly in front of the seventh-years as if she were afraid of them.

Victoire spoke up brightly, "What does McGonagall want to see us about?"

The girl looked back at her briefly, and then looked straight ahead along the corridor, "I'm not sure. McGonagall just asked me to go and get you from class."

Her answer was quiet and timid. She was the embodiment of Hufflepuff nature, and Knott wasn't going to let it go without comment, "So you're just the mindless messenger then? You don't have any inkling of what could be going on?"

The prefect seemed to contract slightly at his words. She moved to the side to walk closer to Xavier. Victoire glared at Knott and silently sent a trip jinx his way. He ended up falling flat on his face.

"Are you enjoying snogging the floor Colton?" Victoire asked her face dead serious. Beside her Xavier was shaking his head while the fifth-year Hufflepuff giggled quietly.

They continued walking forwards as Knott got up from the floor. He had to jog to catch up with them. He gave Victoire a scathing look that promised that he'd get retaliation later. They made it to the gargoyle that hid McGonagall's office. The girl from Hufflepuff said the password and let them in. They walked through the door and found McGonagall at her desk with the two other Head students of Hogwarts, Austin Pennington of Ravenclaw, and a tall girl with orange coloured hair, Shelly Alexander, Head Girl from Hufflepuff. McGonagall gratefully dismissed the fifth year, and began when she firmly closed the door behind her.

"Next week, as Minister Flannery mentioned the students from Beauxbaxtons and Durmstrang will be arriving," McGonagall's face was dark. Victoire shared a look with Xavier, and in that moment, they understood that this Tournament definitely wasn't her idea.

McGonagall continued, "And I want all of the prefects, Head Girls, and Boys to meet them and welcome them to the school. You will explain to them in the politest terms, how things at Hogwarts run, and you will offer your help anytime that they find they'd need it."

They all nodded. McGonagall looked at each one of them before dismissing them. Victoire and Xavier turned for the door, but stopped when Austin Pennington spoke.

"How are the patrols for the corridors going to go this year now that there are going to be Aurors stationed in the Castle?"

Victoire and Xavier turned around and converged back into the middle of the room with the rest of the Heads. They all wanted to hear this conversation.

"The Aurors will be extra protection for the Castle but they will not step on our toes. It is a point of pride for Hogwarts to boast about trusting their students enough, to have them be in charge of safety. Not all schools can say the same. Neither Durmstrang nor Beauxbaxton's have as intricate a system of students in charge of others students as we do. The Aurors will be placed in mainly high traffic areas, and when the Champions are picked, they will no doubt be placed in certain places that are highly travelled along the Champion's daily routine. And of course, when you and the prefects are required to go to bed after midnight patrols, they will still be up, guarding the school on their own shifts throughout the entire day," McGonagall said fixing each Head will a specific look.

"So you've Okayed it for some Aurors to stay in the Castle then?" Victoire piped up looking at McGonagall.

Her fellow Head's looked at her confused, even Xavier. They didn't know what she was referring to. _Oh yeah, I didn't even tell Xavier about the fact that Uncle Harry was trying to get permission for some Aurors to live in at Hogwarts, did I?_

McGonagall eyed her curiously, "Normally Miss Weasley, I would ask you where you could've gotten such information. However, since I'm almost certain I know who told you, I could also guess that you know not to go spreading around this information," McGonagall gave her a searing gaze. Victoire nodded her head, "Excellent."

The Head Mistress turned to the other Head students, "What Miss Weasley was referring to, was the fact that some of the Aurors will be staying in the Castle over the school year. They will be living in some of the free rooms on the second and third floors. However, there is no reason to worry about this, because Auror Shacklebolt and Auror Potter have assured me that they will behave in the most decorous and responsible order."

"So there's going to be a bunch of thick-headed young Aurors living in the Castle trying to _prove _themselves to the boss so that they could get promoted?" Austin Pennington asked scathingly as he folded his arms across his chest. He shot a side look to Victoire and she could tell that his insult was directed at Teddy.

McGonagall decided not to bother to answer his childish retort and asked, "Is there anything else any of you need to ask? Because if not, it is time for you all to get to your next class . . ."

Xavier opened his mouth to ask the question that had been burning in him for days, "Is there going to be House Quidditch this year? Even with the Tri-Wizard Tournament going on?"

Victoire rolled her eyes a little. She had already told Xavier that Harry had said that Quidditch probably wouldn't be cancelled. But it seemed he didn't believe her. _Well, we are supposed to our tryouts this weekend . . . I guess he just wants to make sure._

"Yes Mr Wood, Quidditch will continue to go on the same schedule as the years before. We've had all of the games mapped out before the Minister decided to tell us about putting on the Tournament; it will not interfere with Quidditch this year."

Xavier breathed a sigh of relief along with Colton Knott. Colton was captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team and could be rather obsessed with the game himself at times.

"Anything else?" McGonagall asked. They all shook their heads. "Very well then, you may all go to your next class."

They exited one by one. Xavier and Victoire were the last ones to walk through the door. They would have to hurry if they wanted to get to Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"Miss Weasley, a moment please."

Victoire stopped with where she was. She was in the process of shutting the office door behind them. She turned around and walked back into the room.

Xavier moved to follow her, but was stopped by McGonagall's curt voice, "Just Miss Weasley, Mr Wood. You should be on your way to class."

Xavier looked at Victoire for a moment before speaking, "I'll take good notes." He left the room, silently shutting the door behind him.

McGonagall seemed to be rummaging in her desk for something; she pulled out a sheaf of papers and placed it in an envelope. She then waved her wand and magically sealed the envelope.

"I was wondering Miss Weasley, whether you would consent to running a little errand for me."

Victoire nodded her head, "Of course Professor. What is it?"

"This envelope needs to be given to Kingsley right away. At present, he is on the second floor in room 196. He will be in and out of meeting with Harry and other Aurors all day. I'm busy myself, getting ready for the Tournament and I don't have the time to go give this to him. I thought that perhaps you would be able to get through the mountain of security personnel and convince Kingsley to interrupt his meeting for even a few minutes to read my message."

McGonagall's speech ended with a smile towards Victoire. It was obvious to her why she had asked her to do it. If anyone could charm their way into Kingsley's office, even for a few minutes, it was Victoire.

"Alright . . . can I ask you something Professor?"

McGonagall looked up at Victoire, the sudden vulnerability in her voice surprised her. She was not used to hearing open vulnerability from Weasleys.

Victoire opened her mouth, but then shut it. She was trying to bring up the weird note she'd been given during class. She still had the piece of parchment with her. She had folded it and placed it inside her robes when the prefect had come into Charms to get them. She didn't ask though. _I'm probably just being paranoid about this. It was probably some joke a Slytherin made up to weird me out._ She asked another question instead. One that was still important, but not as obscure.

"Are there other Aurors here besides Kingsley and Harry?"

McGonagall smiled knowingly, "Ron and a few other senior Aurors are here. Along with all of the Aurors-in-training who will be staying in the Castle this year."

"All of the Aurors-in-training?" Victoire asked; her throat was rather dry.

"Yes, they were going through the rules . . . I think Mr Lupin is also there, seeing as Harry has asked for him specifically to be stationed in the Castle this year."

Victoire thought she was seeing things; she must have been, because there is no way that Professor McGonagall just winked at her.

Victoire just nodded her head, grabbed the envelope, and headed to the door.

* * *

"Quiet! We need to go over the rules for this year!" Harry yelled to the room full of Aurors.

Teddy rolled his eyes as some of the Aurors-in-training continued to talk. _When the lead Auror asks you to shut up, you'd think they'd do it!_

"Oi! Listen up kiddies!" Ron yelled from his position beside Harry.

It seemed the Aurors listen this time. Silence came across the group; some of the younger Aurors looked startled at Ron's outburst.

Harry eyed Ron, "Thanks Ron."

"Anyway, this is how this year's going to go. McGonagall has Okayed it for twelve Aurors to stay in the Castle over the year. Mr Lupin over here," Harry gestured to Teddy, "has already taken one position, so I will send this list around and ask for eleven other people to sign up for the year."

Ron passed around a piece of parchment and a quill. People signed their names and the price of parchment came back to Ron after traveling around the group. Harry grabbed it and looked at it briefly.

"Perfect. There is one spot left, but I'm going to offer that to Auror Donaldson because she's one of the only young women who'll be stationed to Hogwarts this year."

Harry looked up from the sheet and looked around the circle. The majority of the Aurors around him were first and second year trainees. There were a handful of seasoned Aurors; but the majority of them were Harry and Ron's age or younger.

"Here are the rules for this year. As you've no doubt read in the papers, the Tri-Wizard Tournament has been reinstated, and will be held at Hogwarts. The change in procedures means that more students from the other wizarding schools, Durmstrang and Beauxbaton, will be at Hogwarts than there would usually have been in other years. Because of this, the protection for the school and the students will be amped up. Every week the patrolling schedule will be posted in this room. This will be the general meeting room and Auror headquarters at the school. If the patrolling schedule doesn't work for you, you will have someone trade with you, and then see the lead Auror in charge of your group and make sure that he has approved your switch. If you do not approval from your Head, you will attend your scheduled patrol. We will work out the finer details and the rooming arrangements later, but for now, Ron would you like to explain the rules?"

Ron nodded and went to stand up beside Harry, "Alright. Rule number one: No eating in the Great Hall, that is for students and professors only, it is _off limits_. Although, if you know how, and if you are off duty, you may visit the kitchens. All other meals will be eaten in this room, or if you're a permanent Auror, your own room. Number two: The rules about contraband items that apply to the students also apply to you . . ."

Ron continued with a list of about a dozen odd rules about what not to do and what, or where, was off limits. "And lastly, this is not an inflection on anyone in particular but it needs to be said nonetheless, remember that you are all adults and all of your actions reflect upon the Auror Office. We are at Hogwarts, the school is full of thousands of students raging in ages from eleven to seventeen, _any_ inappropriate relations going on between you and a student or students are _completely_ off limits."

Ron's face had been rather strict and stony at the end of the speech, leaving many of the younger Aurors including Teddy dumbstruck and gobsmacked. Ron and Harry smirked at their expressions. The silence in the room was broken by Kingsley Shacklebolt's entrance. He paced determinedly through the room, hardly bothering to look at the Aurors, until he came face to face with Harry.

"I need to speak to you and Ron privately," he said, face expressionless.

Harry nodded, seemingly unperturbed, "Alright, McKenny," he looked at an older Auror whom was just under him in seniority, "how about you hand out these files and forms, and have them go through while Ron and I talk with Kingsley?"

McKenny nodded and started ordering the Aurors-in-training to tables where they could complete their task while Harry and Ron followed Kingsley through a door at the back of the room into the room that would soon be Harry's Hogwarts office.

They had been working on the flies and forms for a little bit when McKenny walked over to the table Teddy was sharing with two other second-level Aurors-in-training,

"Lupin, could you go into that room on the side and grab a couple more roles of parchment?"

Teddy nodded and got up to go to the little cupboard on the right of the room. After searching around it for a minute or two, he found the roles of parchment and piled them in his arms. As he exited the storeroom, he realized that the Aurors had shifted positions. Instead of sitting down at several different tables and willing out the forms and files, the majority of the odd two dozen or so Aurors were huddled in a large group around the door that lead to the hallway. Teddy deposited the parchment on one of the tables, and walked toward the mass of people.

The closer Teddy got to the door, the more of the conversation he could hear. He was thinking that the girl's voice was oddly familiar when he finally came close enough to hear the whole conversation _and_ get a good look at the predicament.

Teddy's heart jumped. Standing at the door, looking gorgeous in her Hogwarts robes with her Head Girl badge shining brightly and her gold and red striped tie was Victoire Weasley. Her face was calm and collected, but he could see a slight edge in her pretty blue eyes. After standing in the crowd for a minute, he understood her slight tension.

Timothy Lassoder, one of Teddy's fellow second-level Aurors-in-training, was speaking to Victoire, "I'm sorry Miss, but I cannot allow you to go see Auror Shacklebolt. He is very busy at the moment, but if you give me the envelope, I can give it to him when he is finished."

Victoire's eyes narrowed, "Professor McGonagall wants a response right away and made me promise not to give it to anyone else besides Kingsley."

Teddy saw Lassoder's eyebrows rise when he heard Victoire refer to Kingsley by his first name. "Excuse me Miss, but I resent that. If you give me the envelope, I will make sure that the only person that opens it will be Shacklebolt himself. You can run along to class now."

Teddy almost palmed his face. Lassoder was being condescending and treating Victoire like a child. If he didn't say something soon, she would, more than likely, do something rash. Teddy stepped between two other younger Aurors and into the front of the circle.

Victoire had opened her mouth to retort back to Lassoder, when she was Teddy break through the crowd.

"Ted!" Victoire yelped as she jumped at Teddy. He almost fell over as she hugged him tightly. She let go after a few seconds but was beaming brightly at him.

Teddy raised an eyebrow, and gave her a look that said what-exactly-was-that-for-? She smiled back but her eyes were saying I'm-so-glad-you're-here-these-guys-are-being-such-Prats.

"What's the problem here?" Teddy asked trying to break the sort of awkward silence that had fallen. All of the Aurors in the circle were now staring at Teddy with surprise, and, oddly enough jealousy. When Teddy recognized the envy in their expressions, he finally realized why everyone was standing around watching Lassoder question Victoire. They were just enjoying the view.

Teddy tried to control the anger that was staring to boil up in him, _why does my girlfriend have to be so beautiful?_

Lassoder stopped glaring at Teddy and spoke, "This young women here, would like to give Auror Shacklebolt an envelope, but I told her that he was too busy, and that she should just give it to me and be on her way."

Victoire opened her mouth again. Her happiness on seeing Teddy had quickly given way to irritation when Lassoder opened his mouth again.

"I'm not leaving until I have a response to give back to Professor McGonagall," Victoire said stubbornly.

Lassoder shot back, "I would allow you to stay but we are incredibly busy-"

Victoire cut him off, "Organizing for the Tri-Wizard Tournament?"

Lassoder looked surprised, "So you've been told then? It doesn't really matter Miss-"

"Weasley," Victoire said, smiling suddenly.

Lassoder stopped saying whatever it was he was going to say to gape openly at her. He wasn't the only one. The Aurors that were left standing around them (mostly the younger ones who were in training) seemed to take a step back and eye her up again. Only this time it was with consideration than with desire.

Lassoder turned his gaze from Victoire and on to Teddy. (Knowing how close he was with the Potters and the Weasleys.) As if he expected him to deny it. When Teddy didn't say anything, McKenny broke in for the first time since Victoire's arrival.

"Miss Weasley, if you would prefer, and if you promise to stay out of the way, you can sit down and quietly wait for Auror Shacklebolt to finish his meeting."

Victoire nodded happily, waved her wand, and wordlessly conjured a chair to appear beside the office door Kingsley, Harry, and Ron were behind.

McKenny convinced most of the Aurors to get back to their paper work (even though many of them kept giving Victoire surreptitious looks every few minutes). Teddy saw Lassoder walk over to Victoire and joined him to make sure that he didn't say anything rude.

"Miss Weasley, I think it would be smart to go back to class. If I'm not mistaken, you're in your seventh-year; you don't want to miss even one day in your N.E.W.T.S. year."

Victoire rolled her eyes again, "I think I can handle missing one class."

"DADA, right Victoire?" Teddy asked.

She smiled when she looked at him, "Yes, we were introduced to the full-body-bind curse yesterday; we're just working more on it today."

Teddy nodded. She won't be missing anything.

"Learning how to defend yourself is very important, if you would just give me the envelope . . ." Lassoder was saying.

Teddy started to get annoyed, _why does he keep trying to get his hands on that thing? What does he think is in it?_

Victoire tried to answer Lassoder politely, "I've had that curse mastered for years. Don't worry I'm not missing anything." Most of the Aurors under the age of thirty in the room had their eyes fixed on her. She had tried to use a bit of her Veela charm to get Lassoder off her case and leave her alone. It seems that she used too much though.

"Yes . . . well . . ." Lassoder was trying to get his thoughts back on track after being hit with a major wave of Veela magic.

"However, if you really want me to be on my way," Victoire started as she stood up. Not liking all the attention she was getting from the men, "I'll just give this to Kingsley right now and leave as soon as he reads it."

She went to open the door when Lassoder finally got his bearings back, "You can't do that! He's in a very important meeting right now."

"Who's the meeting with?"

"Auror Potter and Auror Weasley, but that's not import-"

Victoire stopped listening to him and knocked on the door. After a minute, the door shot open and Kingsley's furious face emerged.

"Who in the world is interrupting-" Kingsley started to say. He was cut off as Victoire shot herself at him. He stumbled back a step but put his arms around her.

"Hi Princess."

Victoire stepped back to look into Kingsley's smiling face, "Hi!"

"Hey, what's going on-" Harry and Ron walked out of the office behind Kingsley and were cut off in the same manner that he was,

Victoire shot herself at them also. She had one arm around Harry's neck and one around Ron's, "Hi Uncle Harry! Uncle Ron!" Ron and Harry each pulled an arm out and patted her on the back until she relinquished her hold on them.

"Hi Vic, what are you doing here?" Ron asked.

"Oh, McGonagall asked me to bring this message to Kingsley and told me not to leave until I was able to bring an answer back for her," Victoire said cheerfully.

Kingsley nodded and held his hand out to take the envelope from his goddaughter, "Alright, give me a minute." He opened it up and started to read it where he stood.

The rest of the Aurors were watching the scene with surprise. Most of the surprise was far the fact that she was able to escape Kingsley's wrath so easily.

"So how's it going then Vic?" Ron asked conversationally.

Victoire shrugged, "Nothing much. Getting harassed by Slytherins, being pressured by Xavier to work on Quidditch plays every free chance we get, almost getting soaked by some strange liquid James, Fred, and Louis were carrying around and then was told that I really didn't want to know what it was, oh, and then Ally ate all the toast at breakfast."

Teddy laughed lightly. Out of her entire list, she sounded angriest at the fact that Ally at all the toast. _Same old Vic . . ._

Ron and Harry were also laughing. That was how Kingsley found them when he finished writing his answer to McGonagall. He looked from Harry, to Ron, to Teddy, and then to Victoire and said, "I really don't want to know. Here you go Princess, that's my answer for McGonagall."

Victoire took the piece of parchment and hugged Kingsley again, "Thanks. I better get going. I may be able to make it to DADA in time to get a good shot at jinxing Austin Pennington before class ends."

Teddy smiled at the image she created, "Since when do you let not being in class determine when you hex someone?"

She winked at him on her way out the door, "Well now that I have this shiny Head Girl badge I actually have to pretend to behave myself for the most part."

Kingsley smiled one last time as Victoire left and then went back into the office room. He closed the door behind him.

Ron coughed to get everyone's attention. All of the younger Aurors eyes had been glued on the door as they watched Victoire leave. Everyone's eyes went to Ron including Harry and Teddy.

Ron smiled and winked at Teddy before speaking, "By the way, she is most **definitely** _off limits_."

* * *

Oh, how I love writting over pretective family members. Hope you enjoyed, drop a line if you liked :)


	15. Quidditch Try Outs

A/N: Yeah, so no worries I'm still alive! I'm sooooooooo sorry that I haven't uptdated in a while, my life go so busy (It's May and June so it will continue to be busy. Last minute school marks, Relay for Life, school clubs, driver's ed, babysitting etc.)

So, here's the latest chapter it's a little longer, to make up for not posting in a while, and has some fluff and stubborn Weasleys! Great combo, right?

Disclaimer: See last chapter.

* * *

Quidditch Tryouts

The rest of the week went by in a flash and before Victoire knew it, it was Saturday morning and it was the day that Gryffindor's House Quidditch team was holding tryouts for two new chasers and a new beater. Victoire had gotten up at seven-thirty (quite a feat for someone who won't wake up before noon on a weekend unless there is an imminent threat from Dark Wizards). She threw on a pair of black running shorts and a long sleeve red t-shirt. She quickly pulled her silvery blonde hair back into a ponytail and left her dorm room for the common room. In the Common Room, she saw Xavier Wood walking back and forth across the room almost pacing a hole in the floor.

"Merlin Xavier, do I need to put an immobilizing charm on you so you don't fall through the floor?" Victoire asked as she hopped down the staircase.

Xavier rolled his eyes at her, "Finally you're up. We should go get something to eat before tryouts. Where's Ally?"

"I know it's a miracle I'm up this early. Yes to the food suggestion and I don't know where Ally is," Victoire answered.

Xavier's eyes widened, "She does know that we have tryouts this morning, right?"

Victoire tried not to roll her eyes again, "Yes Xavier, she knows. However, we don't have the Quidditch pitch until nine o'clock, so she's probably still sleeping like normal people do at this time of day."

Xavier's eyes narrowed. "This isn't funny Victoire! I'm going to go get her," he snapped moving toward the staircase.

"Yeah, that's a brilliant idea Xavier, only how do you think you'll get past the enchantment?"

Xavier stopped at the foot of the stairs, "You said you know a way past the enchantments . . ."

"Yeah, like I'm going to tell you. Xavier, I promise you she'll be ready in time for tryouts. For now let her get her beauty sleep," Victoire said rationally.

Xavier walked away from the stairs and strode toward the portrait hole. Victoire followed him and could have sworn she heard him mumble something under his breath along the lines of 'I don't think she needs any beauty sleep'. Victoire abstained from opening her mouth to comment. On one hand, she was very intrigued by what Xavier had said about Ally not needing beauty sleep. But she didn't know if it was because he thought that she was pretty enough without the extra sleep, or if he thought that Quidditch was more important than looks. And Xavier definitely wasn't in a mood to be teased about this.

They made their way to the Great Hall. There was barely anybody at any of the tables, but there _was_ food, so Xavier and Victoire sat down across from each other and piled food on their plates. They ate in silence, Xavier giving Victoire a glare every time her less than perfect table manners irritated him. He didn't say anything but Victoire could tell from the look on his face that she was frustrating him as much as he was irritating her. At moments like, this, especially when Quidditch is concerned, Xavier and Victoire can be two seconds away from completely strangling each other.

Thankfully, people had started to enter the Great Hall to eat so they weren't alone with their thoughts.

"Hey Vic. Hi Xavier, ready for tryouts this morning?" Chris asked as he sat down next to Victoire.

Xavier glared at him and continued to pick at his food. Chris turned to Victoire with his eyebrows raised in question.

Victoire sighed before answering, "Ignore him Chris. Xavier's just nervous. This year's team needs to be very good if we want to win the House Cup."

"Yeah, but you only need to find three other players. It's not like you're starting from scratch."

Victoire nodded, "I know. But we're looking for two chasers and they are the main scorers for the game . . ."

Chris nodded but stopped talking in favour of eating his breakfast.

After a few minutes of companionable silence, Victoire spotted Ally walking into the hall. She sat beside Xavier and started to fill her plate up with food.

Xavier looked dully at her, "You're late."

Ally looked at him in surprise and then down to the purple sports watch on her wrist, "It's only eight o'clock, we don't even have the pitch until nine . . ."

Xavier rolled his eyes, "Yes, well we'll have to have a team meeting and organize the plays we're going to be working with . . ."

Chris whistled lowly, "Wow, Xavier. When did you grow long blonde hair and blue eyes?"

Victoire and Ally giggled quietly while Xavier bristled, "Very funny, I _know_ I'm not the Captain but if I don't arrange everything-"

"No one will. I get it Xavier, I may be the Captain but you hold this team together. I've never denied it, you just need to take a calming draught. It's only tryouts, you have plenty of time to freak out when our first actual match comes around," Victoire said calmly and coolly.

Xavier took a deep breath while Ally placed a hand on his arm, "It's alright Xavier. Everything's going to go fine. We'll get some great chasers and a brand new beater."

Xavier seemed to calm down at Ally's words. He turned to smile at him, but his smile fell quickly when he saw what she was wearing.

"Did you really have to wear that?" Xavier moaned picking up piece of toast with jam and stuffing it in his mouth.

Xavier's comment made Victoire inspect Ally's clothing. She was wearing a pair of tight navy blue pedal pushers, and a short-sleeved blue-white-and-red Puddlemere United practice shirt. Victoire held in her smirk. Now she understood Xavier's distress. He was nervous as it was with Quidditch tryouts today, Ally wearing a shirt with the logo of the professional Quidditch team his parents play for will only serve to amp up his tension.

Ally's face fell, "I'm sorry Xavier I wasn't thinking . . . if it really bothers you I can go change . . ."

Xavier looked up from his breakfast and looked Ally in the eyes. After a minute of deliberation he said, with a small smile on his face, "It's alright . . . I think it looks good on you."

Ally blushed slightly and went back to her breakfast. Victoire was watching their exchange with a growing smirk. She couldn't just let it end like that, "It would look better with the last name Wood on it, wouldn't it Xavier?"

Xavier's face turned beet red. It was Ally that answered, "They don't usually sell female sized jerseys with the male player's names on them. I could get one with Xavier's mom's name Katie on it, but when she plays, she goes by her maiden name, Bell. If I wanted a shirt with the name Wood on it, I'd have to buy a male sized shirt."

Victoire was biting her tongue to hold in her laughter. Ally answer was so innocent . . . it was obvious she didn't understand the double meaning of Victoire's words. Unlike Xavier, who sadly understood Victoire's original comment and was turning redder and redder by the minute. Luckily, Xavier was saved any more embarrassment from Victoire by the arrival of another Gryffindor. Unluckily, Xavier probably would still be getting embarrassed; it just wouldn't be by Victoire's hand this time.

Cecilia Wood, Xavier's thirteen-year-old little sister walked up to where they were sitting with a large smile on her face, "Hey Xav, I'm surprised you're still here. You do know that it's almost eight-thirty right?"

Xavier rolled his eyes at his little sister, "Don't you dare talk to me about punctuality Cee-Cee, you're the one who can get up at four in the morning and still be late for breakfast."

Cecilia giggled and wedged her way onto the bench between her brother and Ally. She turned to the later once she was settled, "Excited to find you're other half today?"

Victoire laughed as Xavier, who had taken a large sip of pumpkin juice as his sister sat down, spit out the mouthful of liquid. It took him a minute to get his choking and coughing under control so Victoire waved her wand and cleaned up the mess.

When he could speak, Xavier turned to his sister was an odd expression on his face, "What did you just say?"

Ally was looking at Xavier worriedly, but Cecilia smiled brightly at her brother, "I asked her if she was ready to find her other half. You know the other beater for the team . . ."

Xavier face turned red as Cecilia spoke, "Oh, yeah . . ." he turned back to his pumpkin juice and Victoire was worried for a minute that he was going to try to drown himself in it again.

Cecilia shook her head at her brother and looked across the table to Victoire, "So Vic, you're looking for two chasers and a beater, right?"

Victoire nodded, "Yes . . . have you decided to take me up on my offer though?"

"What offer?" Ally asked interestedly.

"I told Cecilia that if she was planning on trying out for one of the chaser positions on the team that I'd pretty much just give her the position right away."

"What? Why?" Xavier asked coming back into the conversation.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "You are not the only one in your family with insane Quidditch skills Xavier. You take after your Dad's keeper skills, and Cecilia takes after your Mom's chaser skills. You're a talented family."

"I know she's good, I'm just surprised that you made her a deal like that without consulting with me first," Xavier said.

Victoire opened her mouth, but Cecilia, who was expecting this to quickly turn into a tiff, decided to intervene.

"It doesn't matter anyway Xavier; I'm not planning on playing. Quidditch is for fun, I'm not very competitive."

Chris, who had been sitting by the entire time without saying something, broke in, "Are you sure you're a Wood?"

* * *

At precisely nine-o'clock on the dot, Victoire, along with the three other remaining players on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, stood in the middle of the pitch. She was surveying the colossal group of students who came to try out for the last three positions. There was a good mix of old, young, boys, and girls. She scanned the group to see if she needed to make any mental notes before tryouts began.

She had just spotted a tall burly blonde boy whom would probably make a fairly good beater, when she heard Ally exclaim quietly from beside her, "Oh, bloody hell!"

Victoire turned and saw Ally pointing in the direction of the bottom part of the crowd. It took Victoire a moment to locate the cause for Ally's exclamation, when she did she felt the urge to shout herself. Standing at the end, each clutching their Firebolt broomsticks was James Potter and Fred Weasley. Xavier noticed the dread on Ally and Victoire's faces and asked, "Did you know they were going to try out?"

Ally shook her head and Victoire sighed, "I didn't see it coming but I can kinda understand it."

"Are they any good?" Xavier asked looking at the two seconds years.

"I'm not sure," Victoire answered truthfully.

"What?"

Ally had seemed to break away from the surprised stillness that had taken over her when she saw her brother. "What Victoire means is that any time we've played Quidditch with them it was more for fun than anything else. Plus we have this family curse that we've never actually made it through a whole game till the end."

Xavier nodded, "Well I guess we'd better start tryouts and see if they've got any skill."

Victoire nodded and called for everyone's attention. She instructed Xavier, Ally and Caroline Hilbert (the only remaining chaser from the pervious team) to fly over to a part of the pitch and stay there. She was going to instruct the students to fly in groups of eight to ten around the pitch three times to start and needed them to spread out to watch. It was a good idea because after that exercise they had eliminated half of the people trying out and were left with about thirty-five people (including James and Fred).

"Okay, people trying out for chasers, to the front. Beaters to the back," Victoire called out.

They moved accordingly and Victoire instructed them to each go up and try to score against Xavier (he wasn't going to play at a hundred percent but it would still be difficult) near the hoops. Each person had five tries. Twenty people were trying out for chaser and by the end of the exercise; Victoire had kept seven (including James whom Victoire was surprised had proven to be so good, after all she thought he'd take after Harry and have a seeker's skill, instead he seemed to take after Ginny's chaser skill's). She knew that they could only take two, but she had thinned out the competition enough to be able to move onto the people trying out for beaters.

She instructed them to beat the bludgers down the pitch in time with Ally. By the end of that exercise, she'd had four out of the fifteen people left in consideration. One of which was Fred, whom Ally had been worried about at first but was actually acting very mature with the crazy, impulsive bludgers, (well . . . no one had been seriously injured at his hands yet . . .).

It was ten o'clock by the time Victoire called for a ten minute break so that they could grab and drink of water and so that she could consult with her teammates.

"What do you think?" Victoire asked Xavier and Ally as they touched down on their brooms.

"The skinny fourth-year boy looks promising, and surprisingly, so does James; he's a phenomenal flyer," Xavier commented.

Victoire nodded and looked at Ally. Ally sighed, "I hate to say it, but Fred seems to be the best one . . . he's actually been listening to me, but I don't know how long that will last . . ."

Victoire nodded again. She turned around and squinted her eyes in the bright light. It seemed that almost all of Gryffindor was sitting in the stands watching the progress of the tryouts. She searched the crowd for the person she had in mind. In the third row, she found the black haired girl she was thinking of. She kept her eyes on the girl when she next spoke to Xavier, "And Cecilia was _sure _that she didn't want to play?"

Xavier nodded.

"We'll do a couple more exercises, but I think we pretty much know who we want." Victoire said.

"And that is?" Caroline asked.

Victoire sighed, "The fourth-year Xavier mentioned is named Roger Michaels, he seems like one of the best choices . . . and so do James and Fred . . . I just don't know about those two . . ."

"You're afraid people will say that you only picked them because they're your relatives?" Ally asked astutely.

"Yes, I mean it's clear that they're the best but . . ."

"Pick them Vic."

Victoire looked up at Xavier surprised, he continued to talk, "They might make you feel bad for now, but if you really believe that they will be the best addition to the team, that's all that matters. You'll get your chance to laugh when we end up winning all of our games."

"But do you think they'll be the best additions? They may be good but they do get into trouble a lot, they may be distracting . . ."

Xavier smiled a little, "They decided to try out; then they understand what is expected of them. Besides, if they can be distracting, it might not be to our deterrent."

Victoire considered Xavier for a minute before saying, "Something makes me think you've used that speech before."

Xavier smiled and pointed to the stands. Victoire turned to see what he was gesturing towards. Standing on the ground near the end of the stands was a group of three men. They looked older than seventeen. Victoire gasped when she recognized the black haired one. Ted Lupin.

"Teddy . . . what's he doing here?"

Ally laughed, "Isn't it obvious Vic? He and his Auror buddies are patrolling. It just so happens that they were assigned to the Quidditch pitch during our tryouts."

Victoire quickly looked away from Teddy and the other Aurors to look at Xavier, "You said the same thing to him about me back in fourth-year when I tried out for the team, that you just said to me about James and Fred, didn't you?"

Xavier smiled, "He knew that you were the best for the position even though you hadn't planned on trying out. When you proved yourself the best, he was worried to pick you because he was afraid everyone was going to say that it was because you're practically family, or because you're pretty. I told you the same thing because it seems to apply in this situation also."

Victoire's mind wandered back to her tryout for the Quidditch team, _she was in her fourth-year and Teddy (in his sixth-year, and first year as the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team) had convinced her to try out for the open seeker position on the team. He knew that she was a great flyer and that she had amazing reflexes. Between him and Xavier, they persuaded her that she stood a fair chance of getting on the team. They were right, even though she had to put up with some smart comments from some of the school Gits (and many Slytherins) after her first game, she won over the crowds. People finally understood why Teddy had picked her, not because they were practically family, but because she was good._

Victoire took a deep breath, "We'll do the last exercise, and then I'll make my choice."

Victoire called the contenders back and had them go through the last drill. After they were done, she called them to attention and announced that the new chasers for the team would be Roger Michaels and James Potter. The new beater would be Fred Weasley.

She thanked everyone for their time and participation. The crowd and rejected participants started to trickle out as Victoire argued with one of students who was less than gracious in losing.

"McCormick I sear, if you don't leave the pitch in the next twenty seconds-" Victoire started hands on her hips and face fierce.

Ashton McCormick was a sixth-year, who had tried out for one of the chaser positions, he was angry that he hadn't been chosen and was refusing to leave the pitch; he kept demanding a re-trail.

"Come on Weasley, I was clearly the best," he argued. He was a tall and thick guy for sixteen; he had to be a good foot taller than Victoire.

"Michaels scored three out of five and James scored four out of five. You only scored two, I'm sorry but they scored more, therefore they're better."

"Phft, Wood took it easy on Potter. The only reason he's on the team is because he's your cousin. Same with Weasley getting the new beater spot."

Victoire took a step closer to him, her blue eyes turning dangerous, "Are you _suggesting_ that they only got the spots because I'm related to them?"

McCormick stood his ground, "No, of course not, they're on the team because of their own talent. Just like your friend Wood and your other cousin Alexandra."

The sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable. Victoire's hand drifted to her wand in her pocket. She was about to grab it before she felt a grip on her wrist. She turned and found Ally beside her and holding her hand in a vise-like grip. Victoire opened her mouth to say something when another, deeper voice beat her to it.

"You should probably be on your way back to the Castle. Ravenclaw has the Quidditch pitch booked for eleven o'clock."

Victoire spun around and found Ted Lupin standing behind her, his arms folded across his chest. His face was calm and impassive; McCormick looked like he was going to argue, but then thought better of it when he saw the Auror badge shinning on Teddy's chest.

After he was out of hexing range, Ally let go of Victoire's wrist and looked at Teddy, "Thank you so much. Vic really didn't need detention this early on a Saturday."

Teddy smiled briefly, "Great tryouts Captain."

Victoire smiled, "I just hope I picked the right people."

Fred and James (whom had been having a discussion with Caroline, Xavier, and the other new chaser Roger Michaels at the other end of the pitch) came bounding over.

"Are you regretting picking us Victoire?" James asked with a heartbreaking expression.

Victoire sighed, "No, I stand by my choices. You were the best; I'm just not going to enjoy the fact that everyone's going to believe that I picked you because you're my family."

"Don't worry Vic. Anybody with even a pinch of sense knows that we annoy the hell out of you on a good day, and that there is no way you'd pick us to be on the Quidditch team just because we're cousins and because you wanted to spend more time with us," Fred replied.

"Good point," Xavier said smiling.

Victoire saw some of the members of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team making their way down to the pitch. "C'mon Fred, James, Roger, let's go find you some Quidditch robes . . ."

"We'll do it!" Ally said brightly.

Before Victoire could respond, Ally, Xavier, James, Fred, Roger, and Caroline had sprinted away to the Gryffindor team room, leaving Victoire standing on the pitch next to Teddy.

Teddy snorted, "I think that was their subtle way of leaving us alone."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Weasley's are known for their subtlety; even our looks are subtle."

Teddy laughed. "You should probably go up to the Castle for lunch."

"Will you escort me up there?"

"Well, my shift is over for now . . ." Teddy answered.

They began to walk and Victoire looked back at the stands to see if she could find the other guys he'd been with earlier.

Teddy realized what she was looking for, "They're already gone up for lunch. Our shift ended at ten-thirty, I stayed when I saw McCormick go ballistic when you picked James and Roger instead of him. In case there was trouble . . . which there almost was."

"Why were you there anyway? Wouldn't there be more pressing places for you to patrol?" Victoire asked sneaking a peak at him from the corner of her eyes.

"Harry thought that it would be good for some people to patrol the Quidditch pitch, especially since there were a few houses holding tryouts today."

"So . . . you were assigned to patrol the pitch . . ."

Teddy smiled at Victoire's hidden and roundabout question, "No, I was placed to patrol inside. One of the first-year Aurors had the Quidditch pitch and I convinced him to trade with me."

Victoire's heart started to beat faster, "Why did you want to switch?"

Teddy looked deep into Victoire's ocean blue eyes, "Do I really need to tell you Vic? You know the answer."

Victoire, very uncharacteristically, blushed, "Yes, you do need to say it."

Teddy sighed. They had made it to the door to the Castle. He stopped Victoire from entering and pulled her to the side, away from prying eyes. He pushed her up against the wall and pressed his lips firmly against hers.

Victoire's breath caught in her throat. Her arms reached up to entwine around his neck and pull him even closer. She opened her mouth with his and breathed in his scent. Teddy pulled back too soon. He rested his forehead against her's as he tried to catch his breath. He smiled at her brightly.

"Fine. You. Don't. Have to. Say it." Victoire said brokenly.

Teddy smiled again and placed a delicate kiss to the tip of her pixie shaped nose. "I have to go now."

Victoire nodded and let her arms fall. She stayed with her back, and the skin of her lower legs, pressed against the stonewall, as she continued to try to catch her breath.

Teddy was a good few paces away from her when he turned back and smiled roguishly at her, "You know what? I shouldn't have done that. Ron said you were off limits."

Victoire gave him a slightly confused look that only grew when he winked at her and walked away.

_Hmmmm, maybe this year won't be so bad after all. _


	16. But You Already Know How To Play Chess

A/N: Hey here's the next chapter, it's a reasonable size but it only a bit of filler. It has some important points for the story and the character's, but it's not completely insane action wise. Still it's got some great banter and a few fuzzy moments so I hope you enjoy.

A/N. Part 2: Tonight at my school I'm participating in our school's tenth annual Relay for Life event. I just want to say that my heart goes out to everyone who's ever had, has cancer. To everyone who's ever lost a love one to the battle or more importantly, those who are still helping their loved ones fight. This chapter is dedictaed to you. I really wish I could do more.

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

* * *

You Already Know How to Play Chess

"What is the answer Miss Weasley?"

Victoire looked up from her piece of parchment and almost fell back out of her seat. Professor Cooke's face was right in front of her's. His light blonde eyebrows were pulled down to his blue eyes and caused an intense look of concentration to come across his rather young face.

His expression was so forceful that Victoire had to check for a minute to make sure that he was just looking for an answer to his question and not trying to use _Legilimency_ on her. When she was sure that her thoughts would be for her own viewing, she spoke, "I'm sorry . . . what was the question again Professor Cooke?"

Victoire batted her long eyelashes innocently. He blinked, but then narrowed his eyes at her as he stepped back.

"Miss Weasley, I asked you what the exact date of the last goblin rebellion in England was, we already know that it was in the eighteenth century."

"There is no date Professor," Victoire answered back confidently.

Cooke considered her for a minute, "Miss Weasley, if you had been paying attention I'm sure would have come up with the actual answer-"

Victoire cut him off, "What I was saying Sir, was that you asked me a trick question. The last goblin rebellion wasn't in the eighteenth century; the last rebellion in England was actually in 1923. The last one so far was in Egypt in 1965."

Professor Cooke smiled at Victoire's answer, "Very good five points to Gryffindor, the last goblin rebellion in England was in 1923."

Victoire looked back down at her piece of parchment just to hear Professor Cooke address her again.

"Oh, and Miss Weasley, just because you knew the answer doesn't mean that you don't have to listen to me anymore."

Victoire saw the smile around Professor Cooke's mouth so she decided not to take it personally. Professor Cooke went back to teaching his lesson, and Victoire went back to barely listening and doodling on her piece of parchment. Beside her Xavier leaned over to see what she was writing. When he saw a picture of a cartoon dragon eating a stick figure with a nametag that read _Colton Knott_, he shook his head and returned to his perfect notes. Victoire rolled her eyes at Xavier even though he couldn't see. She wasn't paying close attention because she had already learned all this stuff. They were in a History of Magic that has been taught by Professor Cooke since Professor Binns (the only ghost teacher at Hogwarts) decided to go on a leave for a few years to 'find himself'. In previous years, a History of Magic wasn't a compulsory course for people who were entering their N.E.W.T. years if they didn't need the credit. In the last ten years however, a new rule was passed that all seventh-years would have to take a History of Magic course where they would learn about everything that happened in the last two Wizarding wars, and why it all happened. The Board of Trustees decided that students needed to learn about everything that happened, and why, so that it wouldn't happen again. Because of the delicate nature of situation of the last wars, students whose parents didn't want them to take the course would have to take an extra Muggle Studies course instead.

Before they got into the events of the last wars, they had to go back over some of the last material that was covered in previous History of Magic classes (like reasons for goblin rebellions and why certain laws were introduced) to fully understand some of the back story of Wizarding history before they got into the next chapter.

Victoire wasn't planning to pay much attention to the class this year, after all, she had already heard all of the details of the last wars; she probably knew more than what Professor Cooke was even allowed to tell them. However, she did think that it might be interesting to hear an impartial and emotionally detached history on the last forty years or so of the Wizarding world.

The bell rang signalling the end of the period and Professor Cooke left his class with one last statement, "Next week we will be starting our unit on the First War, if you or your parents have a problem with this, you should see your Head of House to switch courses. If you do switch courses, you will have to enrol into another Muggle Studies course."

Victoire and Xavier packed up their items, and were almost out the door when Professor Cooke called Victoire back to his desk. Xavier nodded at her to go and said that he would wait for her outside the class. She walked to the front of the room and stood in front of Professor Cooke.

"Yes Sir?" she said easily.

Professor Cooke (who was by far the youngest member of the Hogwarts staff) was a favourite teacher to many students. He had taken over the class, one which nobody in their right mind has ever liked, and made it a very popular and enjoyable class. He was the youngest staff member, (he couldn't be older than twenty-three) and was a rather good-looking man. (The reason why many of the teenage girls -Victoire's sister Dominique included- were now doing _a lot_ better in class than previous students.)

Professor Cooke smiled at her and began, "I know that this class might be a _delicate_ subject for you-"

"Oh, don't worry Sir, I've already heard everything, there's nothing my family's kept secret from me," Victoire said easily.

Cooke nodded, "Well, that's good to hear . . . but I was a little more concerned about what type of information you've already heard. I thought I'd just remind you to be careful what you say in front of your fellow students. For most of them this is personal territory . . . especially since we have quite a few Slytherins in this class . . ."

Victoire nodded, "Don't worry Professor Cooke; I know how to be discreet . . . but if you're really worried about what I'll say you could always just not ask me questions."

Professor Cooke was having a hard time holding in his smile, "Well Miss Weasley that is definitely an option . . . however it would be better for you to participate in class instead of sitting around doodling about magical creatures eating your fellow students-"

Victoire didn't blush, but she couldn't meet Cooke's eyes, _how do teachers know everything?_

Professor Cooke continued, "So we will call you not answering any questions, plan two."

Victoire nodded, "May I leave now?"

Professor Cooke said yes and she quickly paced out of the room. Xavier caught up with her as she went to walk around the corner.

"What's was that about Vic?"

Victoire shrugged, "Nothing really he just wants to make sure that I'm careful about what I say in class this semester. He's afraid that I might say something controversial, especially with all the slimy Slytherins."

Xavier rolled his eyes, "Don't worry if I think that you're close to saying something and becoming a Prat I'll just hit you with a _Silencio_."

Victoire laughed, "Thanks Xavier, I feel so much better now."

The conversation between them died out as they walked in companionable silence to their Common Room. They were close to the portrait of the Fat Lady when a voice called out Victoire's name.

"Miss Weasley, Miss Weasley!"

Victoire and Xavier turned around and came face to face with a tall, thin, blonde man who looked to be around twenty years of age. The shiny gold badge on his robes identified him as a first-level Auror-in-training. The man quietly handed Victoire a piece of parchment. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion as she examined it. It was completely blank. She looked back up at the man, her expression clearly asking for an explanation.

"I-I s-saw you walking down the hall and th-this fell out of your b-bag," the man stuttered trying not to stare at her. When Victoire went to look at his face, he averted his gaze to his shoes.

Victoire looked back at the piece of parchment. She saw a little dot of blue ink in the corner. Indeed, it was her piece of parchment.

"Um, thanks."

She gave the Auror one last uncertain gaze and turned back around to walk to her and Xavier's previous destination.

"What was that about?" Xavier asked. He had been standing next to her the entire time but he still couldn't comprehend the scene that had just enfolded in front of him.

Victoire rolled her eyes at the memory of the Auror, "It's all Uncle Ron's fault really. I mean, I knew that when the Aurors were assigned to wander the Castle that they'd been spending an annoying amount of time watching out for me and my cousins specifically, but he just had to go and make it so much more awkward."

"How so?"

"I ran into a room full of them a while ago 'cause I had to deliver a message to Kingsley. I had to pour on a little Veela charm to get them to let me go and see him personally. You can imagine to how a room full of young men would react to that. Well, when I left apparently they were still staring at the door and Uncle Ron had to make some sort of announcement about how I'm off limits or something. So now, anytime I encounter an Auror they act one of two ways. They'll either try to avoid my gaze and act scared around me like that guy just did."

Xavier nodded.

"Or," Victoire continued her face hardening, "They make a point of calling out to me and trying to start a conversation to prove that they don't care about Ron's warning, which is even more annoying than them trying to avoid me, because then they end up trying to flirt with me and I'm probably not allowed to hex them."

Victoire's rant turned wondering at the end and Xavier knew that she was actually calculating on whether it was worth it to hex the Aurors-in-training. He gave her a wicked smile as he responded, "I think you forgot the third reaction to you."

She gave him a confused look.

Xavier's smile grew larger and smugger, "You know, the one where they pull you into an empty corridor and snog you senseless. However, there is only one Auror who you would actually allow to do that."

Victoire giggled quietly. She knew that he was referring to the few times that she had seen Teddy patrolling a hallway and how she would end up making up an excuse to break away from whoever her companion would be at the time. _It's not like we're doing anything wrong, we'd be doing the same thing if he were still here at Hogwarts . . . probably more in fact than a few secret kisses . . ._ Victoire's mind wondered to another memory. She was usually only gone for a few minutes when she veered off to see Teddy. Excluding the incident when she had ran into him after lunch today when she and Xavier were on their way to Charms class that is. Whenever it was just her and Xavier, or her and Ally or Sandra, she didn't bother to use any of the elaborate excuses she'd had to make up to keep their relationship a secret from people who didn't know than just a little apologetic smile as she walked off to see him. After lunch, her little meeting with Teddy had gone on longer than the usual ones. She ended up running into Charms, ten minutes late, with an uncharacteristically hurried manner and a slight pinkish shade in her pale cheeks. Xavier had given her a broad knowing smile that almost crumbled the contrite look she'd plastered on her face to avoid a scolding from Flitwick; almost.

Xavier was scrutinizing her face, "Is that a blush I see little Miss Part-Veela?"

Victoire gave him a faux-glare, "Shut up Wood. You're just jealous that you haven't gotten up the courage to pull the girl you like into an empty corridor and snog her senseless."

Xavier's face turned bright red, "I don't like anyone." He said too quickly.

It was Victoire's turn to look smug, "Oh really? So you've been staring at Ally every time you were sure that she wasn't looking because you were thinking about the components of the Draught of Eternal Sleep we've been studying in Potions?"

Xavier's face was so red that if Victoire didn't know better, she'd have thought that he was eating a cherry flavoured complexion changing mint -part of her Uncle George's line of feature adjusting candy. (He created the line a few years ago, Teddy's morphing abilities being the inspiration for a line of candies that changed skin, hair, and eye colour.)

Xavier opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by the sound of a high-pitched girly giggle. They had just turned the last corner before the portrait of the Fat Lady when they came across the source of the sound. Leaning against the wall and twirling a lock of red hair around her finger was Dominique Weasley. Xavier looked at Victoire expecting a loud response because standing in front of Dom, smiling like a fool, was a heavily muscled man in red Auror robes. Victoire just rolled her eyes. She recognized that Dom was in mid-flirt because she was playing with her hair and acting like an airhead.

She walked up to them, smiled brightly at the Auror -she gave his badge a surreptitious glance and saw that it stated that he was a first-year Auror-in-training- said a cheery 'excuse us', grabbed Dom's arm and pulled her towards the portrait whole which Xavier had opened for her. Once they had stumbled inside, Victoire let go of her younger sister's arm and started in on the lecture.

"What in the world do you think you were doing? You are fifteen and he's eighteen at the youngest! Besides, they are here to patrol the grounds quietly from afar, not for you to flirt with!"

Dom squared her shoulders and looked her sister in the eyes, her own Veela blue ones irate, "I was just talking to him. Calm down Victoire! I dropped something and he was kind enough to pick it up. He recognized me as a Weasley and started a conversation."

"Oh really? Is that why you were in full flirt mode?" Victoire snapped.

"Flirt mode?"

"Yeah. When you sit or stand there twirling your hair and acting like a brainless bimbo!"

Dom's eyes brightened with understanding, "Oh, so that's what's bugging you. The fact that when I flirt with a guy I don't go around acting like a genius and saying that I'll hex the guy because he paid me a compliment."

Victoire closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself; this was not the time to give into her Veela temper. "Dom . . . you're my little sister I care about you. What bugs me is not the fact that you flirt with guys -even though he is way too old for you to be flirting with- what bugs me is that you feel like you have to put on some dumb girly act."

Dom took a deep breath too. Even though Victoire was more known for it, her Veela temper can also easily flare up. "Vic I do not put on some brainless act just to get a guy's attention . . ."

Victoire interrupted her sister, "Yes you do Dom, and you don't even need to. You're smart, funny, and beautiful. You don't need to put on some act just to get some guys attention. A guy might I add, who should be patrolling and not flirting with fifth-years."

Dom rolled her eyes, "So you're allowed to snog Teddy in empty corridors but I'm not allowed to smile back at a cute guy who pays me a nice compliment."

Victoire transferred her weight from one foot to another and looked down at the floor, _what is with everyone commenting on mine and Teddy's relationship? Is it illegal now to snog your boyfriend?_

"He . . . he wasn't on duty . . ." Victoire attempted to stammer out.

A deep chortle to her right reminded Victoire that Xavier was still standing with the sisters.

Dom smiled, "Alright Vic. I need to go anyway, Jeffery Lowe promised to teach me how to play wizard chess before dinner."

Dom had started to walk away when Victoire called out, "Wait! You already know how to play chess!"

Dom just spun around winked at her sister and crossed to the other side of the Common Room. Victoire shook her head at her sister and turned to Xavier, "Thank goodness it's Thursday." She sat down in an armchair and let out a happy sigh.

"Bugger!"

Victoire jumped in her chair. Xavier was standing next to her his face all of a sudden a mixture of disappointment, and sheepishness from his outburst.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Thursday."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Yes Xavier. I just said that."

"No, no, no. McGonagall told me that all of the Head Girls, Boys, and prefects from all of the houses are to stay after dinner tonight in the Great Hall because there is something important going on."

"And you're just telling me now because?" Victoire asked jumping out of her seat. _I wonder if there's anything, I need to get ready . . ._

Xavier's expression was sheepish, "I was going to tell you last night before we went to bed . . . but then Ally asked for help with her Transfiguration and I completely lost track of time . . ."

Victoire couldn't hold in her giggle, "Okay, okay. What's it about?"

Xavier shrugged his shoulders, "No idea. We've only had a huge get together before at the beginnings of the school year on the train."

Victoire nodded, and then a thought popped into her head, "Hey! It's the end of September. Aren't the other schools competing in the Tri-Wizard Tournament supposed to be here at the end of September?"

Xavier's hazel eyes brightened, "Yeah! That must be it! McGonagall told us a week ago that we'd have a big part in organizing the students form the other schools. This must be it."

Victoire smirked, "Then shouldn't you go up and shine your Head Boy badge? Wouldn't want to look grubby in front of all those stuck up foreigners."

Xavier shook his head, "You really have issues with Beauxbatons don't you?"

Victoire glared at him.

"Okay, okay. I need to go change my shoes anyway."

Once Xavier was up the stairs and out of view, Victoire pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket. Besides a spot of blue ink in the corner, it was completely blank. It was the parchment that the Auror, earlier, had chased her down the hall to return. Victoire took out her wand and started to mutter some spells with the tip against the very centre. After a few minutes, she gave up and put her wand back into her robes. She continued looking at the paper. It was the one that had landed on her desk a week ago in Charms; the one that had held the riddle that disappeared when she had finished reading it.

She had been spending any free time she had trying to make the riddle, or anything, show up on the parchment. She put the blue dot of ink on the corner to mark the paper so she wouldn't use it by accident. Marking it had also been a test in its self, to see if the paper had been spelled to make the ink disappear after a certain amount of time. The spot was a week old and it was still there.

_What is up with this? I know for certain that there was a riddle of some sort on the paper. I didn't just make it all up. But why had it disappeared? I didn't do anything to it, and I still don't know who sent it to me . . . _

Victoire shook her head, wondering why she was obsessing over this. _Well, I am a Weasley, we _are_ known for sticking our noses where they don't belong, and have obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Like Uncle Charlie with dragons, or Uncle George with pranks . . . _

She stood up and began walking to her dormitory; she was going to brush her hair out before dinner. She contemplated what her next move with the parchment was going to be. She hadn't told anyone else about it, save showing Xavier the first time she had it and him thinking she was going crazy. She decided that she'd tell Teddy the next time she had a chance to bring it up. Not that she thought that that was going to happen anytime soon . . . he was going to be busy with the Tournament as it is . . .

* * *

"We're going to have to change our Quidditch practise of course, because Vic and I'll be busy tonight . . ." Xavier was saying to Ally during dinner. Ally nodded her head patiently listening while she chewed her meal.

Victoire, who was sitting across from them and next to Sandra, was nodding in agreement -her mouth busy at the moment trying to break down the enormous piece of food she'd just shoved in. Beside Xavier, Chris set his fork down on his plate and looked between Xavier and Victoire confusedly, "Why are you guys busy?"

Victoire ignored the suspicious rise of his eyebrow and answered, "We have a meeting after dinner with all the other Heads and prefects."

"Really? What about?" Kyle asked interestedly before taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

Victoire and Xavier shared a quick 'do-you-think-we-should-tell-them-?' look before Xavier spoke, "Well . . . you guys kinda have to keep quiet about it until later tonight, but we're pretty sure the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang and coming tonight."

There was a look of surprise on everyone's faces.

"Really? How come they didn't announce that sooner?" Chris asked.

Victoire shrugged "Probably wanted to get them settled and everything before letting the entire population of the Castle loose on them."

Sandra nodded, "It makes sense though. I was wondering why there were so many Aurors in the Castle today."

Victoire looked at her best friend surprised, "I didn't notice more Aurors today than there were earlier this week."

"Really? There was one after like every corner. I did the calculations and there were about twenty-four on duty at each given time. Not to mention the extra ten in the office rooms during each shift."

Ally jumped in, "Yeah, not to mention the fact that I saw Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron enter the Castle just after lunch."

"That doesn't sound like a big deal," Chris commented, "Didn't Victoire say that your Uncles were going to be here from time to time because they're supervising?"

Ally nodded, "Yes, but Kingsley's not. He said he'd be lucky to get here even once a month once everything got settled down, and he was with them."

Victoire nodded absorbing all of the information. The dinner on the table vanished and dessert appeared just as Molly Weasley popped walked over to her eldest cousins.

"Hey Mol, what's up?" Ally asked brightly, moving down the bench to allow her to sit.

Molly smiled briefly at Ally and turned to look at Victoire and Xavier, "The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are coming tonight."

Victoire nodded, "We thought as much, but how do you know for sure?"

"Well, I saw Dad coming into the Castle just before supper and I was really surprised. I was even more surprised when Lucy walked by and greeted him like she'd been expecting him. McGonagall whisked him off down the hall and I spoke to Lucy. Turns out, she's known this since two days ago when Dad told her and she just hasn't told anyone," Molly said rolling her eyes at the thought of her elder sister.

Victoire sighed, "So nice of her to share. Well I guess it's official, tonight is going to suck." (Percy Weasley was the head of the department of Magical Cooperation; if anyone knew when the delegations were coming, it would be him.)

Chris looked at Victoire in surprise, "I know that you're probably not excited about the Tournament knowing your family history with it, but aren't you going even the least bit excited that we're going to get to meet some new people?"

"Yeah," Victoire said scornfully, "I'm so excited to meet a bunch of stuck up French brats that think that they're so amazing and will probably spend the greater part of the year making fun of most of the school in front of our faces but in a different language."

Chris' eyes widened her wasn't sure what to say. Thankfully for him Sandra spoke, "Vic, what is up with you and this grudge against Beauxbatons? Didn't you say that you almost went there instead of Hogwarts?"

Victoire glared at Sandra (she knew that this was something that she _does not_ want to talk about), "I don't want to talk about it. Their condescending and pompous natures are enough reason to dislike them."

Ally looked at Victoire, "Vic you know not all of them are like that. Just like not all Slytherins are evil, and not all Ravenclaws are pompous Prats."

"Yeah I know. I just had a bad experience . . . and no I don't want to talk about it." Victoire finished shovelling a forkful of tart into her mouth. Effectively ending the conversation.

* * *

Yeah, hope you enjoyed it! I know it ended a little unsatisfactory for you. But it was running a little long and the next part is an important part of the story and it's a little long to.

Yup, we're finally staring to see the effects of the Tournament on Hogwrats. And even more is very soon to come.

Leave a comment if you wish, happy reading.


	17. Introductions

A/N: Hey, I'm sooooo sorry for not updating sooner. School's just been crazy since we're winding down to the end of the year. A girl in my Chem. class sorta scared me today when she said that we had 11 days of school left . . . and that's counting exams! So . . . this is probably going to be my last update for a week or two until culminating, exams, and schools all over. But GOOD news! When summer starts I should be able to get back into a regular updating schedual inbetween work and everything. YAY!

Hope you enjoy this next chapter, lot's of new characters and we're starting to make some headway into the Tournament . . . I apologize for the horrible French and accents . . . I can't spaek it so I don't know what made e think that I could write it but hey, I tried!

Enjoy!

* * *

Introductions

"I spy with my little eye-"

Victoire's voice was cut off by a sharp elbow to her stomach. Xavier's sharp, pointy elbows to be exact. They were still sitting at the Gryffindor table; the Great Hall had emptied fifteen minutes earlier of all students who weren't Heads or prefects. They had been sitting in silence for the past fifteen minutes, waiting for Professor Longbottom to come back into the room to give them directions, when Victoire decided to put an end to the awkward silence.

The new fifth-year prefects giggled quietly at the glare Victoire sent Xavier as she rubbed the spot of her stomach where he elbowed her. He stuck his tongue out at her making the two Gryffindor prefects laugh more.

"Well then Xavier, what do you propose we do to dispel this rather awkward silence?" Victoire asked him pointedly.

"I don't care as long as it's' not eye-spy. Every time we play that game you end up picking a tree, always, even if you don't see one!"

Victoire sniggered, she couldn't deny that accusation, she always _did_ pick tree, "But that's what makes it so much fun! Seeing all the new ways I can describe a tree!"

Xavier shook his head at her, "You really need to stop watching Muggle cartoons; they're a bad influence on you." He was referring to the movie Victoire had gotten the idea to always pick tree when playing eye-spy, from.

It was Victorie's turn to stick her tongue out at her fellow Head.

"I spy with my little eye something slimy," Shelly Alexander (Hufflepuff's Head Girl) called from her spot at the Hufflepuff table.

"Oh, Oh! I know what it is!" Victoire said jumping up and raising her hand above her head. This time the Hufflepuffs and most of the Ravenclaws joined in the Gryffindors' laughter. The Slytherins on the other hand, were looking at the Gryffindors, Victoire in particular, with revulsion and conceit.

"You just keep sinking lower and lower don't you Weasley? Now you're playing _Muggle_ games, what's next? Are you going to create an official 'Hug a Muggle day'?" Colton Knott asked sneering at her.

Victoire shot him a quick glower and directed her answer to Shelly, "It's Knott!"

Colton glared at her, "How mature Weasley, a Slytherin comment. Your wit never ceases to amaze me. That is why you're not in Ravenclaw."

"I wasn't referring to your house symbol Colton. I was actually talking about your hair," Victoire said with a fake smile.

Knott narrowed his eyes at her. His hand twitch to his wand, but before he could grab it Neville Longbottom walked in. He took one look at the scene in front of his and sighed, "Everyone to the front platform now."

The students complied with his orders and emerged onto the platform. They converged around the professor. Neville did a quick head count before starting, "Alright, as most of you have probably already guessed, you are here because the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are coming tonight."

Xavier and Victoire sheared a quick glance as Neville continued to talk, "They will arrive late tonight, so their official welcome to Hogwarts dinner won't actually be until tomorrow night. When they get here, they will be ushered into the Great Hall. This year the Headmistress wants you all to take a larger leading role, so you will be instructing them on all of the rules and how to get around the Castle and the grounds, not to mention giving them a _warm _welcome."

Victoire could feel Neville's eyes on her at the last part but she couldn't see them because her gaze had automatically found her shoes. He continued, "Since we have limited time to get introductions over with because of the lateness of the hour. While you are welcoming the students, we, your professors, will be welcoming the other professors. This being said, I expect all of you to be on your best behaviour and represent Hogwarts well since we won't be around to watch you instruct the new students. There will of course be some Aurors stationed in the room and down the hall on their normal patrol routes."

Neville looked at all five Heads, "Wood, you will be the final authority while all of the professors are busy tonight, understood?"

The last word was directed not at Xavier but at the other Heads and prefects, to Colton Knott and Austin Pennington in particular. They all nodded some of them reluctantly, as the door to the Great Hall opened.

Hagrid entered first, walking beside a huge woman whom Victoire recognized at Olympe Maxine. Madame Maxine was the Headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy. After them filed in a group of about sixty seventeen year olds, there seemed to be an even amount of males and females, all of them wearing powder blue robes. About five metres after the delegation from Beauxbatons was Professor Linkwell. Beside him was a tall man with black hair and a thick fur coat. Victoire guessed that this was the Headmaster of Durmstrang . . . Jaxon Jaroslov she thought his name was. After him came a group of about seventy seventeen-year-olds, there was a mix of girls and boys and they were all wearing fur on the collar of their cloaks.

"Welcome everyone!"

Victoire was startled to hear Professor McGonagall's voice from behind her. She hadn't heard her enter the room. It took a few minutes for the professor to get all of the students settled. The Beauxbatons students sat at the Ravenclaw table and the Durmstrang students situated themselves at the Slytherin table. The foreign professors gave the Hogwarts students on top of the platform worried and pointed glances as they passed through them to the chamber off the platform where they were to speak with Professor McGonagall. Neville gave the students one last glance, and a wink for Victoire and Xavier, before leaving with them, leaving a score of foreign teenagers in the hands of his students.

The snap of the door echoed across the silent Great Hall. No one was talking, and all of the foreigners were looking up at the Hogwarts students with expectant faces. Xavier coughed awkwardly and shot Victoire a glance.

He nodded and went for his wand to cast a volume charm on his voice. Victoire beat him to it. She flicked her fingers at the direction of his throat, performing the charm soundlessly, wandlessly, and perfectly. He smiled at her before facing the tables full of students.

"Um, welcome to Hogwarts. I'm Xavier Wood Head Boy for Gryffindor, and beside me are the other Head students and prefects. We are here to help enforce the rules of the Castle but also to help. So if you ever find yourself in trouble and you need assistance just look for students who are wearing badges," Xavier said pointing to his chest.

"The 'H' on a person's badge states that they are a Head Girl or a Head Boy. There are five Head students. One from each of the four houses and one extra, this year the extra Head is from Gryffindor. There are two Head Girls and Three Head Boys. The 'P' on a person's badge stands for Prefect. We have eight prefects, a boy and a girl from each house. So that means that there are thirteen people you can find to help not including our professors or other students who would be more than willing to lend a helping hand."

Victoire saw a couple of people from both tables whisper to their friends at this point in Xavier's speech. Xavier waited for some of the quiet giggles to die down before continuing.

"If you are looking for a Prefect or a Head, I just caution you to be careful about how you read a badge. There are also four students walking around in badges with a 'C' on them that stand for the captain of the House Quidditch teams. Not that these people wouldn't help you. In fact some of our Heads are also Captains of their house Quidditch teams, like Miss Weasley here," Xavier said waving his hand beside him to where Victoire was standing.

As soon as Xavier said her name, Victoire could feel every student's eye slide to her. She could hear and see them whispering the word 'Weasley' repeatedly. If she didn't know that it would have reflected badly on the school, Victoire would have smacked Xavier on the back of the head. She did _not_ want that kind of attention.

Xavier saw his mistake and quickly spoke over the whispers, "Mr. Knott here also has both badges, so I just hope that you all will be careful when looking for someone in particular."

Most of the whispers had died down so Xavier went on with announcing the rules and regulations that they would need to follow. Near the end, some of the students started to get restless and fidget or whisper quietly. Xavier ignored them for the most part, because they weren't really interrupting anyone else. That was until a group of Beauxtons girls near the front of the Ravenclaw table started to talk louder in French and laugh rather loudly. Some of the Prefects, Lucy in particular gave them glances that a normal person would understand to mean 'shut-the-hell-up'. Victoire started to get angry, _who in the world to they think they are? Stuck up French brats. They think that they can do anything they want. They are so rude!_

Victoire had decided that she'd had enough of their rudeness, "Soyez tranquille et d'écouter!" _Be quiet and listen!_

The entire Hall fell quiet but Victoire's eyes were on the Beauxtons girls. They were staring up at her with gobsmacked expressions; their mouths hanging open, all except one tall blonde girl whose face showed that she'd gotten past the shock and went straight to impertinence.

Xavier had stopped talking also he was looking at Victoire with an almost tired expression. She gave him a hard look and his eyes lit up with a sudden thought. She could tell from his expression what he was going to do next, and she didn't like it one bit.

"Xavier . . ." she whispered in a warning tone.

He didn't heed it, he turned back to the silent hall and said with an inward grin, "Oh, and for the Beauxbatons students we are lucky that the Head Girl from Gryffindor speaks fluent French. Miss Victoire Weasley over here," he made sure to gesture towards her with a flourish, "would be ecstatic to help any of you in particular over the course of the year. I'm sure you will find it helpful to be able to speak to someone in your native tongue."

Victoire was openly glaring at him at this point, _he knows that I hate the Beauxbatons students and he had to just go and tell them all that I can speak fluent French. Git! _

The Beauxbatons students were eyeing Victoire with curiosity. They were surprised that a girl who obviously grew up in Britain would be able to speak fluent French, not to mention the fact that she was a Weasley. Xavier went back to listing some of the things the foreign students should watch out for (trick walls, vanishing steps, Peeves the poltergeist . . .) his list had pretty much been extinguished by the time the door off the platform opened and Professor Longbottom emerged. Following him were the professors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. They called their students to order and instructed them to make their way to their quarters for bed. As the students left the Hall, Neville dismissed the Hogwarts students. Victoire and Xavier stayed back because Neville had said that he wanted to speak to them in private.

"How did it go?"

"Fine, I did all the talking until the end. They're attention started to wander a little and then Victoire snapped at some of them, it was quiet after that," Xavier recounted.

Neville looked at Victoire tiredly, "It was at the Beauxbatons students wasn't it?"

Victoire nodded her head. Neville knew that she wasn't a big fan of them.

"Just . . . just try to avoid them if you can. We need the Tournament to go smoothly and you creating animosity with one of the school's wouldn't go over well."

"I was planning on avoiding them, but then Xavier opened his big mouth and announced that I'd be happy to help any of them at any time since I can speak fluent French," Victoire spoke to Neville but she was still staring at Xavier.

Xavier, who was starting to feel more scared of Victoire because there were less witness present, eyed her nervously and tried to look apologetic.

"Who's creating animosity with one of the school's?"

Victoire turned around and saw her Uncle, Percy Weasley, walk out of the room off the platform with McGonagall and Kingsley.

Victoire couldn't face her godfather or her uncle so she looked at her feet, "I didn't do anything. I wanted to, but I didn't. Don't worry; I won't harm one hair on those girls' air-filled heads."

Percy pinched the bridge of his nose, "Victoire we talked about this. You need to be careful about what you do because this will reflect back on us as a family. Not to mention that the media will twist it to make it out so much worse than it was."

Victoire sighed, "I know Uncle Percy . . . those girls just bug me. They're so conceited and bit-bratty."

Kingsley smirked while Percy narrowed his eyes at her. She smiled back brightly, he ended up sighing, and rolling his eyes, "I don't care if they annoy you. Fake liking them if you need to; just don't do anything that you will regret later."

Victoire nodded, "Promise."

Percy smiled at his niece and hugged her lightly, "You should be off to bed now. It's late and you have classes tomorrow."

Victoire nodded and walked over to give her godfather a hug, "'night Kingsley."

He smiled into the top of her head, "Goodnight Princess. Don't worry, everything will calm down for you when the Champions are chosen. They're won't care about you even if you are the daughter of one of the last champions and a Weasley when there's more newsworthy, vulnerable teenagers available."

Victoire smiled. She turned around and saw Xavier trying to tiptoe off the platform. "Just where do you think you're going Wood?"

Xavier turned around to face Victoire, "Well you know . . . it's late . . . and I'm tired . . ."

"Oh no," Victoire said walking up to stand in his face, "you are not leaving without apologizing for that little stunt you pulled there. Thanks to you, I'm going to have a bunch of bratty French girls clinging to me and following me around. Not to mention all of those guys!"

Xavier weighed his options. He wasn't actually sorry, so he knew that his apology wouldn't sound sincere. "Can't do it Vic, I'm not sorry." With that last comment, he started to run out of the room.

"Oh no you don't Wood!" Victoire called taking off after him. She could hear his laughter as he tried to get away.

Kingsley watched his goddaughter run out of the room, knowing that eventually she would end up in bed; he called out, "Don't forget to clean up the mess when you're done!"

He saw her flash him a quick smile before exiting the Hall.

XXXXXXXXX

Victoire rubbed her eyes as she walked down the stairs on her way to breakfast the next morning. She was tired from staying up late the previous night, it had been eleven o'clock by the time the introduction with the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students was done, and it was twelve by the time Xavier convinced her to lift the jelly-legs _and_ tickling hexes she put on him so that they could go to bed. Consequently, Sandra and Ally had let her sleep in a little longer and had left her a note saying that they'd meet her in the Great Hall whenever she decided to get up. She looked at her watch as she jumped down the last couple of steps they still had an hour before classes, plenty of time for Victoire to get a bite to eat.

She came to the entrance of the Great Hall and was surprised to see that part of it was blocked by a group of excited, chattering fourth-years. Victoire recognized three Gryffindors, a Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff. Victoire felt a twinge of sympathy as she recognized what was the centre of the fourth-years attention. The tall, bulky, black-haired young man was obviously from Durmstrang institute. Victoire knew who he was and why he was being bombarded with questions from the fourth-years.

She walked over to them and cleared her throat loudly. They all turned to look at her; she smiled sternly at the fourth-years, "Kimball, Swindlehurst, Gilbert, MacNeil, Taggart, shouldn't you all be getting to breakfast?"

The fourth-years smiled sheepishly at her, Simon Kimball -a Gryffindor- said, "Yes Victoire." They left somewhat reluctantly, leaving Victoire alone with none other than Konstantin Krum.

Konstantin looked at his feet. "Vanks," he said with a slighter accent than Victoire expected.

"No problem. Um . . . I'm Victoire Weasley," Victoire said somewhat awkwardly holding her hand out. It felt weird to introduce herself to someone she already kinda knew.

Konstantin looked up and grabbed her hand. He gave her an awkward smile, "I know. I'm pretty sure vat we haf a picture ov you and your brother and sister on the mantle at home."

Victoire smiled lightly. She knew he was referring to the Christmas card her mother sends out every year to their relatives and their friends. Her mother and Konstantin's father Viktor had tried to keep their friendship over the years after the war. Victoire had vague memories (she probably wouldn't have remembered them at all if their weren't pictures to prove it) of seeing Konstantin when they were younger and playing with him and his younger brother. The visits had stopped shortly after Louis was born, because her mother had found it harder to travel with an extra child and because Viktor's wife had found it hard to travel alone with the two boys while Viktor was away starting his professional Quidditch career back up.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we have a picture of you and your brother on our coolant cabinet at home now that I think of it," Victoire responded. Knowing that he was somewhat embarrassed by the answer he had given.

Konstantin smiled, "Ves, vell I'm survprised vat you couvld recognize me. Vat is a horrible picture of me, I begged my mother not to uvse it, but she insisted."

Victoire's smile was much more genuine this time, "I'm sorry about those boys. They're actually not that bad; I guess they were just excited to meet the child of a professional Quidditch player like you."

"Ves, vell vat's also surprising. I vought vat the novelty vould haf vorn of vith somtheeng like vat. Avter all, isn't vat boy Xavier Vood son of Qvidditch player Oliver Vood?" Konstantin asked thinking back to the boy with dirty blonde hair who had spoken the night before.

"Yes, well after seven years the novelty for his father _has_ worn off. Yours' is new, not to mention the fact that he was in the last Tri-wizard Tournament," Victoire explained.

Konstantin's black eyes seemed to get even darker at the mention of the Tournament. _It seems he likes the idea of the Tournament just as much as I do,_ Victoire thought.

"Your movther vas one of the last champions and vey are not hanging off ov you."

Victoire turned her head quickly to see if anyone was within hearing range, there was a pair of Beauxbatons students in powder blue robes walking into the hall but it didn't seem like they'd heard Konstantin's comment.

Even though no one heard Victoire's voice still sounded worried when she spoke, "Well the novelty of that has also worn off after seven years and the fact that I can now give them detention, and don't say that so loud." She looked around them one last time just in case.

Konstantin was watching her with surprise, he noticed her attention to the Beauxbatons girls, "Vey are goving to find out soonver van latver vith the press converence vis avternoon and everyving."

Victoire's head snapped to his direction, "What? What press conference?"

"Didn't anyvone tell you? Vis avternoon the press vill be here to take pictures and do interviews vith the last Tournaments champions and vere families. My vather, mother, and brother are all coming here especially for it."

Victoire's expression became one of dread, _great, interviews and pictures, just when I've decided that I have more than enough attention than I want._

Konstantin read her expression and smiled sadly, "Don't even theenk abouvt it. Vere is no vay to get ouvt. I'f tried."

Victoire sighed and swore under her breath, "Darn. I guess I'll see you later this afternoon than. Goodbye."

Konstantin waved goodbye to her as he left in the direction opposite the Great Hall. When he was out of sight, Victoire walked into the Hall and to the Gryffindor table. She spotted Xavier and Ally sitting together, and took a seat across from them.

"Where did Sandy go?" Victoire asked as soon as she was seated.

Ally smiled brightly at her, "She just remembered that she has an essay to finish for Arithmacy, she said that she was really sorry and that she would see you in class to grovel for forgiveness."

Victoire nodded and began to fill up her plate and stomach with food. After she had taken a particularly large bite of toast with jam, Xavier opened his mouth to say something. Ally stopped him before he could with an elbow to his stomach and gave him a particular look.

Victoire saw the silent conversation they were having with their eyes. She took a sip of milk to clear her mouth and spoke, "You know you guys can speak out loud. There's nothing that you can't say in front of me."

Ally's face turned red and Xavier gave her an 'I-told-you-so' look.

"Well Vic-" Xavier began only to be cut off by the entrance of Victoire's little brother Louis and Xavier's little sister Cecilia.

They sat down next to Victoire on the bench, one on either side of her, as Louis began excitedly, "Isn't this great Vic! We have the whole afternoon off and all we have to do is stand there and smile!"

Victoire rolled her eyes. Exciting isn't the word she would use to describe the upcoming press conference. Of course, Louis, like Dom, enjoyed being the centre of attention, so this press conference would seem like a grand old time to him.

"I'm surprised you're so excited Louis. I know that I hate press conferences they're so boring and you have to act perfect so that the press doesn't get anything that they can use later to make fun of you," Cecilia Wood was saying.

Victoire smiled at the third-year. She almost forgot that Xavier and Cecilia know what it's like to have famous parents who can be in the news a lot of the time.

Xavier turned to his sister, "It's a good thing we're not the centre of attention this time Cee-Cee. We'll still have to avoid the cameras though."

Cecilia nodded at her brother's words as she stretched her arm out and stole the blueberry muffin that Louis had been holding in his hand. Xavier and Ally laughed at the third-years antics while Xavier's words echoed in Victoire's head. _We'll still have to avoid the cameras . . . what?_

"What do you mean about having to avoid the cameras Xavier?" Victoire asked when there was a break in the laughter.

Xavier and Ally shared another look while Cecilia and Louis looked at her surprised, "We're not the only ones who are going to be around for the press conference Vic. The entire school gets the afternoon off for pictures. The press wants pictures of the last champions and their families, but they also want pictures of students from all three schools just milling around and getting along."

Victoire's expression turned to dread as she listened to her brother's words, "What? You mean we have to get our pictures taken in front of the entire school!"

Louis nodded, "And all of the Durmstrang and Beauxtatons students."

Victoire's head came down hard onto the cool wood of the table. Cecilia rubbed her back in a comforting gesture, "You just have to get through these next couple days Vic, and then everything will be okay. The champions will be picked, and you won't be important anymore . . . of course that's assuming you don't get picked . . ."

"Even then, Victoire promised her parents and Kingsley that she wouldn't continue with the Tournament if she got picked. She promised to back out," Ally said.

"There you go Victoire, nothing to worry about," Cecilia concluded.

Victoire's head rose off the table and she looked at her companions, "Thanks, I just really hate being the center of attention like that."

Xavier and Ally smiled, while Cecilia looked pensive, "Hmmm, that's something new, a part Veela who doesn't like attention." She ended with a pointed look in Louis' direction.

Louis rolled his eyes at her and stood up from the bench. He extended his hand out to Cecilia, "Come on, we need to get to Defence Against the Dark Arts."

Cecilia smiled and took his hand as she stood up. She quickly let go when she was done, "Always the gentleman Weasley?"

Louis smiled haughtily, "It's my Veela blood. We're self-centred, but we're flawlessly polite."

"So it's backwards with Victoire then?" Xavier asked innocently.

His keeping skills were helpful because he ducked just in time to avoid being hit in the head by the apple Victoire threw at him from across the table.

* * *

Well . . . I just love Victoire and Xavier's banter . . . kinda reminds me of my brother and myself . . . Hope you liked.

Drop a comment if you wish ;)


	18. Press Conference

A/N: Hi! So today was may last day of school for the year! (It was alos my lats exam; English, so yeah, easy) Do you know what this means? Yes! a new chapter. And since it's summer I should be able to find more time to write, so back to a normal updating schedual, hopefully.

This is a nice long chpater for you, it's sorta an apology for making you wiat so long while I studied for exams, so I hope you really enjoy it. Because of my haste to put this up, I didn't have a chance to have the French parts edited (I was going to get one of my friends in academic French to do it but I didn't have a chamce to ask since they were also studying for exams) so I apologize for the mistakes, and don't worry, I will get around to fixing them later, I just wanted to post this for you A.S.A.P. since I'm in such a good mood (puppy in school during exam day +some friends having a Foods exam and putting the huge plate down in the middle of the table with a bunch of platsic forks and telling you all to go at it = an amazing last day of school.)

Anyway to quote my English teacher, "I digress" . . . hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Disclaimer: nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, Batman! nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, Not Mine!

* * *

The Press Conference

The noonday light was blinding as Victoire stepped outside the Castle doors flanked by Ally and Chris. They had just finished eating lunch in the Great Hall and had to physically drag her off the bench and outside. Xavier had been with them but being empathetic to Victoire's hate of news reporters and photographers; he turned down the chance to force her into coming out side. Opting instead to try and find his sister and stay out of the press' range. He wasn't kidding when he said that the press would love to get pictures of him or Cecilia doing something stupid and embarrassing their parents and their family. And now that he was hoping to play professional Quidditch himself one day, he needed to stay low until that happened.

Ally and Chris had to let go of Victoire once they made it to the doors to the courtyard because a picture of them dragging her down the steps and outside would definitely not look good on the front page of _The Prophet_. Victoire looked around the crowded courtyard. There were groups of students just milling around and talking, along with a she should be. Upon seeing nothing of direction, she chose to walk over to where her friends were standing, with Ally and Chris trailing behind her. dozen or so older witches and wizards carrying around cameras and notebooks. Victoire smirked as she gazed around, if the press wanted pictures of the schools intermingling, they'd have to either wait a while, or stage them themselves, because at the moment the students stuck with the people from their own school; the Beauxbatons with the Beauxbatons, the Durmstrangs with the Durmstrangs, and the Hogwarts with the Hogwarts. Victoire saw Xavier standing with his sister, Sandra and Kyle over by a large outcropping of rocks. She glanced around one more time to see if she could see her parents or someone telling her where she should go. She didn't.

Xavier smiled brightly when he saw them walking towards him, "Hey guys, so you finally found a way to force her out of the Castle?"

Ally smiled brightly back at Xavier before smirking at Victoire, "We had to promise her that we'd give her the last piece of apple tart the next time we had it for dinner, but we got her out."

Sandra and Kyle laughed as Chris took up the conversation, "I was afraid we'd have to confund her if she didn't agree to that trade off."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "First of all, I'm standing right here, so please don't talk like I'm not. Second, just go ahead and try to confund me Chris, I'd like to see you try." Victoire playfully pulled her wand out at the end of her comment and raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for his answer.

She didn't get to hear it, because at that moment a group of Beauxbatons students decided that they would like to mingle with their gracious hosts. A congregation of about four Beauxbatons', all girls, walked up to where Victoire was standing with her friends. All four of them were tall, skinny, and blonde. Two of them were honey blonde and looked as though they were twins, the shortest one of the four had a shade of hair that was almost yellow-blonde that was obviously the work of a colour changing charm (a bad one at that), and the last and tallest one was by far the prettiest. She had long, platinum blonde hair, skin tanned a golden brown, and bright green eyes. She was one of the girls from the night before who she'd snapped at in French for being rude while Xavier had been speaking.

Victoire could tell that the platinum blonde was obviously the leader of the group based on how the other three girls situated themselves around her, almost like they were orbiting her.

Victoire narrowed her eyes at the four. She could tell just by looking at them that these were the type of girls that made her feel as though she was justified in her immense dislike of Beauxbatons. Both Xavier and Ally saw where Victoire was no doubt heading. Ally placed a comforting yet restraining hand on her wand arm, and Xavier spoke to the four foreigners.

"Um, bonjour. May I help you . . .?"

The fake blonde giggled quietly at Xavier's terrible accent while the leader studied him with her green eyes. They slid off of him and onto Victoire. She stood up straighter under their scrutiny daring the French girl to say something.

The platinum blonde finished her inspection of Victoire and spoke, "Est-ce une pratique courante en Grande-Bretagne pour permettre aux journalistes et personnes avec des caméras à courir amok et d'envahir la vie privée des gens personnellement?"

Victoire bristled at the disdain in the girl's voice. No, she was not happy either with the fact that there were journalists and cameramen everywhere invading people's privacy, but there was no way she was going to let the bratty French girl nitpick at this and blame it on Hogwarts as a school.

"Peut-être qu'ils ne seraient pas tenter de s'introduire dans votre vie privée, si tu leur as donné ce qu'ils voulaient et a effectivement agi comme vous tenais à être ici," Victoire snapped back at the blonde.

The French girl looked at Victoire, "Alright zen, wat do you zuggezt we do to 'ow deed you put eet? 'act like we want to be 'ere?' "

Victoire looked at the girl; not sure if she was being serious or not. _Did a stuck up, bratty French girl just ask me for advice on how to put on a fake smile and pretend like they are sincere? _

"I don't think I need to help you, I'm sure you've had plenty of practice pretending to care about something you don't," Victoire said scathingly. She really wasn't in the mood to put up with the Beauxbatons students.

Victoire's friends hadn't had much luck following the conversation the two girls had been having in French, but when they switched back to English Xavier could easily hear the contempt in their voices when they spoke to one another. He took a step in between the two girls (they had be unconsciously drifting closer to each other during their conversation) and tried to calm things down.

"Is there anything that I can help with?" he repeated.

Victoire looked away from the platinum blonde and looked at Xavier, "They're upset that there are all these reporters around trying to pry into their personal space. They wanted to know if it was customary of Hogwarts to host these types of things. I told her that if she wanted them to stop prying that she should just smile for the picture and that they would be one their way."

Xavier nodded as he listened to Victoire's explanation. Now that he was caught up, he could help, "I know that what they're making us do is really annoying, but they really will leave you alone if you smile and act like you're having a good time."

One of the honey-blondes spoke, "Zat won't be 'ard for mozt of uz. Myself, I'm very excited to be 'ere at 'Ogwarts. Thees should be an eenteresting year."

Despite the fact that the honey-blonde was being polite and trying to be agreeable, Victoire glared at her the same time the platinum-blonde spoke to her in sharp words, "Oh yez Angelique, thees year weell be zo exciting. Ztuck een a damp Caztle een rainy Breeton zat servez 'orrible food, and weeth the company of dumb Bulgarianz and stupeid Breetons."

"Listen, we don't like this situation any more than you do. Do you really think we're excited about having a bunch of ungrateful, stuck up, snobby, bit-" Xavier cut Victoire off mid rant because he knew where she was going with it.

"Any way, it's been lovely chatting with you, but if you excuse us we're going to move somewhere else because I can see the press coming closer to us."

Xavier's comment wasn't meant only to stop Victoire's rant, but to inform his friends of the group of people slowly walking towards them. Victoire turned to look at them, and was about to turn away from them, when she noticed a blonde head squeeze through the group and start to jog towards them.

"Bollocks," Victoire said defeated, hanging her head. At the same time, all four of the Beauxbatons students gasped aloud.

The honey-blonde whom the one girl called Angelique spoke in an awed voice, "Incroyable, eetz Fleur Delacour!"

Sure enough, the blonde head now making a beeline for the group of students was Victoire's mother. Victoire reacted fast. She jumped behind Ally and attempted to hide behind her body saying, "Shield me!"

Cecilia and Chris laughed, while Xavier rolled his eyes and the foreign students looked at the group of them confusedly. Fleur gracefully glided over to them. She ignored the Beauxbatons students and went to work on getting her daughter for the family press conference that was about to start. She knew that she would have to approach this situation very carefully since Victoire has had a fear of the press ever since they completely traumatized her when they crashed her sixth birthday party that they were celebrating at a Quidditch game. She had been so upset and scared that she hadn't been able to sleep for a week afterward.

"Bonjour Alexandra," Fleur said sweetly to her niece.

"Hello Auntie Fleur, how are you?"

"I'm very weell zank you," Fleur answered, "Victoire you do know zat I can zee you hideeng behind Alexandra, right?"

"No you can't," Victoire said, half-heartedly trying to duck lower behind Ally.

Fleur sighed and absently ran a hand through her hair, "Victoire, you are three incheez taller zan Ally, I _can_ see you ma chére."

Victoire sighed defeated and stepped out from behind Ally. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and showed no sign of moving, "You have Dad and two other children to stand up there with you, you don't need me."

Fleur placed her hands on her hips, "Oui, but your frére and soeur are not old eenough to compete but, you are, zerefore, ze press eez much more interezted een you. Or zey weel be unteel zey champions 'ave been peecked."

At this point, the Beauxbatons students had gotten over their shock and were trying to understand the odd conversation that had been taking place between Fleur Delacour and the Hogwarts students.

The fake-blonde spoke first, "Mon dieu, you're Fleur Delacour!"

Fleur took her gaze off her daughter and turned to look for the first time at the Beauxbatons students, "Oui, allzough I go by Fleur Weazley now zeeing az I'm married."

She looked away from the French students and back to her daughter, "Come Victoire, eet weel only take an 'our at mozt. Zen you can come back, and hide een ze back weeth Xavier and Cecilia." Fleur shot a small smile at the Woods and glanced at Victoire with appraising eyes.

Victoire bit at her lip. _I should just get a move on and get it all over with . . . but on the other hand I really hate the press . . . If I go I can appease Mamma and Dad . . . but on the other hand I _hate_ the press . . ._

Victoire looked around before she made her decision. Xavier and Cecilia's faces were empathetic, Ally's face told her to just do as her mother said, Sandra, Chris, and Kyle were purposely not looking at her or her mother, and the Beauxbatons girls were looking at her with shock . . . and an expression that looked strangely like jealousy.

Fleur saw that Victoire was close to agreeing and told her one more piece of information that would make her come. Even though she wasn't asking so much as telling Victoire that she would come with her, she still didn't want to force her daughter into doing something that she knew she had major issues with.

"I waz juzt weeth Viktor Krum's family and 'ez zon Konztantin zaid zat you 'ad talked to 'im earlier today and 'ad promized to be at ze prezz conference . . ."

Victoire nodded remembering that she had promised Konstantin that. Most of her had decided to go and honour that promise, but a small, small part of her was telling her to be selfish and not go at all. She decided to listen to the nice part of her, "Fine. I'll go. Five pictures maximum with the family and 3 max with Uncle Harry because I'm sure they'll want to exploit that part of our family too."

Fleur smiled at her daughter, apologized to her friends for taking her away, and walked away with Victoire without giving the Beauxbatons girls a second glance. Fleur lead Victoire easily through the crowd until they came upon the spot where her father, brother, and sister were standing grouped together. Dom's face lit up upon seeing her eldest sister escorted by their mother, while Louis' puckered.

"Yes! I do believe you owe me one galleon Louis," Dom sang happily.

Louis frowned and went digging through his pocket, "Great, the one day Victoire doesn't get out of a press conference! She's weaseled her way out of almost every other photo shoot, and she decides to show up for this one!"

Victoire shook her head at her siblings, "Did you guys really bet about whether or not I would come today?"

Dom shrugged her shoulders as she collected the gold from her brother, "We were bored."

Victoire rolled her eyes and looked at her father, "Dad, why did you let them bet?"

Bill Weasley smiled at his eldest daughter, "Your mother left over half an hour ago to find you. It was very boring. Anyway, after this is done I'm going to go find Ron because he also owes me a galleon."

"You bet with Uncle Ron about me too! You're just as bad as those two!" Victoire said glancing between her father and her siblings.

Her father just smiled winningly as her brother and sister put on their best innocent faces loaded with Veela charm. Victoire knew that she couldn't stay mad at them, "Damn good looking Weasleys! It's impossible to stay angry when you give me those faces."

Her father and siblings laughed as they pulled her into a very tight group hug. When they released, Fleur had to go around and straighten everybody's clothing just right, "Oui, and zat eez what we weel uze to our advantage. We weell all smile and look pretty for ze camera, and 'ope zat zat eez all zey weel want."

"Yes," Bill added, "let's hope they don't interview you kids because we all know that none of you have a personality."

Fleur scolded her husband, "Zat's not wat I meant. I'm juzt zaying zat zey are 'ere to interview moi, and that eef you all want to get away without 'aving to anzwere a boatload of queztions, you 'ave to 'ave a nice peecture."

Dom rolled her eyes, "Part Veela, remember Mamma? We could all be glowering at the photographer and it will still come out better than Uncle Harry's family picture even if James was on his best behaviour."

Fleur took a deep breath and looked at her youngest daughter, "You weell do az I zay or zis Tournament weell turn out a lot more difficult zen necezzary."

Dominique, Victoire and Louis nodded their heads wordlessly. Bill broke in looking at his watch, "Didn't you say that they wanted us up at the school steps right now Fleur?"

"Oui."

The Weasleys walked up to the courtyard entrance to the school and were quickly bombarded by cameramen.

"Over here! Over here!"

"Smile!"

"This way please!"

"Say treacle tart!"

Bill was first to break through the crowd as he ushered his children and his wife into the school steps. No sooner had they caught their breath than a woman with long dark hair swooped in, introduced herself as the director of the press conference and started positioning them where to go.

As soon as the woman had posed Dom and Louis where she wanted and instructed them with a threatening glance not to move, she surveyed Victoire.

"So this is your eldest?" She asked Fleur and Bill as she walked circles around Victoire.

"Oui, zis eez Victoire."

The director continued to appraise Victoire through slanted, almond shaped eyes.

"Perfect hair, perfect figure, perfect face, and perfect name," she declared before positioning her in the middle of her family, between Louis and her father.

The director instructed them how to place their hands and how to tilt their heads once more before gesturing towards the men holding cameras.

"Big, big smiles everyone!"

It was the last thing Victoire registered hearing before she was blinded with dozens of flash bulbs.

Several minutes after the cameras were done taking pictures, Victoire's sight came back to her. It was flooded with black spots and fuzzy sections, but it was better than the total darkness that had occurred a minute ago because of the cameras. When the director had finally told them that they were done, Victoire's cheeks were sore from the smile she had kept on her face, and she was working very hard to keep herself rooted in place. Her legs had started to wobble and she felt a strong urge to just run away from all the prying eyes once she saw that the entire courtyard's attention was on them.

"Very good, very nice," the director said, "it's time for the Krums' now; however I would like Fleur and Victoire to stay because I'll need them later."

Victoire had just been about to tiptoe away when the director said this. Automatically, Fluer's hand reached out and grabbed Victoire's wrist. Victoire sighed and had to be content with shooting her brother and sister daggered looks as they ran off to find their friends. A few eyes from the audience drifted away to follow them as they went, but the majority of them were still trained on Victoire. The Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students in particular, but even a few Hogwarts students who knew that Fleur Delacour was her mother, were still staring at her in wonder. Victoire's head started to spin with the thought of all of the people's eyes on her. She clutched her mother's previously restraining hand for strength now. Fleur smiled understandingly and gestured for Victoire to turn her back to the crowd and to watch the Krums instead. This idea was much more agreeable to her so she followed her mother's lead.

The Krums were a smaller family than the Weasleys. Fleur's fellow champion had only two children compared to her three, and both of them were boys. Konstantin, the eldest was Victoire's age. Valentin, the other son, was only a year younger than his brother- he was sixteen. Both boys could easily be mistaken for twins with their dark scruffy hair, pale white complexions, heavy eyebrows and dark green eyes. The only difference was the two-inch lead in height Konstantin had over his younger brother, and the more approachable air he had making him seem more outgoing and superior in comparison to Valentin. Both the boys were the spitting image of their father, aside from the dark green eyes they obviously inherited from their slight, auburn haired mother. All three of the men, Viktor, Konstantin, and Valentin had a handsome, dark, and dangerous quality to them. The woman had a dainty and delicate beauty to her. Despite the fact that Victoire would consider them a very good-looking family, the way they positioned themselves around cameras was stiff and almost cold. Even though Victoire suspected that they would have almost as much practice with press conferences as she sadly did, they didn't have the bright, charming quality, (no doubt attributed to the four part Veelas in the family), she knew her family pictures would possess when developed.

In no time, the Krums pictures were done and Viktor and Konstantin were asked to stay behind for more shots later. Fleur dragged Victoire over to the Krums once the director had moved away.

"Bonjour Viktor. Zis eez my eldezt daughter Victoire," Fleur said pushing her daughter forward slightly.

Viktor Krum smiled, "Hello Fleur, and vis is my son Konstantin."

Konstantin smiled politely but embarrassedly at Fleur. Fleur and Viktor continued to have a short conversation while Victoire and Konstantin took turns trying to look at each other and then looking away once they had been seen. They were too embarrassed to actually start a conversation with each other. Fleur and Viktor were oblivious to their children's discomfort and their conversation carried for a few minutes until Viktor looked around and asked what was taking so long.

"Zey are probably tryeeng to get 'Arry's family togezer," Fleur said looking around for her brother and sister-in-law.

Victoire looked around and spoke, "I can see Uncle Harry over there with Al and James, so he must just be waiting on Aunt Ginny."

"And Lily, she eez comeeng too," Fleur said.

"Let's hope she hasn't had any sugar yet today," Victoire muttered more to herself than anyone else. Lily Potter was the youngest of her cousins, with her shiny red hair and big brown eyes she was easily considered adorable, but give that girl even the slightest bit of sugar and she could turn into a raging tornado of excess, hypersensitive energy. It really wasn't a quality that would be easy to work with at a large and precarious photo shoot like this one.

There was a large crash from behind her, Victoire turned around to see Harry, Al, and a small man holding a smoking, and charred camera in his hands, lying on the ground next to a red faced, semi-upright, James.

"I swear I didn't touch it!" James practically yelled. The Hogwarts students within a five-foot radius of James were smart enough to move away, leaving a few scattered and confused foreigners staring at the legendary Harry Potter and his seemingly unruly children.

The dark haired director showed up, sighed, and began directing Harry, James, and Al to their spots. Once Harry and the boys were set up and given very strict instructions not to move, Ginny ran through the Castle doors dragging a tired looking Lily behind her by the hand. Ginny walked up to Harry and started a quick and almost unintelligible string of words that sounded vaguely like an apology.

"Sorry - late - Lily -sleeping draught - missing bunny rabbit - disappearing clock hands- when I get my hands on George I swear I'll-"

Harry ended up waving off the rest of Ginny's apology/tirade, and scooped Lily up into his arms because she looked like she was going to drop right where she was. The director came up to Ginny and directed her to her 'proper spot' in between James and Al, grumbled a little at the fact that Lily didn't have the energy to stand up on her own and as a consequence made her adjust her artistic vision, and then repeated her phrase for them to show a 'big, big smiles everyone!'. They had to take a few more shots than normal since James decided to pull out his wand and try to give Al a pair of bunny ears in every shot. After a tag-team of scolding from both Ginny and the director, the men with the cameras finally got a shot they could work with.

The director clapped her hands together as she discharged all of the Potters except for Harry. James and Albus stumbled, still semi-blinded from the previous flash of the cameras, off the steps and ran off to join their friends before Ginny was able to say anything to them. Harry was instructed to set the still drowsy Lily down while the director spoke with him for a minute. Lily stumbled a few paces, pressed her face against Ginny's stomach, and promptly fell asleep where she stood.

"Fleur, Victoire, would you two please come over here?" The director asked from where she stood with Harry.

Victoire looked up at her mother, "Did that sound like an order, or can I say no?"

Fleur rolled her eyes at her daughter and dragged her up the steps.

"Excellent. Now Victoire, I'd like you to stand between your mother and your uncle," the dark haired woman was saying. Victoire did as she said but apparently, it wasn't what she wanted because she had to come up to her and arrange her just right.

"Big, big smiles everyone!"

Victoire smiled widely and tried not to roll her eyes at cameras. It doesn't matter how much Veela charm she had; rolling her eyes would seem completely rude.

"Very nice, no one with just Victoire and Harry."

They positioned themselves accordingly; Harry placed his lightly around Victoire's shoulders and whispered in her ear, "How's this going so far Vic?"

Victoire plastered a huge, fake smile on her face and tried to speak without moving her mouth, "It would be great without the bratty Beauxbatons students and annoying press."

Harry tried to speak between his fake smile also, "Just keep a calm, cool head. The Beauxbatons will be fine if you stay away from each other, and once the champions are picked in a couple weeks all this press stuff will blow over."

Victoire tried to nod her head at her uncle but ended up being scolded by the director. After being blinded by that round of flashes, Harry was released in favour of a photo of Fleur, Victoire, Viktor and Konstantin. Victoire's brightest smile was when the director told her that she wasn't needed anymore for pictures and that she could go.

_About time, if I had to keep that fake smile plastered on my face for one more minute I think it was going to stick that way. _Victoire thought as she jumped down the Castle steps and gazed around the Courtyard for her friends. Her gazed skipped over the groupings of students whom had seemed to get bored with the photo shoot and were standing around chatting with each other and enjoying the fact that they didn't have to go to classes in the afternoon. She squeezed through a grouping of fifth-year boys who were avidly staring at a wizarding comic book, and spotted Xavier, Ally, Cecilia, and Chris standing in a cluster near a big oak tree. She walked over to them and sighed in relief.

"Is it over with?" Ally asked noticing the uncharacteristically frazzled look on her elder cousin's face. She was a little worried; Victoire was the queen on the poker face when she didn't want anyone to know how she felt.

"Yeah I think so. They let Konstantin and I off the hook and they instructed Mamma, Uncle Harry, and Viktor Krum to go near the lake for more pictures and some interviews."

"Well Cee-Cee, it seems we did a good job of hiding from the press. Mum and Dad will be happy," Xavier commented.

"Yeah, your parents will be really proud that you refrained from doing something to embarrass them Xavier," Victoire said.

Xavier smirked at her, "You did a rather good job yourself of not embarrassing your parents Victoire."

Victoire opened her mouth to retort when she suddenly stopped, walking her way a group of girls who were quickly becoming more noticeable despite Victoire's attempts at avoiding them. The group of blondes from Beauxbatons that she had encountered earlier stopped a good three feet from where the Hogwarts students were.

Victoire and the platinum blonde with the green eyes (that was obviously the other girls' leader) started at each other. Victoire broke the tense silence after a few minutes, "What do you want?"

Beside her, she could hear Xavier bring his hand up to his face and palm his forehead at her rude question. But Victoire couldn't bring herself to really care; all of her patience had been used up on the silly director and photographers.

The blonde just smirked and looked Victoire up and down, "Zo you are Fleur Delacour's daughter? Eet's funny, I expected you to look deeferent, and 'ave better manners, of courze, you are Eenglish zo what elze should I eexpect?"

Victoire scowled; she wasn't in the mood to trade punches back and forth with the Beauxbatons, "It would be a lot less hypocritical of you to talk to me about manners if you actually told me your name so we could talk on a first name basis. Of course, that would mean that I can't call you that 'blonde tart' anymore, but whatever you prefer."

The blonde narrowed her green eyes, "Mon nom est Noëlle Varens."

Victoire inclined her head, "Yes, I am Fleur Delacour's daughter; I'm also one of Harry Potter's nieces. Why do _you_ care?"

"We don't really care about you relation to 'Arry Potter. Eet'z your mozer we are more eenterezted een."

Victoire's eyebrows came together, "What do you would _you _want to know about that you haven't heard about before?"

The blonde looked at her three companions as if agreeing on what to say and then turned back to Victoire, "We were juzt wondereeng why neizer you, nor your frére or soeur, attend Beauxbatons. You seem to zpeak Française weell enough."

Victoire's eyes narrowed again and she could feel a head ache coming on, "None of us go to Beauxbatons because the school is full of stuck up, manipulating, French fiends."

At that point, both Xavier and Ally placed a controlling hand on Victoire's arms; she shook the both of them off while Noëlle countered.

"Hmm, or maybe you didn't go becauze you were afraid zat you would run eento people more talented and joli zan you."

Victoire could feel her mouth pop open, "Oh yeah, you've definitely hit the nail on the head there. I decided not to go to Beauxbatons because I was afraid that you'd be more talented and prettier than me. If you actually knew as much about my family, and my Mamma, as most of you French people claim to do, you would know that I'm not the least bit concerned about finding someone better looking than me."

Victoire ended her sentence with an odd huff sound and folded her arms across her chest, waiting for Noëlle to answer with another ridiculous comment. She felt that if she dealt with all of her problems right away that they might leave her alone for the rest of the year.

Noëlle's eyes widened at Victoire's comment and her and her friends immediately started whispering to each other. "Zo I take eet zat ze rumours are true. You are actually part Veela, non?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, _so that's what they were getting to? I guess it's not really much of a surprise; I have to go through with this almost every time I meet new people._

"Yes, I'm part Veela. So are my brother and my sister."

The fake-blonde gasped and was the first of Noëlle's friends to speak, "Even you frère?"

Victoire sighed and got ready for a long explanation, "Yes, even my brother."

"But how-" Noëlle voiced her confusion this time but was cut-off by said part-Veela thirteen-year-old.

"Hey Victoire! Do you know which picture the director lady said she was going to use? Because the third try wasn't really my best, I think I ended up blinking or something," Louis said as he jogged up to the group. He didn't register that the Beauxbatons girls were there and continued to jabber on worriedly about the photo the press was going to use. He had been talking non-stop, filling up the silence until he heard Cecilia's quiet giggles and realized who was standing there with his sister and her friends.

His face became adorably shy with the perfect touch of charm, "Oh, my apologies Vic. I didn't realize that you were busy making new friends. I'll just go . . ."

Victoire leaned against the trunk of the oak tree, "You might as well stay Louis; it _was_ you we were just talking about."

"Oh, well then normally I would feel embarrassed but I must say I feel honoured to be the subject of conversation for such charming and intelligent looking young ladies."

Victoire rolled her eyes, Louis was laying on the ol' Veela charm rather thick. It was as if he was modeling Victoire's point to the Beauxbatons girls. Any other normal thirteen-year-old boy would have actually been embarrassed in Louis' situation, but because Louis had some Veela blood, he was absolutely loving the attention.

Noëlle spoke after considering Louis for a minute; her green eyes seemed to light up, "Well, I zee what you meant about ze Veela charm. Eet ez an odd zituation yet completely true."

_Well, at least she isn't as stupid as she looks. She seems to understand the rarity of Louis' position . . . I'm just not sure I like the way she and her friends are looking at him . . . _Victoire thought as she watched the four blondes openly inspecting her brother. Noëlle and the fake-blonde had an odd look in their eyes that if Victoire didn't know any better, would have mistaken for something past simple _interest_.

It seemed that Victoire wasn't the only one to notice the way the French girls were looking at Louis, Cecilia was watching the scene in front of her with an oddly stiff expression, with her arms across her chest.

Louis mustn't have noticed anything out of ordinary with the looks he was getting, because he was talking to the Beauxbatons girls and seemed as charming as ever. Noëlle and her friends laughed at something he said and she reached her hand forward and ruffled up his silvery-blonde hair. Victoire was about to break up the uncomfortable conversation going on, when she realized that someone else seemed to have the same idea.

Cecilia started as she saw Noëlle run her hand through Louis' hair. The minute her hand left his head Cecilia moved forward, grabbed Louis' wrist and began to drag him away.

"We're going to go to the Library, I just remembered that there's a Charms assignment that I need Louis' help with," Cecilia yelled over her shoulder in explanation as she continued to drag Louis in the direction of the Castle.

Ally burst out into laughter at the look on Xavier's face as he watched his baby sister walk away with Victoire's brother. Victoire raised an eyebrow, _that's odd . . . Louis is terrible at Charms . . . _

Victoire didn't have time to think any longer about her brother and Cecilia's departure because she was again accosted by Noëlle.

"Eef I 'adn't met him I would not 'ave believed eet. Eet should be impossible for a woman who eez part Veela to 'ave a son."

Victoire nodded her head, "You don't think I know that? Mamma and Dad were completely surprised when he was born. But since he is a boy, Louis is not impossible, he is just unique."

Noëlle looked contemplative, "Oui, extrêmement unique. Eez 'iz charm as potent az yours and your soeur's?"

"Yes, is grows stronger with age though," Victoire said, surprising herself with the fact that they were having a civil conversation. _Maybe they aren't as bad as I thought they were._

"Weell, eet ez too bad zat your siblings and yourself wazted all of your potential at zis 'orrible l'école. You could 'ave done well at Beauxbatons, especially seence you 'ave Veela blood. O' well, we're probably better off weethout you anyway," Noëlle scorned.

_Nope, they're not as bad as I thought they were; they're worse. Just like those other snobs, I ran into when I visited Beauxbatons seven years ago. They don't care who you are and look down your nose when they learn that you're English, yet they end up kissing your feet when they find out that you're related to Harry Potter and Fleur Delacour. And then they learn that you're a Veela and they try to manipulate and exploit you. Stuck up, snobby, shrews. _

"Well we're in the perfect place to see which school really is the best aren't we?"

Noëlle laughed at her, "Good luck weeth that. 'Ogwarts' luck ran out weeth ze lazt Tournament, eet's Beauxbatons turn to win now, and to show that we're supérieure to you."

Victoire smirked, "We'll see." And abruptly walked away from the Beauxbatons students. Xavier, Ally, and Chris hurried after her before she could break into a run (they would easily be able to lose her after that). Xavier grabbed one of her hands and Ally grabbed the other as the forced her to stop moving.

"What?" Victoire said rounding on Ally first.

"Don't let them goad you into doing anything stupid," she answered simply.

"You don't have to talk to me like that. I haven't hexed them!"

Ally looked at Victoire coolly until she calmed down, "I know. But hexing them isn't the only stupid thing you could do to get back at them . . . just be careful."

"Yeah, Vic, we care a lot about you and we want you to be safe. Just, be careful," Xavier said smiling lightly.

Victoire looked back and forth between her cousin, her fellow head, and even Chris standing on the other side of Ally. She took a deep breath, _don't let those girls get on your nerves; you know that you're better than they are and life will give you an opportunity to show it if you just wait. _

"Thanks guys," Victoire said smiling brightly. Xavier pulled her into a brief one-armed hug. After releasing her, Ally did the same thing.

_Well, at least the photo shoot is over. I haven't done anything to embarrass my family, or myself so overall today's gone pretty good._

Victoire stood up straight and smiled a wicked smile to her friends, "Last one to the Castle has to relinquish their apple tart to me since I actually came to the press conference today!"

Chris, Ally and Xavier looked at each other before breaking into a sprint.

* * *

Hope you liked, drop a comment or review if you wish :) For those of you who've started summer vacation have a great one!


	19. The Daily News

A/N:Hey! I'm sorry about the wait, I meant to post this yeasterday but a lot of stuff came up. A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed, subscribed, or favourited. I also want to give a supper special thank-you to everyone who has reviwed. I know I have a lot of unaswered ones in my inbox to go through, but I thout I'd let you all know, here, that I really apprectaite the time and effort it takes for a person to review, no matter how short the review or what the content is :)

A happy belated Fourth of July to all my American readers. And to all my fellow Canadians, I hope you had a fantastic Canada Day on Friday, filled with family, friends, BBQ's, swimming, fishing, bonfires (and if your family is anything like mine, they burned their old Math books, and started the fire with gasoline), and of course, FIREWORKS! (Again, I wonder if you have a female cousin who was excited to turn eighteen this year, not because she could legally drink in Quebec, but because she could now buy fireworks), and I hope that it was a safe and happy long weekend.

Dislcaimer: The closest I'll ever be to British was last Friday when Prince William and Cathrine visited Ottawa, an hour away form where I live. Sadly, I'm even farther away from owning Harry Potter. (although, some of my friends are on a school trip to Scotland and Ireland and one of my friends said that she'd try to bring back a leuprechaun :)

* * *

The Daily News

"I swear to Merlin Xavier Wood, if you don't give me that toast right now I'll-"

"You'll what Victoire? I've been on the receiving end of all of your hexes more than once by now. I'm really not very worried anymore," Xavier said shaking his dirty blonde fringe out of his eyes and holding the toast out at arm's length opposite the side Victoire was sitting on.

Victoire was trying reach around him but it was useless seeing as his arm span was a good five inches longer than hers was, _Damn him and his lanky Keeper build!_

"No Xavier I won't hex you . . . but I might have to put you on a suspension from Quidditch for inappropriate treatment and disrespect for the team captain."

Xavier's mouth opened, "You wouldn't."

"Try me."

Xavier sighed and brought the plate of toast back within Victoire's reach. She smiled smugly and grabbed three pieces. She placed two on her plate and stuffed the other one, whole, into her mouth. Xavier's disgusted expression came back to his face. He had been keeping the toast away from Victoire, not because he thought that she was eating too much, (even though she had packed in quite a bit), but because he had gotten sick of her horrid table manners.

Across the table, Kyle and Sandra were laughing at the scene their best friends had just put on. Ally walked up and sat down next to Xavier on the bench. Xavier (still in possession of the plate of toast) offered her a piece but she waved him off. Again, Xavier offered Ally more food, eggs, bacon, kippers, porridge, but she declined the offer for each item. Xavier frowned at her and told her that she needed to eat something, she declined again but Xavier made her a cup of tea. She smiled, thanked him, took a sip, and placed it back on the table without the intention of picking it back up again.

"What's wrong Ally?" Xavier finally asked, worried for her. She usually had a good appetite at meals, nothing like Victoire's, but she was a Weasley, she was very capable of packing food in.

Ally placed her head in her hand, "It's nothing really Xavier . . . I'm just worried about tonight."

As she expected, when Ally mentioned the evening all of the seventh-years in the vicinity stiffened. She could see the discomfort on all of their faces and put her head down on the table and covered it with her arms. That is why she didn't want to say anything, because she knew that the moment she said anything that they would all get stressed.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything . . . I'll just leave . . ." Ally actually moved to get up but Xavier pulled her back down.

"It's okay Ally, there's nothing we can do to stop it. But you don't need to be worried. There's absolutely no chance of you getting picked," Xavier said.

"I know . . . It's not myself I'm worried for . . . I'm worried for all of you. I mean, there will be hundreds of people to pick from, but the chances of a Gryffindor being picked do seem rather high . . . brave and daring and all that stuff . . ."

Victoire reached across Xavier and patted her cousin on the hand, "It's going to be okay Ally. You don't need to worry about any of us. I already promised not to get involved, and Xavier definitely doesn't have the talent to get picked in the first place so it's pretty much a moot point anyway . . ."

Xavier flicked Victoire playfully, "Hey! I'm just telling the truth, and the truth is that she doesn't have to worry about you getting picked because even if the goblet could be fooled into thinking that you were brave and talented enough because you'd probably wuss out anyway."

Ally laughed as Xavier and Victoire continued to argue with each other.

Xavier heard her laughter and smiled, "See no problem." Everyone went back to his or her breakfast except for Kyle; he was watching Sandra eat her breakfast with a worried frown on his face.

"Is there something wrong mate?" Xavier asked.

Kyle shook his head, "No, I was just thinking . . . I can't believe that it's October 1st already . . . it seemed like it was only last week that the other schools came and the press conference happened . . ."

"That's because it _was_ last week Kyle," Victoire commented not really understanding where he was going with this vein of conversation.

"I know . . . it's just amazing that the school year could go from . . . well from normal to this mad house in a week."

Victoire looked around and nodded in agreement. It was October 1st, better known to all seventh-years as 'Stomach Cramp Day'. Today was the day that the three champions for the Tri-Wizard Tournament would be picked, and most seventh-years looked as though they had gotten food poisoning. (Even though Victoire doubted that, many of them had eaten. It always surprised her how when people were stressed or worried their appetite was always the first thing to go.) All over the Great Hall, at all tables, there were seventh-years who sat picking at their food, looking green, or just sitting holding their stomach's or forehead's.

"I'll just be happy when this day's over," Sandra commented. They all nodded and went back to eating (or picking at, in everyone's case except Victoire's) their breakfast. After a few minutes of silence, the Great Hall was filled with the screeches and hooting of owls as they entered the Great Hall. It was time for the morning post. There were more owls than usual entering the Hall. It was expected seeing as what today was. Almost all seventh-years would be getting post from their parents today giving their own advice or trying to calm their child's probable nerves. Three owls swooped by and dropped letters for Xavier, Sandra, and Kyle. Victoire knew not to expect one, because of the ceremony tonight when the champions would be picked both her mother and her father would be in attendance, she could see them then. Besides, it's not like she hadn't already spoken to them about the Tournament she was one of the calmest potential champions in the Great Hall at present.

Sandra and Kyle's letters were short and supportive notes from their parents. Victoire could tell that neither they nor their parents were actually thinking that they would be picked. Xavier's letter was longer, about three pages. But when Victoire asked him about it he said that today was the normal day that he gets post from his parents and that it was just the normal letter sent to catch up on things and that there was barely a mention of the Tournament nor the Goblet of Fire ceremony that would be taking place in the evening.

One more owl flew by and deposited a big pile of paper in front of Sandra. Victoire sighed and rolled her eyes as Sandra untied today's addition of the _Daily Prophet_ from the owl's leg.

Kyle smirked at Victoire's response, "Excited to see which picture and article made it into the paper today Victoire?"

Victoire scowled at Kyle. After the press conference the week before, there had been a different picture and article in the _Prophet_ every day. The first day it was the family photo of the Potter's and an article about them. The second day was the Krums'. The third day was dedicated to Victoire's family. The fourth day was all of the champions together. The fifth day was one of Harry by himself. And yesterday the photo was Victoire, her mother, and Harry. She knew exactly what picture would grace the cover of the Prophet and knew that she'd be half of the centre of attention.

"No, I'm not excited. I know that because today is the day that they pick the Champions that they saved the picture of Konstantin and I together for this issue. No doubt, it will be accompanied by some boring biographical article about me."

Sandra re-emerged from her paper and smirked. She turned it around so that Victoire, Xavier and Ally could see the front-page photo. It indeed was a shot of both Victoire and Konstantin at the steps of the Castle. Below it was two separate articles, one about Victoire, and one about Konstantin.

"Perfect," Victoire grumbled, "well, do I even want to know what it says?"

Sandra skimmed ahead and gasped, "Vic . . . I really think you need to hear this. It says: _Victoire Weasley (left on photo above) is a beautiful and charming young witch. Miss Weasley is seventeen-years old and the eldest daughter of Bill and Fleur (née Delacour) Weasley. Miss Weasley has been briefly mentioned several days before in our weeklong spread about the last participants of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. But today we will concentrate specifically on Miss Weasley for tonight at Hogwarts the newest champions will be picked. _

_There has been a general curiosity surrounding Miss Weasley and her chances of being picked for the Tournament this year. She seems to have a shining repertoire of talents that would be most valuable in a champion. She is Head Girl and Quidditch Captain for Gryffindor, the house of her father and all of her family, she had been called intelligent and talented by all of her professors and is known to be rather handy with defensive spells, something no doubt learned from her Uncle Harry Potter the last victor of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. _

_On paper Miss Weasley would seem to be one of the best candidates possible to support Hogwarts in the Tournament, and if family had anything to do with it like in Hogwarts' famed sorting ceremony, than she would be a shoe-in for a spot in the Tournament. However, this reporter is worried about whether or not the Wizarding world is taking in all of Miss Weasley's qualities when they hope for her to support Hogwarts, or whether they are judging her on her borrowed merit. _

_As it turns out Miss Weasley has quite the reputation at Hogwarts as a heart breaker. In fact, when mentioning her name to her fellow students the first things that her peers relate with her are her notorious Veela traits that capture every man's attention. According to her peers she uses her Veela blood to toy with boys emotions, it is said that she's never dated the same boy for longer than a month. She may be intelligent and a good Quidditch player, but is a pretty, manipulative girl who treats men as if they were disposable really the person we as the Wizarding world should hope to be picked out of the Goblet of Fire and represent Hogwarts? I will leave each of you to make your own decision. To see whom Miss Weasley has her claws in at this moment please turn to page 8._"

Ally looked at Victoire wide-eyed, "My Merlin Victoire! I can't believe . . . they just said . . . whom would they have talked to who would have said . . . who would have _written_ that . . ."

"Read me the author of the article," Victoire commanded to Sandra.

Sandra read the name at the top of the piece and her face puckered up as if she'd just eaten something sour, "Rita Skeeter."

Victoire sighed, "Thought so . . ." She looked around the Hall to see how many other people were reading _The Prophet_. Her gaze was met by several astonished faces. _Well I guess that answers my question. _

"Okay the suspense is killing me. Who does Victoire currently have her claws in?" Kyle asked practically bouncing on the bench. _Glad someone's excited about the article_, Victoire thought.

Sandra flipped the paper and gasped in shock. She silently turned it around for Victoire to see.

"Oh. Bloody. Hell!"

* * *

"Coffee or tea Ted?" Kurt Williamson said Teddy as he entered the Auror's break room.

Teddy brought a hand up to his face to cover his yawn before answering his fellow second-level Auror.

"Tea please," he said as he sat down next to Jilly Donaldson, the only female Auror-in-training who was stationed to stay at Hogwarts for the whole year, and across from Kurt Williamson. They were the people he spent the most of his time with (besides Harry and Ron of course) in the Auror office. He didn't know them at Hogwarts, but he got to know them very well during their gruelling training.

Jilly looked at him sympathetically as she also let out a large yawn. Almost every Auror had to stay up late the previous night to double check security spells and to make sure preparations were ready for the Goblet of Fire ceremony that would be happening that night. Because of that, most of the Aurors (including Teddy) only got about five hours of sleep.

"It still amazes me how you can drink tea over coffee. Especially in our line of work," Jilly commented lightly taking a sip from her own mug of very dark, black coffee.

Kurt passed Teddy a cup of tea while asking, "Why would coffee be better than tea in our line of work?"

Jilly took another sip of her coffee before talking, "Well first off, coffee has more caffeine, very important for an Auror-"

"Yeah no one wants a sluggish dark wizard chaser," Teddy commented.

Jilly gave him a look for interrupting before concluding her statement, "and not to mention that coffee just seems more . . . tough."

"Tough?" Kurt asked.

"Well . . . yeah. Tea is connected with girls; you know tea parties and things . . . whereas coffee seems more masculine. You know the caffeine kick, and the coffee breath, drinking it black and all that stuff."

Teddy looked at Jilly disbelievingly, "Jilly, you drink black coffee on a regular basis . . . does that mean that you're more masculine than I am because I drink tea?"

"Well it makes sense if you think about it," Kurt said, "If the fact that Ted drinks tea makes him girly, than we need a girl who can really drink coffee to keep the delicate balance of male and female power in the squad."

A combined glare from Jilly and Teddy sent Kurt back to his own coffee. They finished their drinks and decided that they each had time for another cup of their respective caffeinated beverages before they needed to go on their next patrol. (Their patrol was meant to start just before classes were to start today.)

"Hmmm, why does this not surprise me?"

"Whatcha' got there Rick?" Kurt asked as Richard Lassoder walked by the table that he, Teddy and Jilly were sitting at.

Lassoder stopped by their table and nodded at Kurt and Jilly before giving Teddy a glare; they haven't gotten along well since their third month of training when a roof almost collapsed on them because of a combined pair of misfired curses.

He looked at them almost haughtily as he showed them the paper he was holding: _The Daily Prophet._

Teddy rolled his eyes, "Just make sure that Harry doesn't see that. He's gotten sick of seeing himself in the newspaper every day."

Lassoder snorted, "He's actually not in it today. He's just mentioned in passing, but you're right he probably won't like it."

"Really? Well then, who's the main subject, I thought that they were still doing the weeklong spread on the Tournament," Kurt said as he drank the last sip of his coffee.

"Because they're picking the champions today they have an article on the children of the previous champions and the chance of them being chosen," Lassoder said looking back at the article.

Teddy pushed his hand through his hair and sighed, "What exactly does it say about Victoire that Harry's not going to like?"

"Well . . . the whole article is written by Rita Skeeter . . ."

_Great._

"Hey, is the mail here yet?" Harry asked aloud to no one in particular as he walked into the room.

Everyone who had watched him as he walked into the room turned away and back to their respective tasks. It seems that everyone else has seen the paper. Harry watched surprised as all of the Aurors turned away from him. His eyes skimmed the room until he saw Teddy at his table. He walked up to him deciding that he wanted to know the answers.

"So, what's in the news today?" Harry asked eyeing the four Aurors suspiciously. He had already guessed why everyone else was avoiding his gaze.

Lassoder quietly handed Harry the paper. Teddy got out of his seat so he could read the paper from behind Harry. He smiled at bit at the large picture of Victoire and Konstantin Krum that took up almost half of the front page. She looked beautiful as always, but he could see that there was something forced in her smile. It wasn't the natural one she got that would light up her face, and that could take his breath away.

He and Harry skimmed the article that had Victoire's name in the bold at the top. When they got to the end of the article, Teddy heard Harry let out a low hiss.

"That _cow_. I can't believe she wrote that! _Heart Breaker . . . manipulative . . ._" Harry said outraged.

Teddy felt himself get even angrier at the look that was on Lassoder's face. He rolled his eyes at the anger in Harry's voice. Even though he only saw her once (when she'd come to give Kingsley a note from McGonagall and she got into a fight with him because she wouldn't go away without giving it directly to him) it was obvious that he thought the article described Victoire perfectly.

Ron, who had come into the room because he had to talk to Harry, walked over to where he was standing with Teddy; where godfather and godson were wearing matching gobsmacked expressions.

"What's going-" Ron was unceremoniously cut off as Harry tossed the paper at him. Ron's eyes quickly scanned the paper and came to the end with the same look of anger on his face that Harry and Teddy were wearing. "Oh . . . I see Rita Skeeter went back to writing for _the Prophet_."

Harry folded his arms and scowled, "I'm really glad that I'm not at Shell Cottage to see the look on Bill and Fleur's face when they read this for the first time."

"Yeah, but we do have to see them tonight. Hermione will also be having a field day with this one, she hates Rita to begin with and now she's gone and written this," Ron said waving the newspaper.

Harry sighed, took the paper from Ron and skimmed it again, "She wasn't very nice to Konstantin Krum either."

Ron glanced down at the paper Harry held. He raised an eyebrow, "So . . . are you going to flip to page eight and see whom Victoire 'has her claws into this time'?"

Harry looked up but not to glare at Ron like Teddy expected. Harry looked at Teddy, his face clearly worried. Teddy could easily read the look in his godfather's face, _Merlin I hope that paper doesn't say what I think it's going to say._

Harry flipped a few pages before his mouth popped open.

"Merlin's pants!" Ron exclaimed as he read the page from behind Harry's shoulder. Harry and Ron both looked up and stared at Teddy.

* * *

Okay, so I know you probably all are cursing me to the deepset pit of _ (fill in your own place, I prefer the word Hades to this expression, but whatever you feel is best)

I'm sorry about the cliffie, trust me I hated me as much as you do now when I wrote it. But don't worry, I've got the next chapter done, and it will be up in a week . . . pending o fcourse, that I get lots of feedback!

Oh, and incase the cliff hanger wasn't enough insentive to review, I'll give you a little info about the next chapter, their will definitely be some Teddy/Victoire fluffiness! Not to mention even more Victoire/Xavier banter!


	20. Boyfriend Meet Boyfriend

A/N:Hey, well you guys definitely suckered another chapter out of me. I meant to update on Monday, but all of the absolutely lovely reviews I got totally guilt-tripped me into it. I normally say no to peer-pressure, but this was just too much to ignore.

Well, here's the long awaited chapter, I hope it's everything you'd hoped it would be. And a special congrats to all of you who were able to guess 'who' it was :)

Disclaimer: otnay, inemay. (Pig Latin)

* * *

Boyfriend Meet Boyfriend

Teddy looked at page eight of _The Prophet_ and felt as those his eyes were going to pop out of his head. Taking up at least a third of the page was a large picture of Victoire Weasley and Xavier Wood. The picture showed the two of them talking to each other, smiling, and then Victoire giving Xavier a one armed hug. The caption to the photo read _Victoire Weasley and new beau Xavier Wood having an intimate moment at the press conference of last Friday._

Ron stared at Teddy, "They think she's dating Xavier Wood?"

Harry glanced at Teddy before reading from the new article, "_Fellow students and friends of Victoire Weasley have happily shared it with this reporter that Miss Weasley's present boyfriend is none other than long time friend Xavier Wood. Mr Wood (son of professional Quidditch players Katie Bell and Oliver Wood) is, like Miss Weasley, a seventh-year Gryffindor. The two have been long time friends and even teammates playing together on their house Quidditch team for three years. Miss Weasley has been co-captain of said Quidditch team for the past two years with Mr Wood. Another thing that both Gryffindors have in common is the fact that they were both named Head Boy and Head Girl of their house this year. Sources have said that there is no doubt that these two will become one of the most popular couples Hogwarts has seen in years, but the question remains, how will Xavier Wood be able to keep the girl that everyone wants, but no one's ever really had? And with Miss Weasley's thoughts occupied with her new boy-toy, is it a good idea for the Wizarding world to hope to have her carry-on in her family's footsteps and become one of this Tournament's Tri-Wizard champions? This reporter will let you decide._"

Harry had been glancing periodically at Teddy while he read the article, when he came to the end he was staring at Teddy openly, waiting for him to say something. Teddy didn't have the chance. Because at that moment Kingsley Shacklebolt walked into the office, a _Daily Prophet_ newspaper in his hand. He spotted Harry and Ron, and walked over to them.

Kingsley held up the paper wordlessly, it was open up to page eight. The photo of Victoire and Xavier were still smiling, laughing, and hugging.

"I thought we did something about this Harry."

Harry sighed and ran a hand through his black hair, putting it into an even larger state of disarray, "I did, but because she's seventeen we can't preview everything they write about her. Bill and Fleur looked at all of the photos the professional cameramen took and said that they could use any of the photos they took. I guess Rita Skeeter got some photos of her without her knowing and stretched their permission into letting her use them."

"Yeah, there's no way Vic knew that they were taking that photo of her," Ron added looking at the photo of their niece and Xavier again.

Teddy nodded his head in agreement with Ron's words. Victoire wasn't looking anywhere near the camera, she must never have seen this coming. He could also tell that she didn't know she was being watched because the smile she was giving Xavier was one of her heartfelt, genuine ones, not the fake ones she'd been putting on for the cameras like the picture of her and Konstantin on the front page.

Kingsley crossed his arms over his broad chest, "It doesn't matter if she knew it, it's still out there, and they somehow twisted it into looking like she wouldn't be a good candidate for the Tournament."

"That doesn't matter though. We don't want her to do the Tournament even if she does get picked," Ron said.

Kingsley sighed, "Yeah, but she's really going to get riled up about this. I mean I am and it's not even that horrible . . . but I do need to talk to her now . . ."

Teddy folded his arms across his own chest, "Don't be too hard on her, she didn't know she was being photographed. Besides, she's not even dating Xavier. That photo isn't even correct," he pointed to the picture in the _Prophet_, "I saw this actually happen. She was upset with the Beauxbatons girls and Xavier, and Ally were trying to comfort her. On the other half of the picture," Teddy pointed to the part that was cut-off where Victoire's other hand was swinging out of the frame, "Ally's holding Victoire's other hand. After she hugs Xavier, she actually went and hugged Ally too. The situation was completely innocent."

"I didn't think they were passed the part of their relationship where they could speak to one another without trying to strangle each other," Ron said nodding his head at Teddy's words.

Kingsley considered Teddy for a moment, "I know that Victoire's not dating Xavier, she would have _told_ me if she were."

The trust in Kingsley's voice when he spoke of Victoire completely unarmed Teddy. _Great, way to make me feel guilty without even trying Kingsley._ Harry seemed to have the same idea too. He could see the guilt that came into Teddy's eyes when Kingsley mentioned the trust he had with his goddaughter, and he knew right away that they hadn't told him yet about them, that he had no clue.

"Well," Ron said breaking the silence that had emerged, "I wouldn't want to have been around Victoire when she first heard the news today . . ."

Harry looked down at the watch on his arm, "It's time for the next shift to start."

The Aurors that had been in the room heard Harry's raised voice and started to move to go to their patrolling positions. Lassoder moved away without saying a word to anyone else. Teddy, Kurt and Jilly got up from the table.

"Where are you again today Ted?" Harry asked as soon as he saw Kingsley walking away to the office.

Teddy sighed, "I'm supposed to be patrolling outside the Castle this shift." He didn't really want to patrol outside. What he wanted right now was to get a chance to talk to Victoire.

Kurt and Jilly heard the sadness in his voice and looked at each other questioningly. They didn't understand the change in Teddy's attitude since before reading the paper. They knew that he was close to all of the Weasley's but they didn't know just how close. Despite this, Jilly could tell that Teddy was upset with his position outside the Castle.

"We can switch patrols if you want Ted. It's nice out and I'd rather be outside," Jilly offered.

Teddy smiled at her, "Thanks Jilly. Where are you supposed to rotate around?"

Jilly smiled as she dragged Kurt near the door of the room (they would be patrolling the outside together like Ted and him were supposed to do before they switched), "I start and end at the Great Hall."

* * *

"C'mon we better go before we're late for class," Victoire said standing up from the Gryffindor table looking at her friends.

Sandra and Kyle jumped up to follow her, whereas Ally and Xavier moved slower. Xavier had been avoiding Victoire's eyes ever since Sandra read the second article in the paper in a low voice deliberately; not looking at either of the two mentioned in the article. Xavier wouldn't look at anyone; not even Kyle, except for Ally. For her part, Ally was looking bewilderedly at everyone except Xavier.

Victoire walked out of the Great Hall and abruptly stopped where she was, causing her friends to pile up behind her because they didn't expect her to halt.

"Ouch, what are you doing Vic?" Kyle asked rubbing the spot on his head that he hit off Xavier when they suddenly stopped.

Kyle stopped complaining when Sandra placed her hand on his arm and nodded her head to the direction Victoire was staring at. Leaning against the wall, staring expectantly at Victoire was Ted Lupin. Victoire felt her face go white the minute she saw Teddy. She barely had the ability to register the fact that all of her friends were leaving.

"We'd better get to class. See you later Victoire," Ally said as she grabbed Sandra's hand, who was holding Kyle's, and dragged them away.

"Yeah I'd better go-" Xavier had started to say as he moved to follow Ally.

Victoire reached out beside her and grabbed his arm before he could leave her peripheral vision (she was still staring at Teddy), "You're not going anywhere Wood."

The minute Victoire turned to Xavier, she still had her hand on his arm; she could feel the eyes of the entire entrance Hall on them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Teddy nod at her, move away from the wall and walk down the corridor. Victoire figured that that meant that he wanted her to follow him.

"You're coming with me for this Xavier," she told him before dragging him down the corridor and hopefully away from the prying eyes.

Victoire practically ran from the entrance hall, still grasping Xavier. She slowed down as they came to a tapestry holding a picture of a large griffin. Victoire looked around them, to make sure no one was watching, before pushing Xavier behind the tapestry and into the little niche that she knew Teddy would be waiting in.

Victoire spotted Teddy on the opposite wall of the nook. He was standing still with the same calm expression he had been wearing a few minutes ago. Xavier stood awkwardly between Victoire and Teddy; he didn't know what to do. Teddy was there will a calm mask of indifference and Victoire was there with the most worried and edgy expression he had ever seen on her usually put together face.

Victoire stared at Teddy, "So . . . I guess you've seen the paper today . . ."

Teddy did nothing except incline his head in her direction. Xavier was surprised that he didn't let on to any other emotion than that but it seemed that Victoire wasn't, for she kept on.

"Teddy . . . please, you have to believe me . . . there is nothing going on between Xavier and I. I mean c'mon, it's _Xavier_-"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Xavier cried, momentarily forgetting that he could, potentially, be in serious trouble with Victoire's tall, strong, _Auror_ of a boyfriend. He was upset by the pointed way she'd said his name, as if that explained it all.

"It means exactly what it sounds like it means Wood. You're too obsessed with Quidditch to even recognize that a person's of the opposite sex to yours' when you talk to them," Victoire said angling away from Teddy and toward Xavier at this point.

"Excuse me, but I can recognize a pretty girl when I _see_ her Weasley-"

"Yeah, but you still won't do anything about it, will you? Even when it's obvious that they like you back. You'll just sit there and pretend that you don't even realize that they're there until you're a safe distance away to stare at them with that lovesick look plastered on your face-"

"Well I'm sorry if I'm not as pushy and obnoxious as some people are. I apologize for feeling self-conscious and tongue-tied around someone I want to make a good impression on and not just jumping in and potentially ruining a good friendship-"

"You can't live your life without taking chances Xavier! You can't just stay in a bubble protected from everything. You have to have the chance to fail, bleed, and feel heartbreak otherwise you won't be able to really taste the sweetness of success when you finally get it!"

Xavier opened his mouth to make a retort about there being nothing wrong with being cautious when he heard a low sniggering sound. He looked toward the far wall of the tunnel and was surprised to remember that Teddy was still there with them.

A large smile had cracked through Teddy's calm mask, "Good Godric guys. I can't believe _anybody _was stupid enough to actually _think _that you were a couple. Merlin, I wonder who was dimwitted enough to even come up with the idea in the first place."

Victoire's face had gone blank with surprise, "You mean . . ."

Teddy sobered up and looked at Victoire tenderly, "Vic, you can't actually think that I would believe the _Prophet_, over you. An article written by _Rita Skeeter_ no less . . ."

As soon as the words had registered in Victoire's mind, she flew across the little space separating her from Teddy and pretty much jumped at him. Teddy smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his face into her sweet smelling hair. Victoire fit her head under his chin and sighed into his chest, "I'm sorry I thought . . . it's just been kinda stressful . . . I know that you wouldn't be dim enough to believe something like that . . ."

Victoire hadn't been able to finish any of her sentences but her feelings weren't lost on Teddy. He hugged her tighter and quietly whispered something into her hair.

Xavier watched them for another minute before deciding that he was trespassing on 'their moment'. "Yeah . . . well . . . I'll see you guys later then . . ." Xavier was about to leave the niche when Teddy called to him.

"Wait Xavier. We still need to talk." Teddy peeled Victoire off him and she reattached to his side where she was able to look him in the face.

"About . . .?" Xavier began nervously; _I should have known I wasn't off the hook._

"Well, about this whole you and Vic situation. Just because _I know_ the truth doesn't mean much. Most of the Wizarding world is probably under the impression that you're dating now . . ."

Victoire sighed, "Xavier we're going to have to put an end to these rumours somehow, once and for all now that it's in the news."

"So what? Do we have to have a staged public breakup or something?" Xavier asked putting his hands in his pockets.

"No, that's the worst thing you guys could do now," Teddy said unconsciously rubbing Victoire's back as he spoke.

"Why?" Xavier asked.

"Because, the whole reason Rita wrote that article was to paint Victoire in a bad light. They called her a manipulative player who likes to break-boys heart for fun. She can't just break up with you, even if it is staged, because it will make her look like a heartless tart."

Victoire looked at Teddy, "Did you just call me a tart?"

Teddy smiled at her and winked, "'Course not love. Anyway, she can't break up with you . . ."

"So I'll need to break up with _her_?" Xavier asked a smug smile coming to his face.

Victoire opened her mouth to comment but Teddy intervened before she could get out her smart-aleck comment, "You could . . . but I don't think people would really believe that. Besides, Skeeter would get a hold of it and start attacking Victoire on how emotionally unstable she is because of the 'heart-wrenching' break-up between her and you. And that wouldn't work out for either of you because she comes out weak and you come out as a jerk."

Xavier nodded his head, "So what do we do?"

Teddy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Do what you've been doing all along. Act like the friends you usually are, ignore any snide comments, and if someone asks you directly, just tell the truth, that you're not dating."

Victoire smiled up at Teddy and hugged him again, "You're _so_ smart. You know this plan would probably work out better if _someone_ got up the courage to actually ask out the girl they fancy and prove that they're not dating me."

Xavier glared at Victoire's pointed look, "Is that all? Because we really should get to class, this is going to look incriminating enough . . ."

Teddy looked down at Victoire and bit his lip, "Actually I need to talk to Vic, so you can go ahead Xavier. Besides, if you show up to class at different times it will look less incriminating."

Xavier nodded and left the two of them alone.

Victoire looked up into Teddy's face, "What do we have to talk about?" Usually when he said something like that, it was a cover for them to have a chance to snog each other. However, she knew that right now he meant it.

Teddy took a step away from Victoire so that he could look her in the eyes without having to look directly down at her, "Vic . . . it's about the article . . ."

Victoire's face became confused, "Didn't we just talk about the article?"

"Well, yes."

"You said you were okay with everything."

"I am-"

"Then what do we need to talk about?"

Teddy sighed and broke eye contact. He closed his eyes, "Practically every Auror read the article in the paper this morning . . ."

Victoire's eyes widened and she understood where he was going, "Harry?"

"Yes."

"Ron?"

"Yup."

Victoire could feel her face drain of all colour; "Kingsley?"

Teddy nodded, "That's what we need to talk about-"

"He doesn't actually believe that I'm dating Xavier does he?"

"Well . . . that's the thing. He specifically said to Harry and I that he doesn't believe for one minute that you're dating Xavier-"

Victoire sighed in relief and hugged Teddy. She pressed her face against his chest and had to speak her next words a little louder so that they wouldn't get muffled by the fabric of his work robes, "'Course he doesn't. Anybody with half a brain would know that what Rita Skeeter wrote about me was lies, and Kingsley definitely has more than half a brain."

"Victoire . . . Kingsley said that he knows that you're not dating Xavier because you would have told him if you were. He said that you don't keep things like-like boyfriends from him . . ."

Victoire stiffened against his chest as she listened to his words. _Of course, he would say that right in front of Teddy and Harry. That's why Teddy looks like he's committed a crime; he feels guilty._

Victoire removed her face from Teddy's chest and looked up at him, "Teddy . . . I know I promised I'd tell him-"

"When's that going to be Victoire? After this little article, he's going to be upset whenever he does find out. We should have told him when this all started. Or I should have told him the minute I saw him come back into the office after his mission in the summer."

"No," Victoire said in a stern voice, she wasn't going to let Teddy blame himself for what was her fault. It was her responsibility to tell him; he was _her_ godfather after all, "this is my mess, I'll be the one to clean it up. After the Goblet of Fire Ceremony's over and the new champions have been picked, I'll get him alone and finally tell him. I promise. You're right this has gone on long enough."

Teddy smiled and placed a light, delicate kiss on the tip of Victoire's nose, "Good. But now that you've brought up the Ceremony . . ."

Victoire looked at Teddy. There was a strange emotion in his eyes. One that she couldn't name.

He continued, oblivious of her close inspection, "I'm worried about you. You're strong, and brave, and brilliant, and one of the most talented witches I've ever met. I know that you promised everyone that if you got picked that you would bow out of the competition, but . . ."

Her eyebrows pinched together, "Teddy what are you getting to-"

"Vic, just remember that in the end, the decision should be yours not your family's. You're the one who's going to have to live with the choice you make. If you accept or if you don't, there will be consequences for both actions . . . what I want you to know is that, I'll be behind you no matter what you pick. And so will the rest of your family, they might not like it but they will always be behind you. I want you to make your choices based on what you want for yourself, not what other people have to say. Neither your family, nor the press, have the power to make your decisions for you. Just remember that."

Victoire took in Teddy's words very soberly, "And I might not even get picked."

Teddy smiled, knowing that she was trying to lighten the mood, "No you might not even get picked. But that doesn't matter, because you'll always be my first choice."

Victoire stood up onto her tiptoes and brought her lips to his ear, she was a hair's breadth away from them when she spoke, "Really? Then prove it."

Teddy smiled impishly before capturing her face in his hands and her lips with his. Victoire felt her body react instantly to his touch. Her arms reached up to entwine around his neck and her fingers immediately were tangled in his bright turquoise blue hair. She pressed her mouth against his with a force that made him gasp and stumble back a step at first. After regaining his balance, he slipped both of his hands to her waist so that he could guide her to the wall at the end of the passage. With Victoire safely trapped between his body and the cold stone of the wall, he was able to focus the rest of his concentration on her mouth. Victoire welcomed the press of the wall against her back. It enabled her to get as close to Teddy as possible. All she felt was the press of his body against every inch of her's. The feel of his silky hair slide between her fingers and the taste of his lips made her sigh. Teddy took a ragged breath as he felt Victoire's sweet breath blow across his face. He continued to kiss her for a minute before moving from her lips to kiss down her neck. Victoire regretted the loss of Teddy's lips on her's but used the opportunity to take a much-needed breath for she was starting to feel lightheaded. Probably because she had been focusing more of her concentration on the feel and taste of Teddy's lips than the actual air she needed to breathe. She could feel her knees staring to go weak and was glad that if they gave out she would still be upright because of the combined pressure of the wall and Teddy's strong and solid body. She gasped again as she felt Teddy's lips trail a path down the column of her throat. He stopped just at where the collar of her school shirt started and gave her a lingering kiss there.

_Merlin. This is _much_ better than class . . . wait!_

"Wait!" Victoire called more than a little breathlessly.

Teddy smirked against her skin and continued to kiss her neck, "Teddy . . . you. Need. To stop. I. Have. To go . . . to go to class . . ."

Victoire's resolve to be good and actually make it to some part of her class that period flew out the window as she felt Teddy's lips travelling back up her throat. She met him when he came back up and captured his mouth in a scorching kiss. Teddy broke away from Victoire's lips and took a step back.

He smiled as he saw her bracing herself against the wall so that she wouldn't fall down. "You're right Victoire."

Victoire looked up at him a little hazily. Her face was flushed and her silvery-blonde hair was tousled, "Right about what?"

Teddy's smile grew smugger, "You're right. You need to get to class and I need to get back to patrolling."

Victoire felt her face fall a little, "It's just A History if Magic. I already know everything. We can stay here a little longer . . ."

Teddy smiled; he was _very_ tempted by Victoire's proposal, "I think you've been late to class enough times thanks to me. Now get going before a teacher comes along and gives you detention for skiving off class Miss Head Girl."

Victoire dutifully listened to Teddy's advice. She consulted the Marauder's Map (Harry decided that Teddy should have the map for the remainder of the year because it would be very useful as he patrolled) and slipped out of the secret passage when the coast was clear. She paced quickly through the halls and up a flight of stairs before bursting through her History of Magic classroom.

"Nice to see that you've made it to class today Miss Weasley," Professor Cooke said from his spot at the front of the classroom. Everyone turned to look at her. The Colton Knott and his Slytherin cronies in particular looked menacing.

"Now, since we have a lot to cover and since I don't have the time to stand here lecturing you about punctuality I'll ask you a question, and if you get it right I won't dock points from Gryffindor for your tardiness."

Victoire shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly as she walked over to her seat. She saw that instead of the empty seat being between Xavier and Chris like it usually was, the empty seat was between Sandra and Chris. Xavier was on the other Side of Kyle where Sandra usually sat.

"Deal. What's the question?"

If Professor Cooke was surprised at Victoire's calm and collected behaviour he didn't show it, "Name two Death Eaters that ended up in Azkaban by the end of the first war."

"Antonio Dolohov and Rabastian Lestrange."

"Very good, now back to what I was saying before. Who can name three of the safety procedures adopted by the Ministry during the first war for problems involving concealment and disguise?"

Victoire took out a quill and piece of parchment and began writing down the note that was on the board. Smiling to herself at the wink Professor Cooke gave her when she easily answered his question. He knew that she knew that he was letting her off _way_ to easily.

She thought back to her conversations with her friends and with Teddy that morning. How nobody blamed her for getting upset or acting the way she did. _It's so hard to try to behave well when you know that everyone will let you get away with so much._

* * *

Well, that's all she wrote folks! Or, more acurtately, that's all I've written so far. This update came sooner so it might be a little longer than a week for the next update but don't worry, I will get it out there.

Spoiler alert! If you don't want to hear, then close the window now . . .

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Next chater will be the long awaited GOBLET of FIRE chapter!

Yeah, I just apmed up your excitement again.

Hope you enjoyed. Drop a review :)


	21. The Goblet of Fire

A/N:Hey! Next chapter, it's a little later than you probably wanted but I had to write and get a couple more chapters backlogged inbetween work and things. Hey well here is a very long awaited chapter. I know for many of you it will seem anti-climactic because you're all so smart and have already guessed what was going to happen . . . but fear not, this story is far from over . . . we're about to get into a much more action-filled section

I'd like to thank absolutely everyone that has read, reviewed, favourited, subscribed, or just enjoyed reading my story (and if you hated it, well I apologize I probably made you waste about twenty minutes of your life that you'll never get back).

Yeah, so I went to see DH part 2 in 3D yesterday with a friend of mine . . . and I'm proud to say that I slightly almost didn't cry (yeah I know, hard to follow). It was absolutely great though, but it feels as though it's really come to an end. Now all I have left to get my Harry Potter fix is fanfiction . . . sigh . . . On the bright side, yesterday I was also able to buy the new James Rollins Sigma Force novel (which I was reading even though I was supposed to be doing my online driver's ed) and I will try my best to finish the book so that I can get more writting done and be able to update nice and on time (maybe even early) next week :)

Dislcaimer: You know the drill . . . . . STOP. DROP. AND ROLL. . . . . . oops, wrong one. I mean . . . . . . I DON'T OWN . . . . . . . although the first one is also very important ;)

* * *

The Goblet of Fire

The rest of the day passed quickly enough and before she knew it, Victoire was leaving her last class for the day and on her way to the Gryffindor dorm rooms. During lunch, she and Xavier filled their friends in on what happened between them and Teddy that morning. Originally, they were only go to fill Sandra and Ally in since they were the only ones to know previously, but since Kyle noticed something strange going on between them this morning, they had to let him in on it too. (Only after Xavier begged on his best friends' behalf and only after Victoire had explained in detail each excruciating hex and curse she would use on him if he ever told anybody else.) Chris was not present during lunch, so they made a promise not to talk about it in front of him since he wouldn't know and since Victoire wasn't big on the idea of letting any more people in on her 'secret'.

Xavier had kept his distance from Victoire in the morning, but after discussing it again at lunch (only after Victoire had insisted that not only she but that Ally also cast a _Muffliato_ charm so that no one else would hear) they easily fell back into their original, relaxed, sometimes strained, friendship. People were still whispering about them, obviously that morning's _Daily Prophet_ was a popular one, but Victoire was used to the whispers and Xavier didn't seem to mind them as long as Ally didn't. And she didn't seem to. Even thought they were in different years they still had plenty of time to see each other between classes, Ally would walk with Victoire and Xavier and anytime someone started whispering or making suggestive comments she would hook an arm around each of theirs' and pretty much drag them away. A smile would cross Xavier's face and he would turn a shoulder to the people making the rude comments. Victoire knew exactly why Xavier now had no problem with the rumours; even though it looked like Xavier didn't.

_Wow, the boy really doesn't know what he's doing to himself, does he?_ Victoire thought as she walked a few steps in front of them while they were on their way to the common room. Behind her, Xavier and Ally were having a lively conversation about the menial things they'd done in class that day. Victoire rolled her eyes as she listened to their conversation. It amazed her how they were so obviously flirting with each other but that neither realized it. She peeked behind her to see Xavier laughing with a light blush on his face at something Ally had sweetly said as she twirled a lock of her hair around her finger. _Merlin . . . I wonder how they would react if I just told them to just get on with it and snog each other . . ._

Victoire didn't have any more time to either consider or act on her train of thought because they'd just gotten to the portrait of the Fat Lady, and she broke into her concentration when she asked for the password. After giving the password and passing through to the Common Room, Victoire broke the oblivious pair apart and dragged her cousin up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

"Ready for the ceremony Vic?" Ally asked nonchalantly as she sat down on Victoire's bed.

Victoire was in the process of shedding her school robes and fastening her Head Girl and Quidditch Captain badges to her simple green cardigan and couldn't answer right away. She took the extra time to consider what she was going to say. _Was_ she ready for the ceremony?

"To tell you the truth Ally . . . I don't think I am. Everyone's told me what to expect; the Goblet, the champions from the last Tournament being there, all the extra Auror security . . . I just can't reconcile the thought of the Tri-Wizard Tournament being a fun and exciting thing like some of the other students do. You know, after everything that happened to Mamma and Uncle Harry . . . and their stories about what happened to Viktor Krum and Cedric Diggory. It's just, the Tournament has always seemed like something sinister and evil . . . I don't know how everybody can be so bloody excited."

Ally nodded sympathetically, personally, she didn't understand the other student's fascination with it either; "It must be because they don't have a personal connection to it. Also, it's probably because the winner gets fame and fortune."

Sandra came jogging into the dorm room at that point. She hastily shed her robes and changed her black school shoes into her favourite pair of broken in _Nike _runners.

Victoire smirked at her best friend, "Running shoes? Really Sandy? What happens if you get picked to be a champion, do you want the first picture of you going into the newspaper to be of you wearing those grubby shoes?"

Sandra stuck her tongue out at her best friend. Even though Victoire wasn't as obsessed with clothes and shopping as her sister and her mom were (she especially abhorred those fancy French shopping trips they took that her mom strategically called 'Mother-Daughter-Bonding-Time') she still thought that a girl should always try to dress her best when she knew that she might have to impress someone.

"Broken-in does not mean grubby Victoire. It means comfortable and not tripping over your own feet that are clad in some sort of three-inch, strappy deathtrap of a shoe."

Ally laughed as Victoire inclined her head. She had a good point.

"Anyway," Sandra continued seeing that she had won, "it's about time we go down to the Great Hall for the ceremony."

Victoire and Ally nodded their heads and followed Sandra out of their dorm and to the Great Hall. When they entered, the Hall was only about half full. Even so all of the eyes turned to watch Victoire as she walked down to the Gryffindor table. Everyone it seemed except for one red head at the Hufflepuff table who seemed determined to look away from her. Victoire looked beside her to Ally as they walked, "Why is Baxter avoiding looking at me?"

Ally looked down at the floor as she spoke, "He's upset about the article this morning in the Daily Prophet . . . that you didn't tell him before it came out."

A look of shock came across Victoire's face, "He doesn't actually believe that Xavier and I are dating, does he?"

Ally seemed to shrink even smaller under Victoire's gaze, "He did for a bit, until James and Fred told him that he was an idiot to think that because you're dating Teddy."

Victoire felt her face slide into a grimace, "Godric those two are imbeciles. Now Baxter's upset because I didn't tell him about me and Teddy isn't he?"

"Yes, but it's a little more than that. He's always felt a little out of place because he's in Hufflepuff and not Gryffindor. He feels like he's always the last to know things and not really a part of the family, and since it seems that everyone in the family who's in Gryffindor knows about the two of you, well . . . he feels as though it's because he's a Hufflepuff that he was left out."

Victoire sighed, she added Baxter to her list of people she needed to talk to about Teddy. Previously Kingsley had only been on the list but know it seemed that it was growing. They got to the middle of the table and sat down where Xavier, Kyle, and Chris sat. Victoire had a little dilemma at first about where to sit, but she ended up taking the empty spot next to Sandra who had just sat down next to Kyle. Across from her Ally took the empty seat between Xavier and Chris. Victoire and her friends whiled the time away by chatting as they waited for the rest of the Hall to fill with students. Hogwarts students filled in along with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students. At the Head's table, she could see all of the professors come in, sit down and start talking to each other. Some of them, like Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra looked worried as they thought back to the last Tournament. Victoire was watching the Head's table so she noticed right away that there were several more seats present than there usually were. Some of them were filled with the other professors from the foreign schools, but there were still several that were empty. And she knew whom they were for. Right after she let the thought form in her mind, she saw them enter via the chamber off the platform where the Head table was. Her Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny were the first to enter, followed closely after by Viktor Krum and his wife Julia, and at the end of the line were her Mamma, Fleur and her father, Bill Weasley. Victoire looked away at that point because Fleur was looking avidly at the Gryffindor table as she took her seat. No doubt looking for her children; Victoire specifically.

"Vic, your Mum's looking right at you . . . don't you think it would be polite to acknowledge her?" Xavier said from his spot across the table.

Victoire sighed and grumbled some words under her breath about _Xavier Wood_ being the one to give her lessons on being polite. Xavier could hear her but he let it go, he knew that she was strung really tight and would be for the remainder of the evening until the champions were picked. Victoire glanced up when she heard the majority of the Great Hall take a collective gasp. Walking into the Great Hall via the side chamber were Kingsley and Minister for Magic Flannery. Between them, held up by a suspension charm being cast by both of them, was a large, four-foot tall, golden goblet with intricate writings and pictures. It was the Goblet of Fire, within the next hour, three names (hopefully only three) will come soaring out of the goblet and into Professor McGonagall's hands, and they will be the names of this year's Tri-Wizard Champions. Coming though the door behind Kingsley and Flannery were Victoire's Uncle Percy Weasley and a small grouping of Aurors. Victoire stopped watching the door at that point because the person she'd be waiting for had walked in and was having a conversation with Uncle Percy. Teddy had a very serious look on his face as he discussed some last minute procedures with Percy. When he finished he went and took his spot a few paces from the table behind Harry's chair. He took his shadowing job very seriously.

Once everybody was settled Headmistress McGonagall stood up and went to the podium, she gave a quick little speech about how she hoped everyone enjoyed their day, and that she hoped everyone would enjoy their meal. With a casual wave of her hand, the four house tables became laden with food.

Dinner, which was usually an upbeat and boisterous affair within the Castle, was a much more subdued event this night. The majority of the students went about dinner as they usually would, but all seventh-year students seemed nervous and jittery throughout dinner. Sandra, Kyle, Chris, and Xavier did their best to try to eat something despite the fact that their nerves had started to wrack their stomachs. Their other two companions however, were acting extremely out of character. Victoire and Ally seemed to have switched personalities. The former sat at her spot and merely picked at the food that was on her plate, shockingly, her appetite was gone completely. The latter seemed to have inherited her Uncle Ron's trait to eat obscene amounts of food when nervous. Ally had been shovelling and shovelling food in, it seemed that she didn't even chew the food she was consuming.

Xavier noticed the cousins' odd behaviour, and was the only one either tactful, or stupid, enough to comment on it, "Vic, Ally . . . everything's going to be okay."

Both Ally and Victoire looked up at Xavier. They appreciated his concern and his comment, even though Victoire had an odd feeling as though she had a right to be as nervous as she was. Dinner finished quickly and changed into dessert. Victoire was about to pass on dessert (something that clearly proved to her friends how worried she was) but was stopped by a very persuasive from Xavier. He summoned something from down the table. In a minute, a huge piece of apple tart was in his hand he pushed it across the table so that it would sit in front of Victoire.

"I do believe Ally and Chris promised you the last piece of apple tart if you came out to the press conference."

Victoire smiled at Xavier, she couldn't say no to logic like that, or an apple tart. Her friends smiled at her, happy that they were able to get her to eat _something_. Dessert passed just as quietly as dinner had, and before they knew it, McGonagall had come back up to the podium and asked for everyone's attention.

McGonagall stared out at all of the faces, her students and the foreign ones. She silently wished to herself that this wasn't about to happen. But it was, because Flannery had gone over her head, there was only so much she could do.

"Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Goblet of Fire Ceremony. Tonight the next three Tri-Wizard Champions will be picked. I'm not lying when I say that tonight, three of you, will be faced with a very difficult decision. That decision will be to stand up and approach the Head platform when your name is called," McGonagall took a deep breath.

She looked out at the tables and found Victoire Weasley where she sat at the Gryffindor table, "Remember students, there is no shame in opting out of the Tournament if your name is chosen. It is not like previous tournaments, you have not chosen to put your name in the Goblet. No one will blame you for choosing not to compete. It will always be your choice. "

"This Tournament will not be easy, the people who are chosen as champions will be some of the most strong, talented, and brave young witches or wizards of our time. Besides having to work your way through dangerous and treacherous tasks, you will have to fight against your fellow competitors, for only one person, and only one school can win." At that statement, McGonagall's eyes moved from Victoire to glance back at Harry. His face was tough and unreadable; he was trying to keep his emotions in check.

"Many champions have gotten seriously injured during these tasks, some have even died."

There was complete silence throughout the Great Hall. Fleur looked at Harry and Viktor, each person was reliving memories form the past; ones that they'd hope would never be drudged up in public again like they were now.

"We will now have a minute of silence for those whose lives had met an untimely end because of the Tournament."

A moment later McGonagall continued with her speech, her voice a little weaker than it had been before, "Now, the Goblet will pick the next champions."

The entire Hall took a collective breath as McGonagall turned her attention to the Goblet of Fire. She said some ancient spells in Latin and the Goblet was lit with bright, multi-coloured fire. After a minute, a piece of paper flew out of the Goblet and into McGonagall's hand.

Victoire took another deep breath from her seat at the Gryffindor table. This was it, the first Champion; she wondered who it would be.

McGonagall's booming voice broke through Victoire's thoughts as she spoke. Victoire felt her throat go dry. She reached for her glass and took a sip.

"And the Tri-Wizard Champion for Durmstrang is . . . Konstantin Krum."

Victoire spit out her mouthful of drink and gasped aloud along with a good percentage of the Hall. She looked up at the Head table to see Konstantin's, mother's face. Her deep green eyes seemed to be minutes away from shedding tears. His father, Viktor, stood up from his seat at the table; his eyes were scanning the crowd for his son.

The Durmstrang students had been told that for the remainder of the year they were to eat at the empty spots at the Slytherin table. And from the middle of the table, slowly raised a dark coloured head. Konstantin quietly stood up; accepting his new role in the Tournament. As he walked up the Durmstrang students broke out into a loud applause. The Beauxbatons and Hogwarts students also applauded politely as Konstantin stepped onto the platform. McGonagall shook hands with Konstantin and asked him to stand off to the side where Minister Flannery stood. Konstantin silently obeyed. After shaking his hand, he finally looked at his parents. His mother had a few tears trickling down her face and Viktor's expression was unreadable. Beside his parents Fleur and Harry looked at each other; they were certainly surprised with that outcome.

McGonagall cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. Another piece of paper flew out of the Goblet and into her hand, "The Beauxbatons Tri-Wizard Champions is . . . Noëlle Varens."

Victoire coughed again as Sandra concernedly thumped her on the back. She'd picked another wrong moment to take a drink. When Victoire could breathe again, she looked over to the Ravenclaw table (where the Beauxbatons students were supposed to be sitting) and saw the platinum blonde head pretty much jump up from the table and strut her way to the platform. The Hall again broke out into cheers, this time they were instigated by the Beauxbatons students.

Victoire watched the blonde as she walked onto the platform and shook hands with Professor McGonagall and Minister Flannery. _Hmmm, she must be more talented than she looks . . . _

For the third and last time that evening, a torn piece of paper flew out of the Goblet and into McGonagall's hands. She unfolded it and began to read, "And this year's Hogwarts champion will be . . . V- Victoire Weasley."

The Great Hall was silent except from the sound of someone coughing. All eyes went to the direction of the Gryffindor table. They spotted Victoire and the source of the noise at the same time. Across from Victoire, Ally Weasley was choking on a sip of water she'd just taken from her cup. Beside her Xavier quietly patted her on the back until her breathing went back to normal. All eyes were still on Victoire; waiting for her to make a decision.

_What . . . but . . . How? I- I can't be the champion. There are so many other people more talented than I . . . and I promised everyone that I wouldn't do it. _But then, Teddy words from the morning (she couldn't believe that it was only a few hours ago) ran through her head _'__I'll be behind you no matter what you pick. And so will the rest of your family, they might not like it but they will always be behind you. I want you to make your choices based on what you want for yourself, not what other people have to say. Neither your family, nor the press have the power to make your decisions for you. Just remember that'_.

A thousand more thoughts ran through her head, but there was one that stayed with her, that prompted her for her next action. Yes, she knew what she was going to do, how she was going to handle this, she just needed a little push. And that she got, in the form of a sharp kick from under the table. Victoire was jolted out of her reverie and saw that Xavier was looking at her purposely (it was he that kicked her). Beside him, Ally was wearing the same expression. Their eyes were sad but the rest of their faces were hard. They looked at each other for a moment before Xavier nodded and looked at Victoire.

"Go," he whispered. Ally nodded beside him and those actions gave her the courage to finally stand up.

She moved away from Gryffindor table and squared her shoulders as she moved to the Head table and platform. There was nothing but silence from behind her. It felt like it took forever but she finally reached the platform. Professor McGonagall walked over to her and limply shook her hand. Victoire looked into her weathered face and saw that she was very upset. Victoire then quietly walked over to Minister Flannery and shook his hand. He had a fake and pompous smile placed on his face (it was obvious that he remembered seeing her with Kingsley and arguing with her before).

Victoire took her spot beside the other champions. Konstantin gave her a sympathetic look, whereas Noëlle gave her a challenging and aggressive stare. Victoire looked away from her fellow champions and towards the Head table. She felt her heartache as she saw the looks on their faces. Fleur had stood up out of her chair once she saw Victoire get up from the table and accept the Tournament. Like with Konstantin's mother, there were tears streaking down her beautiful face. Bill was standing beside his wife, his arms around her in an attempt at comfort, while his eyes were on his eldest daughter's face, giving her a beseeching look. Beside her parents sat Harry and Ginny. Both of their faces were white, they were whispering back and forth while taking looks at their eldest niece. Victoire couldn't tell if they were angry with her or not, their faces were that guarded. She looked to the end of the table and saw Percy and Kingsley. Percy was shaking his head as if he couldn't believe it. Kingsley on the other hand was looking at her with outright shock. She had specifically promised him that she wouldn't participate in the Tournament, and here she was, breaking that promise. Victoire couldn't stand to look at the hurt expression on her Godfather's face anymore, so she moved her eyes to the direction of the back of the platform where she knew Teddy was standing. Her eyes had made it to his feet, and were about to move up to his face when she stopped herself. She wouldn't be able to handle it if he had a hurt expression on his face also. She knows what he said this morning, but she still couldn't bring herself to look.

So instead, she looked toward her fellow students for the first time. It seemed as though no one knew what to do. Then it started. Her focus was on the Gryffindor table, as she looked at her housemates, she saw two people stand up from the back of the table. She squinted her eyes and distinguished the two people just as they started to clap. It was her brother Louis and Xavier's sister Cecilia. Louis let out a loud whistle and then further up the table Ally and Xavier jumped out of their seat and began to applaud and cheer. Then, it was like a continuous wave. Sandra, Kyle, and Chris, James, Fred, and Al. Then the entire Gryffindor housebroke out into loud cheers as they stood up. At the Hufflepuff table, Baxter began the applause, and even at the Ravenclaw table, Lucy cheered for her cousin. Some Slytherins were still looking at her with hate, but there were several who applauded with the rest of the houses. In the end, the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students joined in with their own polite applause. And Victoire smiled. She smiled because she knew that she could do this now. Now that she had support.

* * *

McGonagall had waited for the Hall to quiet down before she excused the students. As was tradition, the newly chosen champions followed their professors into the chamber to speak with Flannery, and hear his official speech. Victoire, Konstantin, Noëlle, Professor McGonagall, Professor Longbottom, Madame Maxine, Headmaster Jaroslov, Harry, Fleur, Bill, Viktor, Percy, and Kingsley walked into the room. Ron, Teddy and two other Aurors were there already; watching from the background.

Minister Flannery had positioned himself in at the top of the room to give his speech. It was just too bad that he hadn't had the chance yet.

As soon as they'd gotten into the room, and no sooner than when the door was closed behind them, Fleur confronted her daughter.

"Victoire! Wat een ze world were you zeenking? 'Ow could you do zat? You promised zat you would not compete in ze Tournament-"

Fleur was unable to finish her tirade, for Victoire knew where it was going to end and decided to interrupt, "Calm down Mamma. I can handle this. I _want_ to be in the Tournament-"

"But you cannot. You weell only end up getting 'urt-"

"Why? Do you think that I can't take care of myself?"

"No, you do not understand Victoire-"

"Oh, I don't understand. I've listened to everything both you, Uncle Harry, and everyone has had to say about the Tournament but yet I _still_ don't understand-"

"No you don't. You cannot understand-"

At that point, the argument turned into rapid French and the only ones who could understand what they were saying were Madame Maxine and Noëlle. And even they had trouble with it since they were speaking so rapidly. Once they started speaking French Bill decided that it was time to intervene, even though he personally agreed with Fleur, he knew that they weren't going to get anywhere with the two women arguing like that. Bill took a step in between his wife and his daughter and tried to get them to calm down. He couldn't understand exactly what they were saying when they spoke French so quickly. But he did understand the names they were starting to trade back and forth.

Teddy watched as the family battle continued. He had to give Bill credit, he was the only one in the room it seemed, brave enough to try to call down the two part Veela women. However, he realized that the chances of Bill convincing the two women to stop wouldn't happen anytime soon. So he decided to step in. He took a few quick strides through the room grabbed Victoire's wrist, causing her to stop mid argument and pulled her out of the room through the door opposite to the Great Hall.

Before Victoire had a chance to blink, Teddy had gotten her out of the room and into an empty corridor. He let go of her hand, cast a _muffliato_ spell, and folded his arms across his chest.

He started at her calmly until she decided to speak, "What?"

"Nothing really. I just thought I'd give you a chance to cool down while your Dad's no doubt working on cooling your Mum down."

"I resent that," Victoire said giving Teddy a steely look.

Teddy sighed and leaned against the corridor wall, "You can resent that all you want Vic. But both you and your mum were about ten seconds away from scorching something."

Victoire looked at Teddy bemusedly. He silently pointed to her hands. Victoire looked down and saw that they were glowing red. No doubt from the anger she had from her argument with her mother. Just like when she'd gotten angry with Lucy in the Headmistress' office back at the beginning of the year, she realized that her Veela temper had almost ran away with her. Not that her mother would be able to have been harmed by her fire, people with Veela blood had some sort of protection against most kinds of fire and heat, both Muggle and magical.

"Well, I guess I should thank you then. I might've accidentally roasted someone," Victoire said evenly. Teddy was right to get her away from Fleur. She needed a little breather.

Teddy smirked, "Yes, well even though I'm sure Kingsley wouldn't have minded in the slightest if you'd hit Flannery, it probably wouldn't have been a good thing." Victoire let the corners of her mouth lift up into a smile. Teddy was very good at getting her to calm down.

"So, you decided to participate in the Tournament then?"

Teddy's question was innocent enough. But Victoire felt her defensive trait kick in. She knew that she was going to get it as it was with her parents and Kingsley, she didn't need Teddy to be upset with her too. Victoire looked Teddy in the eye; she was determined to seem self-assured and confident in her answer.

"Yes, I did."

They stood there for a moment, looking into each other's eyes. Not in a lovey-dovey way, but in a calculated manner. They were trying to figure out what the other one was thinking without speaking.

Teddy recognized the challenge in Victoire's voice and face. He could see that she was putting her armour up for when she went back in to see her parents. He moved closer to her and spoke tenderly, "Why?"

The word was said softly and simply, he wasn't challenging her, he was just curious.

"Because this is something that I need to do Teddy. This is how I can prove myself. To everybody."

Because he'd known her for years, Teddy knew exactly what Victoire was talking about. Victoire was a true Weasley. As a Weasley, she was concerned with making her own way in the Wizarding world. If she was going to be known, it would be for something _she_ did, not because of something her family has done. Ever since she came to Hogwarts, she was obsessed with making a name for herself based on something other than borrowed merit.

Victoire continued talking, "It's like with Quidditch two years ago. People said that I got on the team because you were captain, but when we played our first game, I was able to prove myself. Yes, people are going to think that the only reason the Goblet even picked me is because of Mamma and Uncle Harry, but if I have _any _say in this, which_ I_ _do_, then they definitely won't be saying that at the end of the Tournament."

He couldn't help but smile at the passion in her voice. Her tenacious and determined attitude about things was something he really loved about her. He reached out and pushed a stray piece of silvery blonde hair behind her ear.

"Well then, I guess tomorrow when some guys in the department decided to start a bet on who will win, I should put my money on you."

She smiled for a minute but then it faltered, "Yeah, but don't count your dragons before they hatch. If Mamma and Dad have anything to say about it, I'm not going to be competing in the Tournament. Kingsley too, for the matter will be upset with me."

He took a deep breath before speaking, "I know that you're upset with your parents. But they're just trying to protect you. They are scared silly that you're going to get hurt, or even worse. And you can't really blame them after what happened in the last Tournament though, they have reason to worry."

Victoire took a deep breath also, "I know . . . but this isn't them anymore, and this isn't the last Tournament. The world's in a different place now than it was all those years ago. They don't have to be as worried."

"Victoire, they're you're parents, they're never going to stop worrying about you. You just have to convince everyone else that you deserve a chance, Bill and Fleur will be upset, but they will be behind you."

Victoire smiled brightly at him. She glanced down both sides of the hall before reaching up on her tiptoes to give Teddy a quick peck on the lips. When she finished Teddy rolled his eyes at her and looked down at her. She had put an expression of complete innocence in her face. He smirked at her before turning around to open the door back up to the chamber.

The room was quiet as Victoire and Teddy entered. Every eye was on the two of them, their exit had been so sudden and abrupt that everyone had confused looks on their faces. Even though he probably should have been, Teddy wasn't worried about what people would make of the scene they'd created. The only faces he sought to read were Harry's and Kingsley's. Harry had just nodded at him as he came back in and Kingsley had mouthed the words 'thank-you'.

Victoire walked to the centre of the room where her mother and father were standing, "Dad, Mamma, I'm sorry. I- I didn't mean to sound like that. I know I sounded like a brat and I'm sorry. But I'm not going to apologize for deciding to compete. This is something that I want to do."

Fleur and Bill looked at each other and then at their daughter. They knew that there was no point in arguing with her when she made her mind up. Which it seemed she had.

Fleur spoke for the both of them, "Victoire, you are certain zat zis eez wat you want to do?"

"Yes."

"You understand ze danger of ze competition and ze tazks?"

"Oui."

Fleur nodded, "Alright zen, I know zat we don't 'ave any zay in what you do. But we are behind you. You do know zat don't you chére?"

Victoire smiled at her parents, "Yes. I know that." She hugged her parents tightly; glad that they were on the same page again.

At this point Flannery coughed, he looked pointedly at the Weasleys and then spoke, "Well, I guess we can move on now. Unless anyone else wants to have a public family row?" Flannery shot a slight glance at the Krums. They shook their heads.

Flannery continued, "Good. Well then, welcome champions, to the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The three of you will compete in three tasks and the winner of the last task will be the winner for the entire Tournament. Now, this year's Tournament will be a little different because I've come up with some adjustments to make sure that it goes on as smoothly ever. One of the protocols I've initiated is that before the first task, which will take place in a little less than a month in November, is a program that will consist of a few training courses. Originally, the champions were not allowed to train specifically for the tasks, and that rule will remain, however, my idea is for the three of you to take a couple refresher courses on certain defensive spells. For your own safety of course."

By the end of Flannery's speech, Victoire was looking at Kingsley. She could tell by the look on his face that the extra defensive training program was not originally Flannery's idea.

Kingsley noticed Victoire's glance and winked at her before addressing the group, "I think we need to change your program a bit."

Flannery glared at Kingsley, "Really Shacklebolt? Well, since you're the _expert_, what do you suggest we do instead?"

Kingsley squared his shoulders and looked directly at Professor McGonagall, "These kids are going to need a lot more than four or five classes on defensive spells. I'm suggesting that they start attending three classes a week, one-on-one with a qualified instructor, in separate areas to discourage distractions."

Flannery gaped at Kingsley as if he'd suggested that Hogwarts needed to get a manticore as a pet, "What would make you suggest a thing like that? We agreed on just a few refresher courses. Not a whole defensive training session."

Kingsley crossed his arms over his broad chest, "Well, in light of recent events, I think it's best to make sure that they've got all of the defensive training they may need. I'm also going to double the protection the Castle has and increase the number of bodies we have out on patrol for safety."

Flannery narrowed his eyes at Kingsley, "In light of what recent events? It seems to me that the only thing that's happened is that the champions have finally been picked."

Kingsley glanced at Harry before speaking, "There has to be something abnormal going on here. Personally, I think that the Tournament should just be cancelled."

Flannery gasped again, "Wha- What! Cancel the Tournament! Why? Why would you suggest such a thing?"

"Look at what's happened," Kingsley gestured towards Victoire and then to Konstantin, "both Victoire and Konstantin were picked. What are the chances that two of the three new champions are the only of age children of the champions from the last Tri-Wizard Tournament? I'm sorry but both Victoire and Konstantin getting picked seems way to coincidental to be legitimate."

Flannery's face turned red with his agitation, "Not everything is a conspiracy Shacklebolt. Sometimes things that seem coincidental are just that, coincidences. If you start reading into things too much, you're going to get paranoid. Now, I know that you have a . . . ," he glanced at Victoire, "personal concern with the Tournament, but just because you're worried about one champions ability to protect their self doesn't mean that you can make assumptions on all of the other champions. The Goblet picked these three because it thought that they were powerful enough to compete. It picks the best out of the school; it doesn't concern itself with whether or not one champion has an advantage in talent over the other. That's something that the champions have to prove during the Tournament. We are _not_ going to cancel the Tournament and we are _not _scheduling anymore defensive lessons than those six that are already scheduled."

Kingsley had just opened his mouth to say something when Harry jumped in, "Personally, I think that scheduling more defensive lessons are a good idea. It would put more responsibility on the champions themselves and it could lesson our need for security after they've completed their training."

Flannery stopped and thought about what Harry said. It would seem very good for him if the press found out that he was so concerned about the champions' welfare that he organized a series of gruelling defensive classes to make sure that the champions would be able to protect themselves from any foul play. In the end, he decided that maybe Shacklebolt's plan, no matter how one sided his reasoning was, might work very well to _his_ benefit.

"You've made a very excellent point Mr. Potter. However, we're going to have to rearrange how we go about these lessons. Before we were going to have the champions from the last Tournament train the new ones, but in light of _recent events_, we're going to have to come up with some new trainers."

Flannery glanced a Harry, Fleur, and Viktor. He would have gone ahead with the plan, but the fact that two of the new Tri-Wizard champions were rather close to three of the last champions would give Victoire and Konstantin an unfair advantage compared to Noëlle.

Kingsley nodded in agreement, "I'll work on speaking with some of the senior Aurors. I'll pick some of the best three and have them work out a training schedule around regular school hours so that they can work with the champions. Of course, if Viktor, Fleur or Harry still wants to help with lessons, they can."

Flannery brought a hand up to his forehead. This night had gone on long enough. He needed to get back to the Ministry and work on other things. He nodded at Kingsley's last statement. Said a few well-versed yet meaningless phrases to the professors that were in the room, and excused himself. Madame Maxine took Noëlle with her and left right after Flannery. Fleur had a quick, whispered conversation with Viktor before he left with Konstantin and Headmaster Jaroslov.

Therefore, Victoire was left alone with Professor McGonagall, both of her parents, her Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron, Teddy, and Kingsley.

* * *

Well I hope that you liked it . . . and I really hope that you're excited for next chapter, wich will include some more very fluffy moments, and of course, some great Potter/Weasley/Wood clan moments. Heh, heh, I laugh just thinking about it.

I don't normally beg for reviews, I like to think that I'm more sophisticated than that (I just leave horrible cliff hangers to 'encourage' you to write to me), but I looked at my total amount of reviews and saw that I'm rather close to a very significant digit (100, which I really can't believe) and whoever is the absolutely lovely reviewer is, will get a big personal thank-you in my authors note for next week :) (Along with any other absolutely fabulous reviewer who leaves an outstanding and mindblowing (or Ego boosting) review or comment.)

Enjoy your reading!


	22. I Hope Your Defensive Magic's Good

A/N:Hey, here's the next chapter. Sorry that it's a day late, but I was sick yesterday and I wasn't allowed on the computer to update.

So, there's some nice fluff in this chapter . . . I know that the plot doesn't seem as though it's moving along a lot in this chapter, but personally I blame it on all of the Potters and the Weasleys, it's just so hard to get any work done with them around ;) I still think this chapter is rather entertaing though.

Disclaimer: nie myne nie (Afrikaans).

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I Hope Your Defensive Magic's Good

Victoire looked around the room. It seemed that all of the adults had converged across from her and were all staring at her expectantly. She wasn't exactly sure what they wanted her to say.

"Umm, well . . . I'm gonna go to bed now . . . 'night." She turned around to face the door before anybody had a chance to say anything. She was just reaching out to touch the doorknob when it opened from the other side.

Professor Neville Longbottom walked in and didn't have a chance to survey the scene in front of him before spotting Professor McGonagall and saying, "Professor Linkwell would like to see you in your office Minerva, he said that there were some things he needed to cover before retiring to bed."

Professor McGonagall nodded and took her leave silently. Once the door had closed behind her Neville had more opportunity to study the scene that was in front of him. The realization that he may be about to witness a large Weasley family row (and that if that was about to happen his best option would be to leave as soon as possible) clashed with his desire to hear first hand from Victoire about why she has decided to compete in the Tournament. Neville decided to stay and took a seat on one of the wooden chairs Professor McGonagall had conjured before the night's events, and had anticipated needing.

Neville's being seated, seemed to cue everyone else also to take a seat. All of the adults sat in wooden chairs identical to Neville's across from where Victoire was standing. The only other people left standing in the room besides her were Teddy and the two other Aurors whom she didn't recognize. They were standing unobtrusively at the back, even though Teddy had intervened earlier, his only actual reason for being there was because he was supposed to be shadowing Harry.

Victoire, feeling very much like she was on exhibition, spoke, "Is there something you want to say . . . ?"

Harry and Ron looked at each other before standing up and walking towards their niece. Harry spoke first, "Are you absolutely sure about this Victoire?"

Victoire squared her shoulders, "Yes. I am completely one hundred percent sure that this is what I want to do."

"Do you think you can handle this?" Ron asked.

Harry palmed his forehead as Ron spoke, "Really tactful Ron, really tactful."

A smile broke across Victoire's face. At times like this, she preferred her Uncle Ron's thoughtless approached compared to everybody else's sensitive and indirect questions.

"Of course I can handle this. I am a Weasley am I not?"

Neville smirked, "She's humble too."

Victoire gave him a huge smile, "'Course I am, I'm perfect like that."

Bill sighed; Neville, Harry, and Ron were forever feeding the flames of Victoire's ego by letting her get away with pretty much everything. He walked up to his daughter and put an arm around her shoulders, "We're not even close to being done yet here Vic. But it is late and you should be going to bed."

A thought came to Victoire and she jumped out of her father's arms, "Shoot! How late is it?"

All of the adults gave her an odd look before Kingsley looked down at his wristwatch, "Um, it's twelve o'clock. Why?"

"Merlin's beard! If I don't get to be right now Xavier and Ally are going to kill me tomorrow," Victoire moaned into her hands.

"Quidditch practice tomorrow?" Teddy asked barely concealing his smirk.

Victoire nodded, "All day."

"You can't go," Kingsley, blurted out suddenly. Everyone turned to stare at him.

Victoire raised an eyebrow, "I have to go. I'm the Captain!"

Kingsley folded his arms across his chest and faced his goddaughter with a determined expression, "You can make one in the morning but I'm going to schedule the first training session for all of the champions for tomorrow afternoon."

"Why so soon?" Neville asked.

"Because, these guys are going to need all the training they can get."

"Hey!" Victoire said placing her hands on her hips, "I can handle myself. And no, I'm not skiving off Quidditch practice tomorrow."

Kingsley opened his mouth to answer (more like order) her when Neville cut in. He had listened to the tension between them grow and grow and decided to step in before someone said something that they would regret.

"Victoire, I thought that you only had the Quidditch pitch for the morning."

Victoire was still looking at Kingsley, but she answered Neville's question, "We did, but then I remembered that Xavier and I had to cancel practice a week ago because we had to welcome the other students. We haven't had a chance to fit in the make-up one yet and decided that we'd plan an all day practice to make up for the missed time."

"But I thought that the Slytherin Quidditch team had the pitch from twelve to five."

Victoire smirked, "Oh they did. But Xavier and I were able to _sweet talk_ Knott into giving us the pitch last Wednesday."

Neville looked at her thoughtfully, "Wednesday . . . hmm, didn't the entire Slytherin Quidditch team come down with a contagious and painful case of electric boils Wednesday night?"

Victoire nodded innocently, "In a completely unrelated way they did. So it was a good thing Colton gave us their spot, they wouldn't have been able to use it anyway."

Teddy had a hard time hiding his smirk; he could just imagine the combination of hexes it would have taken Victoire and Xavier to make it seem like the Slytherin team had come down with electric boils.

Neville shook his head, "What ever it was, I don't want to know about it."

"Okay."

Kingsley was still looking strictly at Victoire, "I'm sure between Alexandra and Xavier, the team will do fine without you."

Victoire stared at Kingsley. She was battling the urge to please him with the urge to be selfish and get what she wanted.

"Just for the afternoon," he said smoothly.

She deliberated for a minute before sighing, she couldn't say no to him, "Fine. But if I'm not alive tomorrow, it will be because Xavier Wood had killed me in my sleep after I told him about not being there for the entire practice."

Kingsley smirked, "Noted."

"'Kay, well . . . now can I go to bed?" Victoire asked sweetly.

Her parents nodded so she turned on her heel and began her walk towards the door.

"Wait!" Kingsley called. She stopped and turned around.

"Ted should go with you."

Victoire felt her face get hot at Kingsley's words. Luckily, Kingsley was too busy looking at Teddy as he waited for an answer to his suggestion.

Teddy had to focus very carefully to keep his hair the black colour that it had been that night. He could just feel his scalp itching to turn the same red colour as the blush on his face. His hair stayed black, but his eyes seem to have popped out of his head.

He looked at Kingsley and tried to think about what would be the proper answer, "Uh . . . excuse me?" _Did Kingsley really just say that I should take Victoire to bed?_

If Kingsley had noticed Ted and Victoire's discomfort, he definitely didn't show it, "You should walk Victoire to the Gryffindor dormitories."

"Oh . . ." _Of course that's what he meant. Get your mind out of the gutter Ted,_ "Yeah, I can do that . . ." he answered a little delayed. Teddy looked out of the corner of his eye at Bill and hoped that Bill couldn't sense where his thoughts had been going.

Victoire, who normally would be absolutely thrilled with Kingsley's plan, could feel her dace drop. _Isn't this what we were just arguing about? I can handle myself; I don't need someone (even if it _is _Teddy) escorting me to my dorm like some prissy little girl, I'm Head Girl for goodness sakes!_

"No."

Everybody was surprised at the forcefulness of her voice; she had her arms crossed over her chest and met Kingsley's questioning gaze with a stern look of her own, "I don't need someone to follow my every step. I can get back to the Gryffindor dormitories just fine without any help."

Kingsley sighed, it was late and he was tired of arguing with her, "Victoire . . . please, just for once, could you do what I ask without any refusal?"

Victoire could see the weariness in his expression. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, _I know that he's only looking out for what's best for me, but I don't need protection . . . Merlin I'm tired. Fine, I won't argue with him, _this time_, but he's not going to get away with it again._

She opened her eyes, "Fine Kingsley. But just this once. I'm not going to stand to have a babysitter for the rest of the Tournament." Her expression was serious and stubborn.

Kingsley looked at her and sighed tiredly, "One thing at a time please Vic? It's late and you should get to bed."

It didn't escape Victoire's notice that Kingsley sidestepped her request (actually more of a demand) to not to have someone follow her wherever she goes. She stopped herself from rolling her eyes, and turned around, determined to actually exit the room this time. Third time's the charm after all. Once she was through the door, she heard light footsteps behind her; and recognized it as Teddy's tread. So he _was _going to 'escort' her to her dorm.

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Victoire turned down three different corridors and walked up one flight of stairs before stopping underneath a lit torch that was attached to the wall by a thick iron bracket. She leaned against the wall and waited for Teddy to catch up with her. She struggled to keep her facial expression cool and collected as Teddy's figure became illuminated in the soft yellow glow of the torch. His beautiful dark sapphire blue eyes twinkled almost blackly in the light. His pale skin looked porcelain white and his slightly scruffy looking fringe was a black-blue colour speckled with some odd silvery strands that Victoire couldn't remember seeing before. His amazing face even mirrored the same impassive expression that was on hers'.

He stopped when he was about a foot away from her. His eyes were roaming over her face like hers' had roamed over his. He crossed his arms across his chest and broke the silence first, "He's just trying to keep you safe."

She sighed; somehow, she knew that he was going to defend him, "I'm not a child. I can take care of myself."

"Just like when you told him that you could take care of yourself on the camping trip in Romania two years ago?"

Victoire felt her face flush, remembering that trip and her close call with those damned flying horses, "Those Midnight Arabian Pegasus look scarily alike to what Kingsley and Uncle Harry described thestrals to look like and you know it! And how was I supposed to know that they breathed fire? Anyway, that was two years ago, I'm much more responsible now."

Teddy sighed as he read her stubborn expression, "Listen you and I both know that you can take care of yourself, and deep down, Kingsley knows it too, but he's still very worried about you. You should have seen the look on his face when McGonagall called your name for the Tournament; it was almost as bad as the look on his face as you stood up. He's absolutely terrified of something happening to you, you're like a daughter to him you know. He's as worried about you as Bill and Fleur are."

She looked down as she felt the guilt stir with his words, "Okay . . . okay . . . I promise to go to all of the practice sessions and to actually try hard during them. But there's no way in I'm going to let him assign some meat-headed Auror to stalk me for the rest of the year," she looked up at Teddy -quickly remembering that at present _he _was the 'meat-headed Auror' following her- and hurriedly apologized, "sorry, I didn't mean that to be personal."

He smiled warmly down at her, his eyes sparkling, "It's fine, personally I agree with you. I don't want some meat-headed Auror following you around either," he said as he slipped his arms around her waist.

She grinned broadly at his statement. Normally, when the boy Victoire was in a relationship with said things like Teddy just said, and became possessive, that's when she would break up with them. She hated being looked at as a possession, something that boys would brag to their friends about owning. But Teddy's sweet and quiet declaration created a response which Victoire wasn't use to. Her pulse increased and she could even feel the palms of her hands getting sweaty (something that she's never felt happen before) she swallowed thickly and couldn't do anything but stare up at Teddy's face.

He smirked at her obvious speechlessness and bent his face foreword slightly to kiss her lightly on the lips. It was quick and impossibly sweet. She was feeling a little lightheaded from the kiss and barely registered the fact that Teddy had grabbed her hand and was escorting her up the stairs and to the Portrait Hole. They said a quick goodbye and Victoire, after listening patiently to the Fat Lady's tirade about people waking her up in the middle of the night (which was cut short once Victoire showed her, her Head Girl's badge), walked into the Common Room and stopped dead in her tracks.

She felt an odd sense of déjà vu as her eyes took in the sight of Xavier and Ally asleep together on the couch again. The only difference was that, this time, they had fallen asleep in a sitting position. Ally had her head snuggled on Xavier's shoulder and nuzzled tightly under his chin, and Xavier had his arm flung around her shoulders in the almost casual way most boys did when they sat on couches. Victoire was wondering how they had fallen asleep in that odd position until she recognized the two blurry shapes on either side of them.

Victoire sighed and pointed her wand at the black, ashy, fireplace. Bright, red, orange, and yellow flames erupted behind the grate and illuminated, not only the four sleeping figures on the couch, but to Victoire's surprise and slight vexation, a total of six more figures. Two on the loveseat opposite the couch Xavier and Ally occupied one by the floor the loveseat, one curled up in a large armchair by the fireplace, and two on the rug of the hearth. Victoire shook her head to herself (all ten people were still deeply asleep) and debated on whether she should wake them up and make them go to bed, or just laugh at them in the morning when they would, no doubt, complain about aches in their neck and backs from sleeping on couches, chairs, and floors. She decided to be a Good Samaritan and wake them up since she actually liked about seven out of the ten people, and was definitely scared about what Xavier would do to her if more than half of their Quidditch team (including himself) were in bad shape the next day for their practice.

Victoire cleared her throat loudly and focused her view on the sandy-blonde and dark brown heads of hair in the middle of the couch, bookend by two people with startling red hair, "Really Xavier. You need to stop putting yourself into such compromising positions."

The entire room jumped at her voice and a series of interesting events occurred after her initial comment. Xavier and Ally's heads had snapped up and they ended up banging them together before somehow falling off the couch (they had both tried to jump to their feet at the same time and with a limited space) and landing in a jumble of appendages on the floor. Dom, who had been beside Xavier on the couch, and Molly, whom had been on Ally's other side, yawned and attempted to help Xavier and Ally up off the floor while they tried to hide their laughter. While Xavier and Ally tried to find composure, which didn't seem like it would happen anytime soon, James and Fred; who had been asleep on the hearth of the fireplace, ended up copying exactly what their cousin/sister and Head Boy had done minutes before by clashing heads. They followed it up with a round of rubbing sore spots, and grumbling an interesting, and ever growing, repertoire of curse words under their breath, (which Victoire was genuinely impressed with as variety goes). Al, who had been curled up in the armchair, laughed at his brother and was able to get away with throwing a pillow at him and not have it reciprocated because of James' dizziness and general grogginess. Victoire ignored the antics of the boys by the fireplace and was about to question Ally and Xavier on _why_ they were all asleep in the Common Room at twelve-thirty at night, when a painful sounding grunt, and peculiar conversation, from the loveseat behind her caught her attention.

"Oh, I'm _so_ sorry -Louis? . . . _what_ _in the world_ are you doing on the floor?"

Victoire turned around and looked at the three figures by the loveseat. Rose Weasley, who was rubbing her eyes wearily and still lying down, registered slightly in her gaze, but the majority of her attention was on Cecilia Wood and her brother. It seemed that Cecilia had been the other body asleep on the couch with Rose; and when she heard Victoire's voice, had moved into a sitting position and placed her feet on the floor in preparation for getting to her feet. Little did she know that Louis has fallen asleep on the floor fight next to the part of the couch that she was sleeping on. When she moved to get up, she ended up stepping on his stomach, causing the painful grunt that Victoire heard, and eliciting her to ask him the question.

Louis glared at her through blurry eyes; one hand was rubbing his stomach, and the other held him propped up in a sitting position.

"Oh nothing really, I just fancied seeing what it was like to be rug. Being stepped on all the time- _by people with bloody huge feet_- and everything- What do you think I'm doing on the floor? I fell asleep."

Cecilia rolled her eyes at him and poked him with her foot again, this time purposely. Louis expected it and grabbed her ankle before she could pull her foot back. He gave a tug and she fell off the couch and on top of him for a minute before she was able to roll away.

She sat up beside him on the floor and punched him in the arm, "Git."

Louis smiled brightly, "Prat."

Victoire rolled her eyes at the antics of the two third years. She turned back to Xavier and Ally ready to question them, because something had caught her eye as she watched Louis and Cecilia harass each other.

"Why are all of you still in your day clothes?" She had noticed that Louis was still in his favourite plaid flannel shirt from dinner and that Cecilia was wearing a comfortable looking royal blue Puddlemere Untied Quidditch pullover with the words C. Bell-Wood in yellow letters across the back. She gazed quickly across the room and noticed that nobody was in their pyjamas.

Xavier, who was rubbing his head answered, "We were waiting for you to come back so we could talk but you took so bloody long that all of us fell asleep."

Victoire raised an eyebrow, "'Fell asleep' did you Xavier? In that exact position?"

Xavier's face turned red and he looked away from Victoire. Ally, whose face was surprisingly calm, decided to get the conversation back on track; "So . . . what's going on? Are you still allowed to do the Tournament?"

Victoire sighed and sat down in the empty armchair by the fire, getting ready for the explanation, "Of course I'm still doing it. It's the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the minute you commit yourself to it you're in it to the end."

"Told you so Fred, you owe me one sickle!" James broke out with a broad grin at his partner in crime.

Fred's face turned sour as he dug around in his pockets for the coin, "Darn! I totally thought that Kingsley's over-protectiveness would get her out of it."

"Well," Victoire started, "he almost did. Both him and Mamma were _very_ upset-"

"Did you or Auntie Fleur scorch anything Vic?" Al asked eagerly.

Victoire felt her face get warm, and it had nothing to do with her proximity to the fireplace, "No . . . but we might've if Dad and Teddy hadn't separated us for a few minutes and gotten us to calm down-"

"Teddy had to separate you from Mamma, did he Vic?" Dom asked, her Veela Blue eyes shining with a knowing quality.

Victoire glared at her sister, "Whatever you're thinking Dom, it didn't happen so you can just wipe that look off of your face-"

"Wait! I don't understand what's going on, Ted whom? Ted Lupin who's a friend of your family and an Auror, Ted? The one who was Quidditch captain for Gryffindor before Victoire?" Cecilia asked confused with the direction of the conversation.

Louis patted her on the leg, "Long story, I'll explain it later."

"No you will not!" Victoire said giving Louis a significant look. There were far too many people in on her secret as it was thank-you very much.

Louis rolled his eyes at his sister and whispered something into Cecilia's ear that seemed to clear up the confusion on her face. Victoire let it go since whatever Louis said didn't seem to tale long enough to cover the actual story of what was going on between her and Teddy.

"Anyway," she said trying to continue her story from where it left off, "we calmed down. I apologized for acting like a brat -no smart-aleck remarks Wood-" Xavier had opened his mouth once the word brat left her mouth, and she was tired of being interrupted, "then we had a gushy family moment, Flannery yelled at us to pay attention because he had some speech to give. Kingsley started discussing conspiracy theories, and now all of the champions have to attend three defensive training classes a week until the first task or until Kingsley gets it through his head that I can take care of myself, whichever comes first. Oh, and Professor Longbottom said that he didn't want to even _know _how we got Colton Knott to give us the Quidditch pitch for tomorrow."

Xavier's face turned red a little when Victoire mentioned how they _sweet-talked_ Knott into giving them the pitch. He was usually much more passive with the Slytherins than Victoire was, but she had a _really good_ plan, and they do need the extra practice.

"Extra defensive training?" Ally asked confused.

"Yeah, Kingsley thinks that something's up since both Konstantin and I were picked for the Tri-Wizard Tournament. You know, because we're the only of age children of the last three Champions eligible and we both were picked out of hundreds of people."

"Hmmm, that does actually seem very suspicious . . ." Molly, said. Victoire looked at her cousin and could practically see the cogs whirling in her head.

"Yeah well I'm not very worried I can handle myself."

Everybody but Xavier nodded at Victoire's words. He was watching her with apprehension. He had noticed that an anxious cloud had come across her expression as she recounted her tale.

"Are you sure everything's okay Vic?" He asked his eyes wide.

Victoire sighed and looked down at her feet, _just tell him already and get it over with. Tell him that you can't make it to afternoon practice because of Kingsley's over-protectiveness. It's probably the best time to anyway. He'll have to be quiet so that he doesn't wake anyone up. Just get on with it!_

"Umm . . ."

Xavier noticed her reluctance and quickly shared a look with Ally before speaking, "Okay everyone, I think it's time you _all_ went to bed."

Xavier's words were met with a multitude of reactions. All of them bad.

"What? We don't have to leave if we don't want to!" Fred exclaimed. He wanted to stay and find out what was worrying his cousin.

"Yeah, just because you're Head Boy doesn't mean you can boss us around Xavier!" James -Bless him despite his wrongness- said arrogantly.

Al and Rose's voices mixed together as they both pleaded to be allowed to stay just a bit longer and Dom rolled her eyes at Xavier and placed her hands firmly on her hips, (looking scarily like her older sister when she did), and spoke, "Get off your high horse Wood, we're all worried about Victoire, not just you."

"Yeah Xav, you know we're going to find out anyway," Cecilia concluded shrewdly.

"Yeah!"

"So why can't we stay?"

"I'm not leaving."

"Me neither."

"Listen guys, this is probably something Victoire doesn't want to talk about so-"

"I can't go to Quidditch practice tomorrow afternoon."

Everybody stopped talking at the word Quidditch. Their eyes flickered to Victoire and took in her uneasy expression before moving towards Xavier, who the sentence was obviously meant for.

Xavier's eyes almost popped out of his head as he considered Victoire's words. Cecilia was the first one to move. She knew exactly how her Quidditch-obsessed brother was about to react and was not planning to be around to witness it.

"Well, it's rather late and we should probably be on our way to bed," she said as she grabbed Rose's hand and dragged her over to the stairs. She stepped on Louis' hand as she got up off the ground as a signal to move.

Louis jumped to his feat and looked over to where James, Fred, and Al were sitting, "We should probably get to bed too." His exaggerated eye movements went over Fred and James' head but Al understood. He jumped to his feet and got his brother and Fred to the stairs to their dorm. Molly and Dom quietly followed Rose and Cecilia up the stairs. Leaving only Victoire, Ally, and Xavier.

"_What?_" Xavier asked Victoire again. He mustn't have heard her right. This extra practice was her idea after all, there's no way she would _purposely_ skive . . .

"Kingsley scheduled our first defensive lesson for tomorrow afternoon and he said that I absolutely had to be there."

"Victoire, we've only had one practice so far this year where everyone was able to attend. You have to be there for tomorrow."

"I'm sorry Xavier, but I can't. Trust me I tried to get out of it but I can't. I'll be there in the morning though, to get everything started, you'll just have to take over from there."

Xavier shook his head, "I can't do that! There's a reason why I'm not Quidditch Captain and you are. I can help you but I can't run a practice by myself, even if it is for half the day. I just can't do it alone. . ."

"You won't be alone, Ally can help you, plus I'll threaten James and Fred to be on their best behaviour. It'll all go fine Xavier, you'll see."

Xavier looked at Ally beside him. "Fine . . . but if we lose even one game this year Vic, because you haven't been able to make it to many of the practices, I'll do something worse than anything you might face in the Tournament."

Victoire smiled brightly and pulled Xavier into a huge hug, "Of course you will. Thanks for not freaking out Xavier!"

She let go of him, grabbed Ally's hand, and dragged her upstairs to the Girl's Dormitories while Xavier fought a smile as he watched them leave.

Once she was in her room and had changed into her pyjamas, Victoire slipped under the covers of her bed, and slipped her arm underneath her pillow with the intention of _finally_ going to sleep.

But again, something stopped her. She felt something smooth and cool underneath her pillow. She grabbed it and pulled it out. It was stiff, and textured. It was a small piece of parchment paper.

She whispered _Lumos_ and looked at the paper. Fifteen words were written on it in everyday black ink:

_You should have backed out while you could,_

_I dearly hope your defensive magic's good._

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Well, I hope you enjoyed, next chap has some more nice Teddy/Vic moments, and a very, very, lame pun. Please leave a review if you like! :)


	23. Practice Sessions

A/N:Hey, Guess what? I'm updating Early! Yeah! You can all thank my two week vacation, and the fact that I just got all four of my wisdom teeth pulled (because I can't really do anything until I'm healed) to thank for your good fortune.

I know I was supposed to write this for the last chapter, but the day I posted I had just gotten my teeth pulled and I was in a hurry because I wasn't even supposed to be on the computer. So I just want to thank everybody for the last reviews, or submissions. Bust mostly the reviews because I did make it to 100+! Yeah!

Special thanks to **Rachel**, who was my lucky reviewer number 100! And thanks to all my other awesome reviewers: **LilyRose95**,** curiousclockwork**,** kneeecole**,** Haley Renee**,** Neveraskquestions**,** rb95**,** TeddyandVictoire**, **Muentiger **;), **Goldemort**,** Violet Bleu**,** Dimcarien**, and** PeaceandCupckaes**. Plus eveyone else who has reviewed! :)

Disclaimer: Unë nuk e vetë (Albainian)

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**Practice Sessions**

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER, you are NOT A BEATER therefore you do NOT NEED THAT BAT. GIVE it BACK to FRED, PUT your gloves BACK ON, GET BACK to the MIDDLE of the pitch, AND FOR MERLIN'S SAKE PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!" Victoire yelled; her face the same shade of red as her Gryffindor practice jersey.

"HEY VIC! IT'S TWELEVE O'CLOCK. BRAKE TIME!"

Victoire sighed as she nodded her head in the direction of the voice and angled her Firebolt down to the ground. Once she had lightly touched down she saw six bodies do the exact same thing and grumbled to herself, _of course, _now _they fly fast._

Victoire stood with her hands on her hips as her team gathered around her. Ally and Xavier flanked her on either side, Xavier's sand coloured hair perfectly windswept, while Ally's cheeks were red from the rather cool October breeze. The two of them had left Victoire to her own devices this morning so that they could get some practice in themselves; before taking over in the afternoon when (based on how the mornings' half of the practice went) they'd have to spend the majority of the afternoon disciplining the team instead of practising. Two of her chasers, Caroline Hilbert and Roger Michaels, stood with their hands behind their backs and hesitant expressions on their faces. Victoire tried to smile at them, because they hadn't actually done anything wrong, but it turned into a grimace when her eyes went to James and Fred. _Merlin, why did I even pick them to be on the team? I should have taken everybody else's incredulous looks as proof that I picked the wrong people._

Victoire cleared her throat before starting in on her speech, "Hilbert, Michaels, excellent job. I know you only got about ten shots in each on Xavier, but that's actually rather good. And don't worry, you'll definitely get more practise getting it in the hoop this afternoon. Ally great job with the bludgers, and how's your arm?" She had been hit by a rebounded quaffle that Xavier had hit particularly hard away from the hoop with his broom. Xavier had felt horrible and hadn't stopped apologizing since she'd been hit over an hour ago. On the bright side, Victoire had been able to convince the two of them to stop politely apologizing to each other and alternating taking the blame, and to get back on their 'bloody brooms' as she'd termed it and to stop wasting 'valuable-pracitce-for-kicking-Slytherin's-arses-in-the-first-Quidditch-match-time'.

Ally mumbled something about being 'fine' and Victoire continued, "Wood, good job protecting the hoops, you just need to stop getting _distracted_ by the other players and focus on who the quaffle goes to after you're initial release, because if you'd been paying attention, three of Caroline's goals on you could have been easily saved." Xavier's face turned red and he looked away from both Victoire and Ally (whom Victoire had inclined her head towards as she laid specific emphasis on the word _distracted_) while he regained his composure.

"Fred . . . you did a good job passing bludgers back and forth with Ally . . . just make sure to keep a better _hold_ of your beater's bat in the future, alright?" Fred nodded grateful that Victoire had completely blown-up at him. Despite what he's said in the past, he could be rather scared of his elder cousins from time to time, especially when they have the Weasley determination _and_ a dangerous Veela temper.

"And James . . ." Victoire was at a loss for a moment as to what she was going to say. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself. Now would not be a good time to let her temper get away with her, especially when the spectator stands were much fuller than they would be if any other House Quidditch team were practicing. _Well, if any other person were captain of the Quidditch team . . ._ she amended. Knowing full well that there wouldn't be so many students watching if she hadn't been named Hogwarts' next Tri-Wizard Champion last night.

"I need to know if you're serious about this team, because if you're not going to act serious in practice, then you won't be able to act serious in the game."

James looked down, justly ashamed of his previous actions, "I'm sorry Vic. Believe it or not, I didn't actually mean for all of that to happen . . . it just kinda snowballed."

Victoire looked at her cousin's contrite face and was satisfied with the knowledge that, whether he was telling the truth about the incident or not, he was sorry for having disobeyed her.

James looked up after waiting one more moment to make sure that Victoire wasn't about to hex and/or scorch him. He smiled at her, his brown eyes shining mischievously, "And you should know that I'll definitely be serious Victoire. After all, Sirius is my middle name."

Xavier, Caroline, and Roger smirked at his lame pun while Victoire, Ally, and Fred rolled their eyes. He'd been making that pun ever since he first learned the irony of it when he was eight.

"Anyway," Victoire continued, "I'm not going to be able to make practice after lunch-"

Caroline and Roger, the only two who hadn't already known this, gasped in surprise, "So, Xavier will be running the show while I'm gone, and Ally will be assisting him. You will all do whatever they say-" Victoire shot a specific look at James and Fred,

"Unless of course Xavier says something crazy about practice running until twelve o'clock at night. If he tries to convince you of this, or something else equally ridiculous, I give you all permission to use whatever charm or spell you feel is needed to get him out of his delusional dreamland. 'Kay?" Xavier scowled at Victoire's jab but everyone else smiled brightly and nodded.

Victoire excused the team to go get lunch, reminding them that the second half of their practice will start at one o'clock, and bent down to put all of the equipment back into the large trunk. She was going to bring it back to the change room so that somebody wouldn't come around and mess with it. Xavier and Ally had started on their way to the Castle, when they realized that Victoire wasn't following them.

"Aren't you coming to lunch Vic?" Ally asked her cousin sweetly.

Victoire shook her head and pointed her wand at the bludgers to immobilize them in their casings, "I'm not hungry. You guys go ahead. I'll take this stuff back to the change room and then I'm going to go to the Auror's meeting room."

"I thought you didn't need to be there until one," Xavier reminded her shrewdly.

Victoire nodded, "I don't, but I was hoping to talk to Kingsley before training started . . ."

Xavier and Ally wore matching smiles, "Finally fessing up to who you fancy?"

Victoire raised an eyebrow, "Since when do you exceed the rules of normal amounts of alliteration in conversation, Xavier?"

"It sounded good in my head okay? And stop changing the subject," the sandy-blonde-Quidditch-obsessed-Head-Boy said.

"Yes, I'm finally going to tell him about me and Teddy . . ."

Ally gave a very girly and abnormal shriek and flew at Victoire. She crushed her favourite cousin in a hug while gushing, "OhmyMerlinthisis_so_'tbeliveyou'reactuallytellingKingsley!"

Victoire gasped for breath as she manoeuvred herself out of her cousin's surprisingly strong grip, "Gees', take a breath Alexandra. It's not the most exciting thing in the world."

Ally stepped away from Victoire and succumbed to a brilliantly red Weasley blush, "Sorry. But your plan sounds great . . . however, I still think that you should come with us and grab a bite to eat, you haven't eaten anything yet today . . ."

Victoire looked away from her cousin's concerned gaze, "I ate at breakfast-"

Xavier cut her off, siding with Ally, "No you didn't, you pretended to eat. We're worried about you Vic. You haven't shovelled even one mouthful of food into your trap yet today."

Victoire looked away from Xavier's gaze to, _damn them, why do they have to double-team me?_

"Listen guys, I'm going to put this stuff away, and then I'll swing into the Great Hall for a bite before going to my practice session, okay?"

Xavier and Ally nodded contently before turning their back on their dear captain and walking off to the Castle. Victoire smiled sadly, as she watched them walk away. She wasn't going to follow them.

* * *

Victoire let out a huge huff as she set down the large maroon-coloured trunk, which held the Quidditch equipment, onto the bench in the middle of the change room. She sighed and stretched her arms out in front of her. _Good Godric that's heavy._

"Why didn't you just levitate that?"

Victoire spun around to see Ted Lupin smiling smugly as he leaned against the back of the door to the entrance of the change room.

Victoire rolled her eyes at the, currently, bright yellow haired Auror, "I didn't really trust my magic for such a long distance without someone spotting for me to make sure that I don't hit anybody."

Teddy walked further into the room and with a flick of his wand the equipment trunk flew back to its' original spot on the shelf opposite the showers and lockers. He sat down on the newly cleared bench space in front of Victoire.

"I'm sure Ally or Xavier wouldn't have begrudged you five minutes to help you levitate it back."

Victoire shrugged, she turned away from Teddy to rifle through her locker for her change of clothes, "They were excited to get to lunch, and they only have an hour before the next practice starts."

Teddy was worried about the odd tremor in her voice. Victoire was queen of the poker face. Even when something is bothering her, she usually didn't let it show. Most times, you'd have to drag it out of her word by word to find out what was wrong. The fact that her voice was betraying her so easily bothered him.

"You should probably go get something to eat also, practice starts in less than an hour."

Victoire nodded. She peeled off her red Gryffindor practise jersey and threw a light-blue, knitted Weasley jumper over the plain white tee she was wearing underneath. She grabbed a pair of plain black pants and walked into one of the shower stalls. A minute later, she had re-emerged now wearing the pants, and holding the pair of stretchy white practice shorts she had been wearing before. Her back was turned to him as she folded the practice clothes and placed them back into her locker as she spoke, "So that's why you're here then? To make sure I go to the practice and not skive off?" Her smile was wicked as she turned around.

Teddy grinned right back at her, "No 'course not. I came in here because I thought it'd bring back memories."

Victoire's smile fell. Her expression turned from joking to serious as she contemplated, "The last time you were here was last year when Gryffindor won the House Cup."

Teddy's smiled thinking back. _That was a great day, and a great game. Harry and Ron had gotten him out of the boring training seminar on how to properly handle paperwork because Gryffindor had made it into the final Quidditch match for the House Cup. Having brought the House Cup into Gryffindor for the past two years when he was Captain, Teddy was excited to see Victoire do the same for her first year as Captain (there was no doubt in his mind that Gryffindor would win). As he watched the game, he was even happier to see that she'd improved in skill since he'd last seen her play. Not that she hadn't been a fantastic seeker before, but she just seemed much more confident and at ease with her position after a few years to get used to it. After they'd won the cup, he had followed her into the changing rooms to congratulate her on her first House Cup as Captain. He hadn't seen her since Christmas (he'd missed the annual Easter get-together because he had Auror training in another part of the country), and he greatly missed her. They had been best friends since they were children, and it saddened him that he hadn't been able to see as often as he would have liked that year because of his training. _

"That was when I realized it."

Teddy's reverie was broken by Victoire's statement. He looked at her surprised, "Realized what?"

Victoire looked up at him, her eyes open, yet somehow guarded, "Realized that I fancied you."

Teddy's mouth opened, but no words came out. Victoire looked down. She knew that the first time she'd told him that she liked him; he didn't believe it. Like with the story she told Ally, it took a lot of convincing to change Teddy's mind about how their relationship should be.

Teddy brought his hand up to Victoire's face, and lifter her chin. Her face was red and flushed, very unusual for a Veela, "Really?"

Victoire could feel her face heat even more, "Yes. I just- I didn't realize that I'd missed you so much until I saw you again. But then you hugged me and it felt different- and I just . . . I didn't know what was going on with me. After talking to you, I was in a daze for the rest of the night. Even now, I can still hardly remember the after party in the Common Room, and I probably wouldn't have even remembered going to bed if Xavier hadn't snapped me out of the daze by pouring a glass of firewhisky on my head."

Teddy raised an eyebrow, but Victoire continued before he could say a word, "It was his attempt at stopping me from doing a very embarrassing dare that I didn't know I was agreeing to, and that would have resulted in an awkward picture and maybe a ruined friendship between the two of us." Victoire read Teddy's face and smirked a little, "And that's _all_ you're going to hear about that little incident, Xavier and I have as good as made an unbreakable vow to never speak of it again. Anyway, that night, before going to bed, I realized why seeing you had such an . . . odd reaction, it was because I had a crush on you."

Teddy smiled bewilderedly, "And you hid it from me for that long?" He asked, referring to the fact that they had had their first date almost three months later.

Victoire's face turned impossibly redder, "It was hard enough convincing you when you did find out. I wasn't about to tell you that I'd been mooning over you for months before that."

Teddy thought for a moment, "If I'd known I might have given in sooner."

Victoire looked at him with a raised blonde brow.

"Okay, maybe not. But it's still an interesting revelation."

Victoire smiled and hugged him tightly, "We should go to practice now, huh?"

Teddy chuckled softly and ran his fingers up and down her back, "Nope, no more distractions or changes in subject. I'm going to take you to the Great Hall and you're going to eat something like you promised Xavier and Ally."

Victoire's face turned into a grimace as Teddy took her hand and dragged her to the door, "I'm not hungry, I had a big breakfast."

Teddy stopped and looked Victoire sternly in the face, "No you didn't. You didn't eat anything for breakfast. You wouldn't even touch the food."

Victoire's eyes grew large as something clicked in her brain, "How do you know that I didn't eat anything for breakfast? Better yet, how do you know that I promised Xavier and Ally I'd follow them into the Great Hall to eat?"

Teddy's face looked worried, "I-I-I-"

Victoire interrupted his stuttered non-explanation, "Were you following me? I know that breakfast could have been just a normal part of your job. But there was absolutely _no one_ around when I just spoke to Ally and Xavier. How did you know I was going to be in here anyway? I told Kingsley that I'd meet him in the Auror's office at one and promised to be there."

Teddy sighed and ran his hand through his hair. It changed from bright yellow to a pale mousy-brown, the colour it unconsciously changed to anytime he was worried and was trying to think about what to do, or in this case, what to say. He seemed to have decided. He looked deeply into Victoire's eyes, not saying anything but conveying his thoughts to her nonetheless. It wasn't _Occlumency _or _Legilimency_; it was something much more special and magical. It was a conversation based on their _connection_. And it only took Victoire a minute of looking into his eyes to figure out what he was wordlessly telling her.

She gasped. "So you were _stalking_ me were you?" She used the word she'd joked about last night to show him that she understood what he'd conveyed.

Teddy looked down at his shoes, "I was morphed at breakfast, and disillusioned during your practice. Kingsley didn't stipulate that I had to be, but I thought that it would work better . . . seeing as you were so upset about the thought of having a _babysitter_ for the tournament."

"He should have taken my anger as a sign that he shouldn't have _given me_ a babysitter. What, did he think I wouldn't find out?"

Teddy sighed, "He hoped that it would take a while, and that when you did find out he hoped that because he'd picked me to do it, you wouldn't be so upset."

Victoire raised an eyebrow again, "_Why_ would he think that you following me wouldn't make me upset?"

Teddy's face turned red, "I know what you're thinking, and no, I didn't tell Kingsley about us. He thought it would be better for me to follow you because we're close friends, and because if it was any other of the 'meat-headed Aurors' you would chew them out faster than Xavier Wood could say Quidditch."

Victoire still wasn't placated, "So what? Kingsley just ignored my request not to be treated like an inept child and followed everywhere I go and decided that I'd be fine with him going against my wishes just because he picked a friend to do it?"

Teddy nodded, "Basically yeah."

Victoire was fuming, "Okay I'm about to put a stop to this before it starts. We're going to the Auror office." She took a step out the change room door, and would have began her walk down the corridor if Teddy hadn't grabbed her arm, pulled her back into the room, and pressed her against the now closed door.

"Teddy-"

"We'll go in a minute, but first you are going to tell me why you keep changing the subject purposely away from _why you won't eat_."

Victoire narrowed her eyes, "I don't know what you're-"

"Victoire," Teddy said in a voice very close to being a growl.

Victoire's expression changed from angry and defensive to open and upset, "I just . . . I don't feel the best today . . ."

Teddy moved his hand up to sweep across Victoire's forehead and down her cheeks, it rested on her neck, "You don't feel warm, you're eyes aren't flinching like they do when you have a headache, and you don't have any abnormal spots or specs."

Victoire's lips tugged into a thin smile, "It's not a physical ailment."

"Too bad, there was a lot of you still left to search."

Victoire blushed.

Teddy's smile turned into one of tender concern, "What's wrong?"

"I-I can't tell you right now . . . there's not enough time and I'd need to get something . . . can we talk about this later tonight, somewhere?"

Teddy bit his lip, sneaking around with Victoire in a Castle full of Aurors (not to mention all of her nosey family members) would be a very tricky endeavour. He looked into her face and noticed the stress and emotion in her face.

_I wonder what she's so worried about. She said that she was fine with the Tournament . . ._ "Alright, you can tell me later tonight. I actually have something I want to talk about with you too."

Victoire was a little worried by the way he carefully placed his words, "Is something _wrong?_"

"No, it's just something we need to discuss . . . where do you want to meet?"

A sly smile curled across Victoire's face, "Room of Requirement at nine?"

* * *

Kingsley opened the door to the inner office of the Auror's meeting room and smiled happily. The normally ten-foot-by-ten-foot space had grown to the size of about two classrooms thanks to the help of a few well-placed undetectable extension charms. He ran his dark-eyes around the room to make sure that everything he had anticipated needing was there. _Chairs: check. Large pillows: check. An extra wall just in-case Victoire can't work well with the other champions and needs to work alone: check._

As soon as his internal checklist was complete, he went to the door to answer a series of knocks. He smiled as he let in Harry and Ron, along with some other Aurors, Headmaster Jaroslov and Konstantin Krum, and Noëlle Varens whom was accompanied by a slim brunette in her mid-thirties whom was introduced as Professeur La Croix. Kingsley looked from his wristwatch to the people in the room. Everyone was there but her. He sighed, _it just hit one o'clock. She'll probably be here any moment. I know that she's not very well known for her punctuality. Although Ted _is_ and he was supposed to be watching her and making sure that she actually _showed up_ today . . ._

Kingsley took on more glance around the room before looking at Harry. He shrugged his shoulders in return, showing that he didn't know what was taking Victoire so long to get here either.

"Okay. Well, I guess we'll start since we have a lot to get through-"

Kingsley's speech was interrupted by the muffled sound of a door slamming and the opening of the office door. Victoire stalked in, arms crossed against her chest and a wary expression on her face. It quickly changed to anger as she caught Kingsley's eyes. She walked right passed him and stood across from him in the empty spot next to Konstantin. Kingsley was confused with his goddaughter's mood until he saw Ted walk in directly behind her. He had his arms also crossed against his chest and a sheepish expression. He shot Kingsley an apologetic look before going to stand next to some of the younger Aurors in the room.

He put together the two's looks and came up with a hypothesis, _damn; she found out that I asked Ted to follow her around._

"Nice of you to join us Miss Weasley," Professor Linkwell said icily from across the room.

Victoire turned her glare to him, "What are you doing here Professor?"

Linkwell smirked at the reaction he got, "Well Miss Weasley, it seems that Professor McGonagall felt that you may need some to look after you and it seemed that I was the only staff member available to watch you."

Victoire stood up straight, "I don't need to be babysat." Somehow, Kingsley knew that that comment had been directed more to him than to Linkwell.

Linkwell considered Victoire for a moment, "Well, even though you may not feel as though you need to be watched Miss Weasley, there are a multitude of people who would beg to differ."

Victoire opened her mouth to make a comment (now doubt a rude one) when Harry intervened. "Okay, so most of these practices are going to be held in separate rooms so that each Champion has the chance to work one on one with the instructor. But today we're just going to go across some basic spells to see exactly what each Champion needs to target for practice."

Everybody nodded. Kingsley asked each of the Champions to stand in the middle of the room three spaces apart and to perform a series of basic defensive spells that they would have all needed to pass their respective O.W.L. level examinations. Each student seemed rather capable; there were a few things here and there that needed work, but all together, each of them would have gotten at least an Acceptable in Kingsley's mind. The different teaching techniques of each school seemed to come out in the practice session. Noëlle (Victoire decided grudgingly) was incredibly good at defensive spells and charms. Konstantin's strength was in offensive style hexes and curses, he was surprisingly agile and was able to dodge almost every curse sent his way and was able to reciprocate in kind. Despite the ability of each of the Champions, there was one that stood out above the rest.

Victoire was quick on the take when dodging and casting spells, and very quick to assess the situation given to her and to decide what was the best move. When the three of them were supposed to work together to avoid a certain hex, Victoire was always the last one standing, and fifty percent of the time, she was even able to take down the Auror who sent the curse at them before they could take her down. (By the end of the day she had beat all of the younger Aurors-in-training at least once, except for Teddy.) By four o'clock Kingsley called for a break. Noëlle walked over to Professeur La Croix, who put an arm around her shoulder, and they began a bright conversation in rapid French. Konstantin was joined by Professor Jaroslov who clapped him on the shoulder and began to praise his performance in Bulgarian. Victoire walked over to where Kingsley was whispering with Harry and Ron.

She walked right up to her godfather and gave him a look that plainly said 'I showed up. I practiced. I beat everyone. Now can I go?'

Kingsley ignored Victoire's look and turned back to Harry, "So have you decided who you're going to have teach each Champion?"

Harry shrugged, "Last night Viktor showed interest in being there to help Konstantin and I'm sure Professor Jaroslov would like to be there too, so I'll assign one veteran Auror, maybe McKenny, and two or three Aurors in training to help. Madame Maxine and Fleur talked it over and she's fine with the fact that Fleur doesn't feel comfortable with helping Noëlle when Victoire's competing. All Madame Maxine asked for was that Professeur La Croix be there for each of the sessions to assist Noëlle. I thought I'd assign two veteran Aurors and two Aurors in training, one of which will be Auror Donaldson because I don't want Noëlle to feel uncomfortable only learning from males."

Kingsley nodded, it sounded like a good plan to him.

"What about me?"

Kingsley and Harry looked at Victoire before shooting each other a look. Kingsley took a deep breath and spoke, "We're not sure about you yet Victoire . . . you did absolutely fantastic today, but that was to be expected seeing as you've always gotten Outstanding in Defence Against the Dark Arts-"

"So you realized now that I can handle myself and that I don't need any practice?" Victoire asked brightly.

Kingsley scowled at her, "You know very well that that is not at all what I mean. But I do think that whatever plan we work on with you will be slightly more advanced than what the others will start out with."

Victoire nodded and Harry took over, "Yes, we just need to figure out who will be most helpful in training you . . ."

"Can't you and Uncle Ron do it? You already know what I can and can't do; you should be able to tell what my strengths and weaknesses are."

Harry inclined his head, "I was thinking about that . . . but there are some things we'll have to do to . . . make sure things run smoothly . . ."

Victoire raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure what Harry was talking about.

Harry sighed, "First we'll have to have a Hogwarts Professor at each session so that people don't think that we're trying to cheat and teach you things that will help you more than the other Champions. And of course we'll have to have a few Aurors in training for you to practice against . . ."

Ron, who had been surprisingly quiet up 'till now, spoke, "Yeah and we'll be spending hours and hours trying to find the right Aurors since you pretty much beat every Auror in practice _today_."

Victoire smiled at the pride in Ron's voice.

Kingsley looked at her thoughtfully, "Yes, you were able to beat every Auror-in-training who was here today . . . except Ted of course."

Ron winked at her while Kingsley seemed to go into deeper thought about which Aurors-in-training he could assign to work with Victoire.

Victoire coughed self-consciously, "Whatever, just make sure that Professor Linkwell is never again the teacher in charge of watching me in my practice sessions."

Harry sighed, "Fine, I'll talk to Neville and see if he'll be available for our practice sessions."

Victoire smiled. Kingsley nodded and addressed the room. He said that the practice was over for today and that everyone was excused. It only took about a minute for the room to empty of everyone except Kingsley, Victoire, Ron and Teddy.

Harry had left so that he could set the new duty roster up, while Teddy and Ron took out their wands and silently went to putting the room back to the way it was before. Kingsley waved his wand and his desk reappeared. He sat down beside it and began to shuffle through his papers as Teddy and Ron fixed the room around him. Victoire walked until she was standing directly in front of Kingsley's desk. She placed her hand down hard on his desk, emitting a loud _thwack._

Kingsley looked up at her. Her beautiful pale face was set in angry lines. Kingsley could tell exactly what she was thinking. He sighed and ran a dark hand across his face, "Go ahead Vic."

"How could you? I told you that I didn't want someone following me around!"

"Well to be truthful, I didn't think you'd figure it out this early," he shot a look as he spoke in Teddy's direction. He didn't really blame him; he knew that Teddy wouldn't have intentionally told Victoire that he was following her. He was just upset that it was the best plan he had to keep Victoire safe, and that it hadn't even made it through a day.

"I know. You completely underestimated me. Just like you're doing right now. I don't need anyone looking after me; I can take care of myself. It's not like there's been a _threat _or anything."

It was too much to hope that no one heard Victoire's voice break on the word threat. She just hoped that they would think that it was fear of that happening that made it.

Kingsley looked at his goddaughter reassuringly, "Don't worry Princess nothing of the sort has happened, and nothing of the sort will ever happen. Hogwarts is secure and safe, and it will remain that way."

Victoire smiled, "Then there is no reason why I need to be followed everywhere I go inside the Castle then?"

Kingsley sighed again, "Victoire-"

"Please listen to me Kingsley. You and I both know that I can take care of myself yet you still want someone to follow me around twenty-four seven. But, this is a special case and the Tri-Wizard Tournament is controversial and dangerous enough as it is, so I propose a compromise. I'm always with someone when I'm inside Hogwarts, Ally, Sandra, Kyle, Chris, Xavier, always, the only times I could get into danger are if I'm by myself. So how about you just send someone to follow me when I'm by myself? I know I'm probably giving away all my privacy but if it will make you feel better . . ."

Kingsley nodded, "That could work . . . Harry could just keep an eye on the Map and contact the Auror who's closest to you whenever he sees that you're by yourself . . . but that won't work for when you're in the grounds. The danger grows out there; you'll need someone to follow you out there for safety."

Victoire sighed, "Fine. As long as I'm with someone inside the Castle, no one follows me. I will consent to have someone on hand though whenever I'm outside the Castle, or whenever I'm outside the school grounds at all."

Kingsley thought it over, "Deal." He stuck his hand out to shake Victoire's hand.

Victoire had one more thing to say though, "But if any of those Aurors gets in my way or does something to embarrass me I _will_ hex them."

Kingsley smiled as Victoire shook his hand, "I wouldn't have it any other way. It'll keep them on their toes."

Victoire smiled at him. Kingsley noticed something else in the gleam of her sea-blue eyes.

"Is there anything else you wanted to talk with me about Princess?"

She smiled nervously, "Actually-_mmmfff!_"

Victoire wasn't able to complete her statement. Teddy's large hand had gotten in her way. She twisted her head around and pulled away from his body so that she could see his face and so that he could see the 'what-the-hell-?' look she was giving him.

Teddy had tried to block out Victoire and Kingsley's conversation as he helped Ron put the office back to order. He had succeeded until he heard Victoire start on the next item in her agenda. Knowing full well that she was about to tell Kingsley about their relationship, he had to stop her.

Kingsley looked at the two with his eyebrows raised high on his dark head, "Yes?"

"Mmmfft!" Victoire tried again.

"It's nothing Kingsley," Teddy said smoothly as he began to drag Victoire to the exit, "I was just going to remind Victoire that she could probably make the last half hour of practice if she hurried. Don't worry, I'll watch her."

Victoire was looking at Teddy suspiciously but didn't contradict his words. Kingsley took one more glance at the two and nodded his head.

Only after Teddy had dragged Victoire out of both Kingsley's office and the Auror break room, and after he had found a silent corridor, did Teddy remove his hand from Victoire's mouth.

Victoire took a few steps away from him and again gave him her 'what-the-hell?' look, "Wha-"

"Don't ask Victoire. I'll explain it later tonight."

"What! You've been begging me to tell him for weeks and I had the perfect chance and you say don't bother!"

Teddy sighed tiredly, "Victoire . . . I'd gladly stand here and explain it to you in detail why I stopped you a minute ago. Sadly, this is neither the time nor the place. But when we meet up tonight, I promise to tell you everything . . . 'kay?"

Victoire looked into Teddy's face; his eyes were sorry and sincere, "Fine. But you better have a good explanation Lupin."

Teddy looked around the hall to make sure they were alone before placing his arms around Victoire's waist and pulling her close to him. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, making the skin tingle. The next two kisses were placed on her closed eyelids. Victoire sighed as Teddy's soft lips moved down to her up-turned, pixie nose, and pressed against it with the lightest pressure. He dipped his head to kiss underneath her jaw at each side of her head. Another two kisses were placed on either cheek. Teddy pulled back a little to look in Victoire's face. Her breath hitched in her throat as her ocean-blue eyes locked with his dark, tinkling, sapphire blue ones.

Teddy's next words were whispered against her soft, full lips before he applied the last of the pressure, "Don't worry Weasley, I do."

* * *

I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself, siriusly. Ah, but now that's that's out of my system hopefully my next puns will be more tasteful :)

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I had a very fun time writing the first line at the begininning so I hope it brought a few laughs.

I wonder what Teddy and Victoire have to talk to each ohter about? Hmmm. . . you'll all find out in the next chapter. Also in the next chapter: Some romance, some nice bonding, and of course, more Victoire/Xavier talk.

Subscribe, Review or Read if you like! :)


	24. Conclusions

A/N: Don't worry the world is not ending, (even though I am updating early), you all just convinced me through your amazing reviews that I should update early. And well, I had lots of time this week to get some chapters back logged, so I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for all the reviews that asked about my teeth. I've fully recovered from the Wisdom teeth extraction, and it has definitely seemed to benefit you seeing as I've had extra time to write, so, Yeah!

Disclaimer: (Arabic) **لا الألغام**

* * *

Conclusions

"Fancying up for your date with Wood tonight Weasley?" Pamela Mace said snidely as she watched Victoire brush her long hair.

"First of all, it's not a date. We're patrolling the corridors. Second, we're not dating, and even if we were it would be a rather pathetic date. Thirdly, even if we were going on a date, it would be none of your business anyway Pamela. So why don't you go downstairs to the Common Room and take part in your favourite hobby, you know, go find another girl's boyfriend to snog," Victoire said scathingly as she put her brush down, spun her hair together in a twist and held it back with a large purple butterfly shaped clip.

"Ha ha, Weasley and Wood, that's sounds good Pamela," Hillary McGill (Pamela's best crony) laughed, oblivious to the retort Victoire had given her boss for the immature statement.

Victoire rolled her eyes, lying on the bed beside her, Sandra giggled, "Yeah, make sure to mention that one to Xavier Vic. That Weasley and Wood sound good together."

Victoire threw her brush in her best friend's direction. She knew that what Sandra said wasn't meant as a joke about her and Xavier, but more as a veiled joke about Ally and Xavier. Even so, Pamela didn't know that, and Victoire was worried that Sandra laughing at the joke would be almost a confirmation about Victoire and Xavier's 'relationship'.

Victoire grabbed her Head Girl's badge and pinned it to her sweater. Since it was Saturday night, they didn't need to wear their uniforms when they were patrolling the corridors. Victoire said goodnight to her best friend and skipped down the stairs into the Common Room. She surveyed the room: her cousin Molly was sitting on one of the couches whispering and giggling with her friends, Al, Rose, and Professor Longbottom's first-year daughter Alice were together at one of the wooden tables by the window playing a game of two-level-three-player Wizard Chess. She saw Cecilia Wood with a few other third-years flipping interestedly through the latest issue of _Witch Weekly_, and she even caught a glimpse of her sister Dom, who was sitting in a chair by the fireplace wrapped around a fifth-year boy. Victoire looked closer and realized that the boy her sister was snogging was the new male prefect. Victoire rolled her eyes and looked across to the other side of the room in an attempt to stop herself from doing what she really wanted to do. Which was go over to Dominique and yell at her until her voice was horse. On the other side of the room, she spotted who she was looking for.

"There you are Xavier. Hi Kyle, hi Chris!" Victoire waved to the two boys sitting at the table while glaring at her fellow Head who was standing in between them.

Xavier straightened up and handed Chris back his quill. It seemed that he had been called over to help him with a paragraph on his report for Transfiguration.

"Yes, here I am. And as exciting as the story of how I got here is, it's going to have to wait since we should be patrolling since ten minutes ago." Victoire rolled her eyes but followed him out of the Gryffindor Common Room and into the school's hallways.

They had been patrolling the hallways for about half an hour and hadn't run into a soul (well, except for all of the Aurors on guard but Victoire didn't really count them as people). They were on the third floor when Victoire glanced down at the gold watch on her wrist. The small hand was on the twelve and the big hand was on the nine.

Victoire looked up quickly and smiled slyly at Xavier, "Hey Xav . . ."

Xavier stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Victoire with a raised eyebrow; Cecilia and his parents are the only ones who ever call him 'Xav', "Yes Toire?"

Victoire glared at him, "Fine, Xavier. Do you think you could do me a small, itsy-bitsy favour?"

"How itty-bitty?"

"Could you maybe patrol on your own for the next, I don't know . . . hour and a half? I have an . . . appointment."

Xavier looked at Victoire incredulously, "What exactly is this appointment and how come you didn't say anything to me about this before?"

Victoire put on a winning smile to hide her nerves, "Oh, well . . . I'm meeting with someone to talk with and discuss the measures and procedures of what's ensued these paths months and to let off my mental and emotion burdens that have been weighing down my sentiments and passions."

Xavier gave Victoire one more disbelieving look before letting out a loud chuckle that echoed down the corridor, "Why didn't you tell me you were meeting Teddy?"

Victoire looked startled, "How were you able to get that I'm meeting Teddy out of all of that?"

Xavier laughed even harder, "Oh, I didn't. Ally told me earlier before I came downstairs for our patrol."

Victoire swore quietly under her breath, she'd specifically _told_ Ally not to tell anyone, "Merlin, I knew I shouldn't have told her. Weasley's are horrible at keeping secrets."

Xavier smiled impishly, "Really? Well in that case there's something I need to ask you about Ally . . ."

"Don't even go there. Weasley's may be horrible at keeping secrets, but Veela's know how to keep their mouths shut when whatever gossip they are hearing about can be used at a much better time."

Xavier pouted, "Fine, but back to the whole you-ditching-me-thing. I'll cover for you, but only for an hour and a half, and you will _owe_ me **big time**!"

Victoire smiled winningly, "Thanks Xavier." She quickly pecked him on the cheek and smiled at him archly, "Oh, and FYI Xavier, Wood and Weasley sound _really_ good _together_."

She left him with his mouth hanging open as he contemplated her words, and skipped down the hall until she got to the wall she knew was hiding the Room of Requirement.

_I need a place where Teddy and I can meet in secret and talk together in confidence . . ._ After pacing back and forth in front of the wall, a large ornate iron door materialized between two portraits. She reached for the door handle and slowly opened it.

* * *

"So Vic . . . yellow or green?"

Victoire looked down suspiciously at the jellybeans in Teddy's hands. There was one bright yellow bean, and a forest green coloured one. They were sitting on a large, comfortable maroon couch in the Room of Requirement. Victoire had arrived about ten minutes ago and had found the room already set up, and Teddy already sprawled out on the couch. She had taken a seat next to him on the couch when he sat up.

Their meeting had been awkward at first; neither of them knew how to broach the subjects they desperately wanted to discuss with each other. They had sat in silence for the first five minutes before a large box of Bernie Botts Every Flavoured Beans magically materialized onto the table in front of the couch. Victoire and Teddy looked at each other before bursting out into laughter. Teddy was the first to recover from their mirth, he reached out for the box, opened it, and offered it to Victoire with the words, 'Ladies first'. Victoire had raised her eyebrows but took a bean anyway. Apparently, what the Room of Requirement thought they needed was a way to break the ice. They ate the jellybeans while discussing what they had done that day, in between the time the time they last saw each other (about five hours ago).

Victoire looked back to the two jellybeans in Teddy's hand, "I'll take the yellow . . . there aren't as many disgusting things that are yellow . . ."

Teddy smirked, "What about earwax?"

"That's more of a golden-brown colour, it looks more like the toffee flavoured ones."

Teddy nodded, "Okay, ladies first."

Victoire's eyebrows rose again, "No. You're the guy, you first."

"Fine." Teddy placed the green bean in his mouth and chewed. Not one second later, he was making a revolted face.

Victoire smirked at him, "Grass?"

Teddy shook his head, "Asparagus."

"That's not too bad . . ."

Teddy narrowed his eyes at her, "You know I absolutely _hate_ asparagus."

Victoire smiled, "I know. Okay, my turn." Victoire threw the bean in her mouth and tentatively chewed it.

"Well . . ." Teddy asked, "what is it?" _It's no fun playing this game with Victoire, her perfect poker face never lets her down; no matter how bad tasting, it is._

"Hmm, I think it is dandelion . . . it's not actually that bad . . . kinda tastes like dandelion jelly or wine . . ."

Teddy looked shocked, "Wha . . . how do you even know what a dandelions taste like?"

Victoire smiled, "Do you remember when we were like four and six and Aunt Hermione was watching us and she took us to see her Muggle parents?"

Teddy nodded, "They were really surprised to see Hermione with a pair of little kids."

Victoire snickered remembering the shocked looks on Hermione's parent's faces before she explained who they were, "And it was a nice day so we were outside for like three hours collecting buckets and buckets of dandelions?"

Teddy nodded again, "It was one of the only times I ever condescended to pick those sticky little weedy bastards." Victoire rolled her eyes.

"Yes, anyway, after we picked them all we brought them inside and Hermione's parents said that they would be more than glad to keep them in the house. I was confused with their excited reaction because anytime I brought dandelions into the house Mamma would complain and ask me why I couldn't pick daisies or wildflowers instead of weeds and she'd throw them out. So I asked Aunt Hermione why they were happy to keep them. She told me that you could make wine and jelly out of the sticky sap in the dandelions' stem. When she took us back to her apartment she pulled out a jar of jelly that her parents had sent her and let me taste it."

Teddy smirked, "And it actually tasted good?"

"Oh yeah, it was pretty good. Dandelion wine is better than the jelly though."

"And do I even want to know where you had that?"

Victoire smiled brightly, "Uncle Ron. And no you don't want to hear the rest of the story."

Teddy nodded; he definitely wasn't one of those boyfriends who needed to _all_ of the details of Victoire's life.

Victoire gave Teddy one more sweet smile before taking the box out of Teddy's hands and placing it on the table. "I think we need to talk now."

Teddy nodded a repeated, "Ladies first."

Victoire closed her eyes and took a deep breath; she opened them and looked at Teddy. Her foot started unconsciously tapping against the wooden floor. She decided that her best bet would be to talk as swiftly as possible and get it all out, "About a month ago I was in charms class when this paper air plane flew onto my desk. It was a note. On the note was this six lined riddle-poem-thing. It didn't have a name on it, so I don't know who sent it. I asked Xavier beside me if he could tell whose handwriting it was, but when he went to look at it, it had completely disappeared. I didn't think anything of it until-until last night. When I went to bed, there was another piece of parchment underneath my pillow. Only this time there were two lines, and when I read it, it seemed like a threat. I was up half the night trying to figure out what it was, but then I fell asleep and when I woke up in the morning the parchment was blank."

Teddy's mouth was gaping open, Victoire had been talking so swiftly (a lot like Hermione did when she was rationalizing something), he had heard what she had said but his brain was still processing it, "What-"

"I know it sounds crazy but I'm serious. Here look at the parchment, see if you can get the words to appear again." Victoire went through three different pockets in her clothing before finding it in one of the back pockets of her jeans. She unfolded the one with the blue dot of ink (the first one she'd gotten) and handed it to Teddy.

Teddy still looked extremely bewildered but he took the piece of parchment that she offered. He looked down at it in expectation before realizing that it was blank, and remembering that she had said that the words disappeared. His gazed shifted from the parchment to Victoire, "Um, so . . . why are you showing me this?"

"I want you to try some spells and see if you can make the writing reappear or at least find proof that there were words on it and that I'm not going crazy like Xavier thinks," Victoire said.

"Um, sure I guess I could try something." Teddy pulled out his wand and began muttering some words while pointing down at the parchment. After a few uneventful minutes, Teddy dropped his wand and the piece of parchment onto the table and sighed.

"Victoire . . . this isn't working, and I really _don't know_ what I'm looking for . . . why don't you just let me see the memory of you reading the riddle?"

Victoire looked down at her feet that were still tapping on the floor, "No offense Teddy, but I really hoped that going through my memory would be the last resort. I-I just don't have the energy to work with memory charms or spells."

Teddy nodded understandingly, and reached for the parchment on the table, "Okay . . . well I can always try again, maybe I'll think of a spell I haven't tried."

At the same time, Victoire reached for the parchment and said, "No it's okay Teddy. Xavier was probably right, I am going crazy."

As soon as Victoire got a hold onto the parchment, she let go of it. The words had reappeared.

"What in the world?"

Teddy, who was still holding onto his half of the parchment, looked surprised at the sudden emergence of words. His eyes quickly scanned the words as he read them. Disbelief came across his face as he read the words aloud, _"__. . . Three champions will complete three tasks . . . And thwart the one with many masks . . . A task for each, they'll need to lead . . . To stop evil before it can seed . . . The final task does not mean this ends . . . To foil peril, you must work with friends . . ._ What in the name of Merlin's pants does _that_ mean?"

Victoire shrugged still somewhat dazed by the sudden reappearance of the words, "That's exactly what's been bugging me; I don't know what it's about."

Teddy was still confused about the who's and why's of the message on the parchment, but he was resigned to the fact that it would probably take a lot more than one night to figure the mystery out.

"How about we try to tackle this line by line."

Victoire nodded.

"Okay, so the first line is: Three champions will complete three tasks . . . that has to be talking about the Tri-Wizard Tournament, right?"

Victoire thought, "It must, but I don't understand, I got this before about a week after they revealed the Tournament to the school. Before I was picked. That's why I thought it was some joke from a Slytherin at first; that they were just bugging me because everyone had started to talk about how I'd probably be picked."

Teddy nodded, "Let's focus on the next line then: And thwart the one with many masks . . . I have no idea what that means."

"Thwart, well it's saying that the three champions will end up 'thwarting' some persons' plan. And by the words they use they must mean some sort of evil plan . . . but who's the person with many masks? And what exactly is the evil thing they're doing?" Victoire asked aloud, to no one in particular.

"I don't know. How about we skip that line and go to the third one: A task for each they'll need to lead . . . I think this is predicting that each of the champions will come out on top on one of the tasks in the Tournament."

Victoire nodded, "That's sounds right, but how in the world would they know that?" Victoire's eyes suddenly widened and she swallowed audibly, "Teddy, is it just me, or is this is reading a lot like a prophecy?"

Teddy glanced down at the parchment again, "It's not just you."

"Great."

"Next line: To stop evil before it can seed . . . okay; at least we know one of our conjectures is right. Whatever plan needs to be thwarted, its evil."

"Perfect," Victoire mumbled folding her arms across her chest.

"The final task does not mean this ends . . . that doesn't really bode well now does it?"

"No."

"To foil peril you must work with friends . . . so . . . Xavier better stop thinking that you're crazy because it seems like you're going to need his help."

Victoire sighed as she brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. Ones that had fallen out of her clip, "I still think I'm crazy. This is just . . . forgive my next statement for its immaturity, but this is frigging stupid! Some riddle/prophecy randomly lands on my desk describing the future of the Tri-Wizard Tournament along with heads up about this evil person 'with many masks' who's setting up some evil plan that the champions have to thwart to avoid peril, and, it's pretty much commanding me to bring my friends into this insane mess."

She grabbed a pillow that had suddenly appeared onto the couch, pressed it into her face, and promptly screamed into it. While Victoire let out her frustrations on the helpless furnishings, Teddy looked back at the piece of paper. The words were still on it. His sigh was resigned as he folded the paper up and placed it back onto the table.

"Victoire, I think we just need to take a step back from this. Yes, this is odd, and frustrating, but I think you're putting too much store into this. We need to look at all the real hard evidence. What do we actually have? A piece of parchment with a confusing riddle on it that talks about the Tri-Wizard Tournament. That's all it is, paper, with ink. We don't know if this is some sort of prophecy or not because the Tournament hasn't happened yet. We'll only know for sure when either: A). Each Tri-Wizard Champion wins one task each, or B). We find real evidence of some crazy evil plot by a 'man with many masks'."

Victoire had calmed as she listened to Teddy's methodical rationalizations, "Your right Teddy I guess I was just letting all of my stress for everything else come out as an irrational obsession with this odd mystery of a parchment."

Victoire placed his arm around Victoire's shoulders and pulled her into a tight hug, "Don't be so hard on yourself, you're going through a lot. Anyway, I think you said something about having two unidentified mysterious riddles."

Victoire squirmed under Teddy's arm, "Um, no I don't remember saying that."

Teddy stared at Victoire, making her squirm some more before she relented. She let out a heaving sigh and dug through the pockets of her robes, emerging with another, smaller piece of parchment paper. Teddy took it from her stony grip and opened it up. His sapphire blue eyes darken to onyx black as he read over the words. He looked up at Victoire with his mouth open, his expression shocked and enraged.

"What-" he started, but stopped when he heard how unconcealed his rage was in his voice. He took a deep calming breath and began again, "Victoire . . . the other one may/or may not have been serious, but this, this is an outright threat."

Victoire shrunk into the strong arm that was still around her shoulders, "It's not necessarily a threat . . ."

Teddy looked at Victoire stunned, "_You should have backed out while you could, I dearly hope your defensive magic's good_ . . . how is that not a threat?"

Victoire didn't say anything but Teddy could feel the shrug of her shoulders. He looked at her pained, "We need to tell Kingsley."

"NO!" Victoire's eyes were wide.

"C'mon Victoire, be reasonable, this is something that he needs to know about, this could actually be a real threat against you."

"No," Victoire repeated fiercely, "we can't tell him. He's so close to taking me out of the Tournament anyway because of _make-believe-conspiracy-theories_, if he's knows that there might be real precedent about it there's no way he'd let me continue."

"Exactly. This is real, sort of tangible, proof. It at least needs to be looked into. When did you get that anyway?"

"It was underneath the pillow of my bed when I went to bed last night."

Teddy swore quietly, "In your dorm room? This could be very serious."

Victoire need to backtrack, she didn't expect Teddy to be freaking out this much, "But Teddy, like the other note, this could very well be a joke. It was probably one of the people from the girl's dormitory that hates me. It could have been Pamela Mace, or Colton Knott from Slytherin could have convinced someone to do this for him. There may be no threat behind this whatsoever."

Teddy nodded, "You're right there may not be. But I'm not willing to take that chance. We need to investigate this." Teddy was actually moving across the room and to the door as he spoke. Victoire was able to slip in between him and the wood. She pressed back against the door. Stopping him from going for the time being.

"Let's think about this calmly for a minute, 'kay? There is no point in you going around and awaking half the Castle. Even _if_ this note is for real, nothing will happen until the Tournament, which is several weeks away seeing as we now have to go through this training regime Kingsley cooked up. There is no hurry, telling someone can certainly wait until tomorrow morning."

She stared at him until he nodded slowly, "And . . . didn't you say that there was something you wanted to talk to me about?"

One of Teddy's eyebrows rose at her obvious attempt at changing the conversation, "Nice try, but first you need to promise that you will meet me outside the portrait hole at nine o'clock tomorrow morning so we can go tell Kingsley about that note."

Victoire locked eyes with him; there was no way she was promising that, "Side offer. Kingsley's busy enough as it is, so are Harry and Ron. We work on the mystery of both of these notes and if we find any tangible, real proof that something wicked is afoot, then we tell Kingsley every detail. Deal?"

Teddy eyed her up, "Did you really just say 'something wicked is afoot'?"

Victoire scowled at him.

"Alright, alright, you actually make a lot of sense. We try to work this out and find proof before getting the other Aurors involved."

Victoire smiled, "Good." She placed her hands on his chest and began to gradually push him back towards the direction of the couch, "Now, what did you have to talk with me about."

Teddy felt the pressure of the couch when Victoire backed him up farther. He swiftly grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down to the couch with him. Victoire giggled quietly and looked up at him with a bright smile, "So, what's up?"

Teddy's smile had quickly darkened; he grabbed Victoire's hand and looked down as he played with her fingers, "Well . . . it kinda has something to do with how I acted in Kingsley's office today."

Victoire looked at him confusedly; _he told me he needed to talk before we went to that practice sessions today, _"Oh, are you finally going to apologize for completely interrupting me when I was finally going to tell him about our relationship?"

Teddy's face and hair turned red as he remembered his rash actions this afternoon. It was a good thing that Kingsley was used to them acting odd, "Well, it's about that. I think it would be a bad idea to tell him about us . . ."

Victoire looked at him shocked, "What?"

"Just hear me out Vic. It's not that I'm scared of Kingsley or anything . . . it's just that now our relationship needs to be kept secret."

"Why?"

Teddy sighed, "It's one thing for a Hogwarts student to be dating an Auror who's technically working for the school. The only reason Harry and Ron let me be placed here this year was because they trusted us to act appropriately, responsibly, and discreetly. But now that you're a Tri-Wizard Champion . . . things have to be different."

"Different? How so?"

"Well . . . like I said, it was one thing when you were just a student, but now you're a champion, and a relationship between a champion and an Auror who is supposed to protect them is very inappropriate and-and on some scales scandalous."

Victoire cold feel a lump grow in her throat, and her chest constrict, "Are you breaking up at me?"

Teddy finally looked up at her. His eyes were as wide as saucers, "What? Good Godric! No Victoire, no. Of course, I'm not breaking up with you. Only a right Prat would be stupid enough to do that, and even though I can be a Git sometimes, I'm not a Prat."

Victoire felt her chest relax, "Then what do you mean?"

"I just meant that we need to keep our relationship a secret for a little while longer . . ."

"_How_ much longer?"

"Until the end of the Tournament. It's for your own protection. If the media got a hold of our relationship, they could totally ruin it with rumours and lies. You read the article they wrote about you and Xavier, and that was just when they were speculating on whether or not you'd be a Champion. If they actually found out about us, it could not only ruin your reputation but it could also ruin our relationship. Keeping this a secret is in everybody's best interest."

Victoire looked down at her hand, which was held within Teddy's and thought. _He does have a good point . . . we'll have to be extra careful though because if the press finds out that I have a secret boyfriend then they'll do all they can to figure out who it is . . . of course, Teddy does still have the Marauder's Map, I have my Head Girl badge to explain any odd situations, and Kingsley did create a very good excuse for me being around Teddy so often with his stupid obsession with having me monitored . . ._

"I see your point. But we'll have to be extremely careful how we go about this."

Teddy smiled wolfishly, "How about we seal this deal with a kiss?"

Victoire smiled and met his lips with hers. Teddy had meant for the kiss to be soft and sweet, and to his credit it did start, and would have ended that way if Victoire hadn't intervened. She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth even harder against his. She could feel a chuckle vibrating through his chest, but when he placed one of his hands on her face; thumb stroking her cheek, and anotherhand on the small of her back; pressing her closer to his chest, she knew that he was quite content with letting her get her way. Victoire had just decided to deepen the kiss even more when she heard the soft thud of a door scraping along the stone floor, followed by an exasperated sounding sigh, and ending with an embarrassed cough, and these words, "Um, hi."

* * *

Well . . . that's the new chapter! You're all proabably going to have some choice words about me in your reviews . . . but I don't care. I'll gladly read and answer any reviews I get.

I hope you enjoyed it. And next chapter, well you'll _proabably_ find out who walked in on them . . . :) Happy reading!


	25. Of Nosebleeds and Practicing Dummies

A/N: Here's the next update, it's a nice long one for you :) I hope you enjoy, there will be a longer A/N at the end to cover some questions I got last week.

Discliamer: իմը չէ (Armenian)

* * *

Nose Bleeds, and Practicing Dummies

Teddy was the first one to break away, (Victoire had actually been the first one to hear it but she had been content to continue snogging Teddy even though the person's cough had obviously been meant to stop them). They looked away from each other's blushing faces, (okay, Teddy was blushing and Victoire was grinning impishly) and toward the source of their interruption.

Xavier Wood stood with his back pressed against the door of the room; bracing himself for an explosion. It wasn't Teddy he was scared of, even though the two boys were around the same height; Xavier's lanky build was solid, but not as muscular as Teddy's. It was Victoire's reaction he was afraid of. If she blew up at him, it could end in one of two ways: 1.) scorching fire from her Veela temper. Or 2.) Painful hexes from her Weasley temper. After thirteen years of knowing her, Xavier still wasn't sure which one was worse.

Keeping wary of all of the possibilities he may be struck with, Xavier spoke again, "I'm sorry to interrupt but Vic, we need to get to the hallway near the kitchens fast."

Victoire looked at Xavier in surprise but stood up anyway, "Why?"

"I came was patrolling and I heard Professor Linkwell talking with somebody. He said something about reading the patrolling schedule and saw that the both of us are on tonight. He said that if we've been following proper patrolling procedure, we'd be by the kitchens now. I've no doubt that he's heading his way there now so that he can catch us doing something wrong, which we are 'cause we're here, and not there."

Victoire rolled her eyes; Xavier only starts rambling when he's _really_ nervous, "Calm down Xavier. Let's just go."

"We won't be able to get there in time, he has a head start on us and he'll see us if we start running."

"At Hogwarts, help is always there when you ask," Victoire smirked. As if on cue a large square of the wall on the right side of the room opened; showing them a glimpse of a dark tunnel.

Xavier shook his head, "Wow. This room really is unbelievable."

"Yeah, we know."

Victoire quickly kissed Teddy goodbye and pushed Xavier into the dark tunnel. They lit their wands and walked down the dark, dirt passageway. Xavier stumbled a bit but continued walking down the path. They'd walked a little distance before he spoke again.

"I'm sorry about interrupting."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Sure. Just remember this little incident for later."

Xavier smiled but it was short. "We'll never get there in time. We still need to go down like three floors."

Victoire just looked ahead into the passageway and smiled, "Oh, I think we'll get there in plenty of time."

"Pardon?" Xavier asked, looking very worried, which wasn't too odd considering the look Victoire was giving him.

"Just close your eyes and it will all be over before you know it," Victoire said as she hooked her arm with Xavier's and ran a few metres ahead into the dark tunnel.

Xavier didn't have a chance to argue, or even question Victoire's action before he felt the floor disappear from under him. He yelled as he landed; face first, on some sort of chute/slide thing. It was pitch-black and he could feel the air zooming past his face, giving him an idea of how fast he was moving. His only moment of reassurance as he slid downward and twisted around corners was that, from behind him, he could hear Victoire's exuberant laugh. A few seconds later Xavier fell with a thud and a loud groan of pain onto the stone floor. Before he was able to get up, Victoire came sliding out of the chute. She saw Xavier on the ground, and before she was able to fall on top him, she waved her hand and shot out farther above him before landing lithely on her feet. She turned to face him and extended her hand to help him up.

Xavier sighed and accepted. One hand in hers the other rubbing his stomach where he'd taken the brunt of the fall, "How did you do that?"

"Wandless magic," Victoire answered dropping his hand.

Xavier nodded, "Oh yeah . . . do you hear something?"

Victoire kept silent as she strained her ears to catch what Xavier was talking about. She heard it. The crisp sound of footsteps on the stone floor. Victoire guessed that there were about two people, and that they must have been at least two minutes away. She could hear Professor Linkwell's voice talking to someone, "They must be down here. I heard a loud sound. Leave it to those two Gryffindors to be doing something inappropriate when they should be patrolling. They better have a good excuse when we find them." The other person answered with a tired sounding sigh.

Xavier looked at Victoire panicked, "What are we going to do? He heard my fall and we can't very well tell him the truth."

"I think I've got a plan," Victoire whispered.

"Godric that never bodes well," Xavier murmured to the sky above him.

Victoire ignored him and arched an eyebrow, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Xavier looked sacred, "Dear Merlin I hope not."

She ignored the jibe again and whispered her plan in his ear.

Xavier groaned, "Why did I have to be right?"

Victoire scowled at him and whispered harshly, "Well, yes or no?"

"Fine, but this doesn't leave the two of us. And Ally will _never_ find out. Is that clear?"

Victoire nodded before putting their little plan into action.

* * *

"I'm telling you Professor Cooke, those two aren't fit to be Heads," Professor Linkwell said as they walked down the hall to the kitchens.

Professor Cooke nodded his head quietly but was rolling his eyes on the inside. It had been six years since he was last at Hogwarts as a student and Linkwell was still as angry and annoying as he was when he'd been a student. Professor Cooke knew that, as the Head of House for Slytherin, Linkwell absolutely hated all Gryffindors, no matter how good of students they were. At Hogwarts Professor Cooke had been a Ravenclaw, so he'd never felt Linkwell's unnecessary hate because of his house, but he was certainly sure that he'd see it tonight when they finally found Miss Weasley and Mr Wood.

Linkwell continued to mutter about the students as they came closer to the last corner. A bright light, a sharp bang, and a pained cry of 'OW!' interrupted Linkwell's complaining, and caused the two Professors to speed up and turn the corner. Professor Cooke's face immediately took on a look of confusion, and even Professor Linkwell's face -which was set into his customary scowl-, had shown a quick look of surprise and puzzlement before sliding back into a disappointed look as they studied the scene in front of them.

Xavier Wood was next to Victoire Weasley; her hands covering her mouth, which, along with the rest of her face, was screwed up into a shocked and contrite expression. Professor Cooke's eyes went from Victoire to Xavier. He was doubled over with one knee on the floor. He had his hands up covering his nose, which seemed to be bleeding profusely, and he was grumbling a string of pained expletives.

Professor Linkwell spoke first, "What in the world is going on here?"

Victoire looked up at Linkwell with a distressed face, her voice seemed close to tears, "I heard a noise and went to use a detection spell but it bounced off of the wall and hit Xavier in the face."

Linkwell grumbled at Victoire while moving closer to inspect Xavier's face, none-too-gently. Professor Cooke stayed where he was and looked at Victoire. Her face said that she was worried and ashamed of herself, but he could see _something_ in her eyes; almost as if they were grinning. Professor Cooke's gaze shifted from Victoire to inspect Xavier. He looked at him closely for the first time, his nose was running with a crimson colour liquid, but the area around his face was still perfectly matched to his skin colour. If his nose was really bleeding that much, there was a lot of blood on his face and on his shirt where it had dripped, his face should be looking whiter from the blood loss. Cooke put this together with Victoire's not so authentic facial expressions and came up with a conclusion that made him smirk.

Victoire saw the comprehension come into Professor Cooke's face and quickly turned away from him, she and Xavier needed to get out of there now, before he voiced his suspicions to Linkwell. Although she doubted that Professor Cooke would tell on them, she knew they still had to leave before Linkwell finally put two-and-two together.

"Professor Linkwell, I think I should take Xavier to the Hospital Wing to get him healed."

Professor Linkwell sneered at Victoire, "I thought you were proficient at healing spells Miss Weasley. I at least thought that you liked to show off your skills."

Victoire tried not to glare at Linkwell, she knew that he was trying to antagonize her, "Yes, well I think I've done enough damage to Xavier today. So . . . goodbye Professor Linkwell, Professor Cooke . . ."

Victoire grabbed Xavier's arm and dragged him a good five hallways away and up two floors before stopping. She took a purple coloured sweet out of her pocket and tossed it to him. While Xavier chewed, his nose stopped bleeding.

Victoire quietly casted a cleaning spell on his clothes to vanish the blood.

Xavier's hand moved up to his nose and he gingerly felt it while speaking, "I swear if I have to hear even one snide comment about Gryffindor boys being weaker than girls, in Transfiguration on Tuesday I'm going to hex you Vic."

Victoire smiled brightly, "But you know it's true. In a fight, I could totally beat you. Besides, you won't hex me, because if you did, then I'm sure somehow, Ally will find out about this whole incident."

Xavier rolled his eyes and they began walking, "Where did you get the Nose-bleed Nougat anyway? Does George make you all carry around a little tester bag of all of his products?"

Victoire laughed, "No. Actually, they appeared in the Room of Requirement while Teddy and I were in there . . . we didn't understand why they appeared, but I pocketed them anyway. I guess the Room just knew that I was going to need it."

Xavier nodded, "I don't see why I needed to look like I had a nosebleed though. And even if we did, why couldn't you have been the one sporting it?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, "First, we needed some sort of excuse to get out of Linkwell's way or we probably would still be there listening to some kind of irate lecture from him which we don't deserve. Second, even though I know that I look great in red, I couldn't be the one sporting the nosebleed because then you would seem violent and like an abusive boyfriend."

Xavier scowled, "I'm not your boyfriend."

"Yes, but Linkwell doesn't know that."

"He should."

"Let me re-phrase that, Linkwell doesn't _care_."

Xavier nodded his head in concurrence and stopped. They had made it to the portrait hole. Victoire whispered the password, and once they were inside, her and Xavier said a quick goodnight and left to their respective dorm rooms, and to their respective beds. As Victoire lay down to go to sleep, her conversations with Teddy replayed in her mind. The two conclusions they'd reached replayed over and over in her head as she drifted off to sleep.

One; they were going to work just the two of them on the mysterious notes.

Two; they were going to have to keep their relationship a secret for a little while longer.

* * *

The next few days passed by normally for Victoire, well, as normal as life was going to be for her from now on. There were large articles about each of the new Champions in the news every morning. By Tuesday, Victoire had learned to cringe at the sight of the small brown barn owl that delivered Sandra's _Daily Prophet_. As a whole, the articles didn't seem too bad or reputation damaging, but they did deliver very snide and hidden comments meant to undermine the Champions, Victoire in particular. In fact, Victoire hadn't read one mean or hurtful article about the Beauxbatons Champion yet. All editorials on Noëlle Varens were sweet and informative. It was obvious to see that Rita Skeeter was playing favourites. Likewise, Konstantin Krum's articles weren't bad either. They did have more hidden jibes and insults than Noëlle's, but the whole of the articles painted him in a favourable light to an unbiased and open-minded reader. Victoire on the other hand, was slammed and criticized every time her name was mentioned, even in passing. It got to the point that Victoire had to tear up the newspaper anytime she was mentioned to relieve her frustrations (after Sandra had read all the news she needed to of course). Harry and Fleur tried to cheer her up by sending her articles written about them while they had been Champions, (all also written by Rita Skeeter and many of them just as nasty, or some in Harry's case nastier than the ones now being written about her). She knew that her Mamma and Uncle were trying to help by showing that it doesn't matter what was being written about her. (Truthfully, the ones about the alleged romance between her Uncle Harry and her Aunt Hermione did bring a smile onto her face and remind her of the ones being written about her and Xavier.) But sometimes the articles broke through her carefully constructed walls built to block out criticism. And when they did, they hurt. She was worried and stressed out enough with this being her last-year at Hogwarts; studying to get all the N.E.W.T.S. she'd need to become a Healer. Finding the time to practice and to try to be the Quidditch Captain she needed to be, to bring the House-Cup back to Gryffindor, to keep up with her duties as Head Girl. And now she had to take all of these extra defence classes just to prove to Kingsley and her parents that she was able to _compete_ in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, let along trying to _win_ it. Along with all of these responsibilities, the mysterious notes she had shown Teddy kept popping up into her mind. Sometimes she would try to concentrate on them so hard that she'd get a painful headache.

It was the Tuesday of the dreaded Transfiguration class that Xavier had mentioned. Surprisingly, Professor Linkwell didn't make any snide comments about Victoire being stronger than Xavier, or Victoire 'wearing the trousers' in their 'relationship'. Instead, he had them come up to the front of the class, and had them attempt to transfigure each other's looks. It wouldn't have been so bad if Professor Linkwell hadn't insisted that they do spells that made hair grow on odd places on their faces, or make things like warts, bumps, and pimples grow. Xavier definitely got the brunt of the cleverly disguised embarrassment ploy; Victoire was very adept in her Transfiguration spells and did everything Professor Linkwell asked perfectly. Victoire on the other hand, got slight satisfaction in the fact that Linkwell's plan was less than pleasing to him when it came to Xavier's turn to transfigure her. Being part Veela, certain spells and charms that change appearances don't work on her. Glamour charms, hair colour changing potions, even Muggle hair dye wouldn't work (if she ever wanted to try it, which she thankfully never did). Likewise, human Transfiguration didn't work well on her. Xavier was able to alter her appearance but only slightly. Linkwell had told him to change her hair to forest green, it ended up a pale pastel green. And if the spell did work, (Linkwell had told Xavier to give Victoire a uni-brow) it would only last for a few seconds before disappearing.

Victoire was still apologizing to Xavier for his getting the brunt of the Linkwell's punishment, as they walked into a History of Magic, their last class of the day. She probably would have continued a running string of quiet apologizes as they worked through their class if Xavier hadn't, none-too-politely, told her to shut up because her insistent apologies were giving him a headache. Xavier had looked annoyed when he said it, but she knew that he was being sincere and that he didn't actually blame her.

"What was the maximum sentencing for captured Death Eaters in the first war?" Professor Cooke asked as they neared the end of class.

Victoire, who was spending more time paying attention to the hands ticking along on her watch, stretched her arm out because it had fallen asleep as she listened to Professor Cooke's lecture that day. It wasn't that it wasn't interesting or anything, Professor Cooke was an amazing teacher with the ability to make history really come alive, she was just still stiff from the late night Quidditch practice they'd had last night.

Professor Cooke saw Victoire's hand go up and though that she was going to answer the question, "Yes Miss Weasley?"

Victoire looked up from her desk in surprise before noticing that her hand was up. _Oops. What was the question again . . . oh yeah . . ._

"Um, depending on what their crimes were, and depending on whether or not the Death Eater in question took a cooperation bargain with the Ministry to divulge information, the maximum sentence could be life in solitary confinement in Azkaban."

Professor Cooke nodded, "Very good, and thank-you for mentioning the bargains, it's a perfect introduction for our next lesson . . ."

The majority of the class groaned audibly, Professor Cooke smiled brightly, "Which we will be working on tomorrow, for the rest of the afternoon, you can work quietly on your homework."

The class chattered as they went about their work. Victoire turned to Xavier beside her and opened her mouth to apologize one last time.

Xavier saw her intentions and spoke first, "I don't want to hear it Vic."

"Hear what?" Kyle asked as he turned around in his seat in front of Xavier.

"Nothing!" Xavier said too quickly.

Victoire scoffed, "Real subtle Xavier, real subtle. Now we're definitely going to have to tell them."

"Nuh ugh. You promised we'd never speak of that again."

Kyle turned to Sandra beside him and raised an eyebrow. Silently asking her if she knew what was going on. She shrugged and mouthed quietly with a wicked smile, "Lover's spat."

Victoire and Xavier stopped their argument and glared at their two best friends as said best friends broke out into unrestrained giggles. Victoire jumped up as the last bell rang, and practically ran to the Gryffindor dormitory to change her clothes. Sandra walked in as she was finishing tying her shoes and gave Victoire a puzzled look.

"Training session in ten minutes," Victoire answered as she double knotted her trainers and stood up.

Sandra nodded and shed her robes, leaving them on the floor, "Have fun!" She called as Victoire walked out of the room.

Victoire stopped outside of the first door that led into the Aurors break room (the Champions were to practice in Kingsley's office for every session). She waited there for a minute as she debated whether to knock on the door, or just going barging in. She decided on the later. She opened the door and was pleased to see that it was considerably less populated than the time she had to visit it to give Kingsley the note from McGonagall. There were about half a dozen Aurors in the room, most of them looked up when she walked in, but after getting a good look at her, they looked away and went back to their work. Only a handful of eyes were still on her (all younger Aurors-in-training) as she crossed the room and went towards the second office door.

Teddy had been sitting down at a table with Kurt Williamson when he saw Victoire walk in. Like the majority of the Aurors, he found his eyes drift to her figure as she practically strutted across the room to Kingsley's office door. He knew that she had her first one-on-one defensive training lesson today; in fact, he had been waiting for her to come in because Kingsley had assigned him, because he was the only Auror-in-training whom Victoire hadn't bested in that first practice session, to be one of the Aurors helping Victoire with her defensive magic.

Before Teddy could stand up and go over to her, Kurt spoke, "Wow. Is it just me, or does she just keep getting hotter and hotter every time we see her?"

Teddy felt anger bubble up inside him. He couldn't yell at Kurt for his brashness because he wouldn't be able to explain why he was angry with him because nobody was supposed to know about him dating Victoire. So, Teddy channelled his anger by unconsciously morphing his hair a bright red. Teddy stood up without answering Kurt and walked over to Victoire.

"I'll take that as a 'no' then?" Kurt called to Teddy as he walked away. He really didn't know how to be subtle.

Victoire smirked as she saw Teddy walk over to her. He stopped an appropriately platonic distance away from her, but she could tell by the look in his eyes that if they were alone he would have pulled her to him already and they would be in the middle of a rather passionate kiss . . .

Teddy raised an eyebrow at the dazed look on Victoire's face, "Victoire . . .?"

Victoire shook her head, her thoughts had been going down a _very _dangerous path as she contemplated how Teddy's lips would feel against hers' and then how they would feel as the traveled down her neck, she could practically feel the cold stone of the wall he would have pushed her against for support and leverage. _No, stop thinking about that . . . and if you must think about it, wait until there isn't a room full of strangers staring at you . . ._

"Yeah?"

"Is there something wrong?" Teddy asked; her eyes were still slightly unfocused.

Victoire shook her head, "Nope, nothing's wrong."

"Okay . . . how was class today?"

Victoire shrugged, "Linkwell tried to harass Xavier and I and it ended up backfiring because feature Transfiguration doesn't work very well on me. I ended up apologizing all day to Xavier until he yelled at me to shut up in the middle of the corridor, Molly borrowed my favourite quill during breakfast and still hasn't given it back, I'm incredibly stiff from late night Quidditch practice last night, and now I have to spend two hours doing defensive training which I don't need with a bunch of 'meat-headed Aurors'."

The last was said quietly, so that none of the other Aurors could hear but Teddy. He smiled before putting on an affronted air, "Are you saying that you don't want to spend time with me?"

Victoire giggled, "No, I'm saying I don't want to waste my limited amount of time with you, in stupid defensive classes that are going to contain me hexing you for a good two hours straight."

Teddy grinned, "In your dreams Weasley, you can't beat me."

Victoire fluttered her eyelashes flirtatiously and took a step closer to him. When she spoke, her voice was low and breathy, "Yes Teddy, you are in my dreams. But in my dreams, we're doing something very different then sending spells at each other." Victoire looked around to make sure that the Aurors had stopped staring at her (surprisingly they had) and went up on her tip-toes so she could whisper in Teddy's ear, "Of course, sometimes after I kiss you just the right way, you do look like you've been hit with a stunning spell."

Victoire smiled naughtily at Teddy as he tried to control his blush by morphing it away. She turned her back to him and opened the door to Kingsley's office. As soon as she got the door open, a silver rabbit shot out the door and hopped swiftly around the room twice before going back in the office. Victoire walked into the room, Teddy followed her, and she immediately apologized for interrupting.

In the room stood Noëlle Varens, Professor La Croix, Auror McKenny, Auror-in-training Jilly Donaldson, and a few other others who must have been helping Noëlle practice.

Noëlle rolled her eyes at Victoire but Auror McKenny answered politely, "It's no problem Miss Weasley. Actually, I think we're intruding on your time. I'm sorry but I just needed Miss Varens to perform her _Patronus_ charm for me so that I could write down what it was." He waved the clipboard in his hand.

"For safety reasons the Minister has asked that all of the Champions_ Patronuses_ be tested and copied down for official records. I was just writing it down." McKenny mumbled the word 'rabbit' as he copied down the information.

"May I go now?" Noëlle asked as she stashed her wand in her robes. Auror McKenny nodded and both she and Professor La Croix whisked out of the room.

Auror McKenny turned to Victoire, "As you wait for Harry and Ron, how about you show me your patronus so that I can write it down?"

Victoire sighed, "Can't I just tell you what it is?"

He shook his head, "I need to see how strong it is."

Victoire was about to argue when her Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron ran in, "Sorry we're late had to take a call from Kingsley . . ."

McKenny waved off their apology, "No problem I just need to write down what Miss Weasley's _Patronus_ is and then I'll get out of your hair." He nodded to her to continue.

Ron broke in, "No offense, but we're late as it is, and we accidently scheduled Konstantin in for this afternoon too. We know what Victoire's_ Patronus_ is so we'll just write it down and get to work."

McKenny nodded.

"It's an eagle," Harry said as he waved his wand and extended the room a little bit more.

"How corporeal is it?" McKenny asked as he read the clipboard.

"Well . . . she's been able to perform the spell for about four years now, so it's rather strong," Harry said as he waved his wand one last time to set up the room.

McKenny looked up in surprise, "Four years . . . she would have had to have been thirteen when she learned it."

Ron laughed, "Yeah she was. The only reason she learned it was because we were teaching Ted, the summer before his fifth-year, and she got jealous when we told her that she wasn't old enough to learn. So she went and complained to Hermione and Ginny and they ended up teaching her."

Harry smirked remembering his astonishment when they'd first seen the humongous, silver eagle fly into the backyard where he and Ron were teaching Teddy how to produce a _Patronus_.

Teddy was also remembering that day, "You just couldn't let me be ahead of you, could you. You _had_ to learn the spell to keep up with me."

Victoire placed her hand over her heart and put on a fake-affronted expression, "How dare you accuse me of trying to steal your spotlight . . . I was just trying to share it with you."

Teddy shook his head.

McKenny left the room as Kurt Williamson walked in.

"What are you doing here Kurt?" Teddy asked. He may have gotten a little angry at his friend earlier, but he knew that listening to guys ogle and hit on Victoire was something he was going to have to get used to if he was dating her. He appreciated how good-looking his girlfriend was, but he didn't think that he should have to sit there and listen to guys go on and on about how attractive she was.

Harry answered for him, "I asked Auror Williamson to help with Victoire's training since she would need more than one Auror to practice with." Harry gave his godson a look that said 'be-nice-and-share'.

"Yup, man this will be fun!" Kurt exclaimed as he walked over to Teddy and clapped his friend on the back. Victoire had eyed him curiously, which had earned her a wink from him.

She rolled her eyes and turned her back to him as she turned to Ron, "Can we start now. I've got a lot of homework to work on later."

Ron nodded, "We just have to wait for your Professor to get here before starting."

Victoire smiled at Ron excitedly, "Is it going to be Neville?"

Ron laughed at the enthusiasm in her voice, "First of all, during school you need to call him Professor Longbottom. But no it's someone else."

Victoire's face fell and she groaned, "No! Good Godric I hope it's not Linkwell. Why couldn't it be Professor Longbottom?"

"Thank you Miss Weasley, that really makes me feel good."

Victoire turned around and saw Professor Cooke standing at the door with Harry.

"P-Professor Cooke . . . you're the teacher in charge of watching me?"

Professor Cooke smiled, "Yes. Professor Longbottom was busy, and Professor Linkwell had already announced that he would never again be stuck wasting his valuable time with something like this. So Professor McGonagall asked the rest of the staff room who wanted to watch you."

Victoire smiled brightly, "And there was a mad surge of people wanting to help me and you won?"

"No. I wasn't paying attention to what she said and when I did look up the entire staff was gone and I was the only one left, so McGonagall gave the job to me."

Victoire frowned.

Professor Cooke grinned and went over to introduce himself to Harry and Ron, "Professor Caleb Cooke, History of Magic."

Harry shook his hand and then Ron, "Yes, our kids have mentioned you. It seems as though you've actually made it possible for them to pay attention during class."

Professor Cooke blushed a little, "I can't really take all the credit. These students are very intelligent. They just needed to be taught in a different style to release their potential."

Harry smiled and gestured toward Teddy and Kurt, "This is Auror Lupin and Auror Williamson. They're second-level-Aurors-in-training."

"Yeah," Ron added, "they're Victoire's practicing dummies."

Everybody but Victoire and Teddy laughed. Teddy eyed Victoire up cautiously, knowing that she could be quiet the opponent when pushed. Victoire for her part was looking at Kurt speculatively, assessing the situation. Kurt, who had been laughed rather loudly, saw Victoire looking at him and felt very nervous all of a sudden.

"Alright, enough talk. Show us what you've got Vic."

* * *

"Merlin! That one hurt!" Kurt accused Victoire as he rubbed the shoulder he ended up falling on from Victoire's stunning spell. He hadn't realized how correct Ron had been in his statement that he would be a practice dummy. Anytime he had a chance to shoot a spell back at her, she dodged it. She was really good.

She shrugged her shoulders and raised her wand, ready for another go.

Kurt stepped away from her, "Nuh ugh, I've got enough bruises. Use Ted this time."

Ted, who had been standing off to the side talking to Harry about Victoire's progress, looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She grinned impishly back and nodded her head slightly. Teddy grinned and handed Harry his wand before taking Kurt's spot across from Victoire.

"Oh, are we going wandless now?"

Teddy smirked, "It's a good thing to work on. What happens if you lose your wand when you're faced with an opponent?"

Victoire shrugged, "I flutter my eyelashes and ask him to pretty please give me my wand back." She finished with an example of how she'd go about it.

Teddy wanted to laugh. Not from the preposterousness of her statement but from the factuality of it. He could easily imagine her going about that course if she ever got disarmed, and oddly enough, he knew that she'd have a very good chance of getting her wand back if her opponent was male.

"That might work, but you still need to practice."

Victoire smiled brightly. "Fine." She sent her wand away and it landed in Harry's hand.

"Bring it on."

Teddy grinned again. He sent a silent stunning spell at her; she saw it coming and cast a quick, yet effective, _protego_ spell. They continued to throw spells at each other, neither of them able to take the lead.

Harry walked over to where Ron was talking with Professor Cooke and Kurt Williamson. He kept an eye on Victoire and Teddy's work, but there wasn't much to watch. They were rather evenly matched. He didn't even have to correct Victoire on her wand movements or her technique because they were doing it wandless.

"She's doing very well," Professor Cooke said as Harry approached.

Harry smiled, "She's always gotten top marks in Defence Against the Dark Arts."

Professor Cooke nodded, "It kind of comes with the territory of being a Weasley, doesn't it?"

Ron chuckled while Harry answered, "I guess so. I think it has more to do with the fact that Kingsley Shacklebolt's her godfather."

"Over protective?"

Ron snorted, "That's an understatement. I swear when she came of age last summer he practically put her through an entire two years of Auror training in the span of two weeks."

Professor Cooke laughed but what Ron said caught Kurt's attention. "Wait! So that's why her moves look so familiar she's using some of the Auror training techniques?"

Ron smirked, "Yeah probably. We've always taught her how to analyse a situation before proceeding into a fight. Her mind is very well trained for that and her reflexes follow."

Professor Cooke nodded, "She would make a very good Auror."

Harry laughed, "Yes, she would. And she definitely has the grades for it, but she wants to be a Healer. And to be fair, she's very good at that too."

"EEK!"

Everyone turned their attention back to the pair who were duelling. Teddy was standing in the middle of the room with a very self-satisfied smirk on his face as he watched Victoire who was hanging upside down in the air by her ankle. Harry and Ron laughed a little as they recognized the _Levicorpus_ jinx.

Victoire's pale face was turning red from the flow of the blood in her body collecting in her head.

"TEDDY! I SAID WE WERE AT A DRAW!"

Teddy chuckled deeply, ignoring the strange looks he was getting from Kurt and Professor Cooke, "You can't just let your guard down like that Vic."

"I WAS COMING OVER TO FIX YOUR BRUISE!"

Harry looked at Teddy and saw a large purple bruise staring on his arm, (he had been hit by a stray object that had gone flying from a wayward blocked spell).

Teddy made a _tsking_ sound, "You need to stop yelling Vic, or you'll get light-headed. Most of your blood has fled there anyway."

Victoire glared at him. A bright flash of light filled the room and then Teddy was hanging upside down in the air next to Victoire.

"Touché, Vic, touché," Teddy said appreciatively.

Harry rolled his eyes at his niece's and his godson's antics and raised his wand and said the counter spell, "_Liberacorpus_."

Victoire and Teddy both fell onto their derrières on the floor.

"Ouch." Victoire said glaring at Harry.

Harry shrugged, tossed Victoire and Teddy their wands back and went back to talking to Professor Cooke and Ron.

Victoire rolled her eyes and waved her wand across Teddy's bruise.

"Thanks," he said as it disappeared.

Victoire smiled sweetly, "No problem."

They sat there looking at each other for a few silent minutes before Ron interrupted.

"Are you two going to join us here? Or are you just going to lie on the floor of _Kingsley's_ office for the rest of the night?"

Victoire and Teddy hurriedly stood up and walked over to the others. Harry spent the next five minutes praising Victoire on her work. She listened passively, but spoke once he was finished, "Since I did so well, how about you tell Kingsley that I can take care of myself and that I don't need these practice sessions?"

Harry sighed, "Nice try Victoire, but you have to go through these sessions, so you better get used to it."

Victoire just sighed, and nodded. She was actually too tired to argue.

* * *

Hey, well I hope you liked the latest chapter. And I want to say a huge THANKYOU to everyone who has reviewed, subscribed, or even just read my story, it means a lot :)

I tried specifically to put in some Vic/Teddy alone, and in public moments in this, some might not have been nescessarily romantic, but I think it's nice to show the friendly part of their relationship, and it shows how they've grown from friends into more.

Next chapter . . . Well . . . there's some heartwarming family moments, some laughs between friends, and Chris just might be scarred for life from something he sees in the library :) Please leave a review if you like or if you have any questions or comments, I love hearing from you :)

**A/N: Part 2:** Okay, so some of you had mentioned in your reviews that you were wondering how someone could get into the Room of Requirement while someone else was in there. Well, some of you would have read this, realized 'Oh, it's Xavier. Okay now it makes sense', and leave it at that. But for those of you who are still a little confused, I will attemtp to explain that there _is_ a method to my madness.

Other people can acess the Room of Requirement when there are people using it (The DA members all came seperatly to the room in OotP, the Inquisitorial Squad were able to get in while the DA was going on also in OotP, all of the members of the DA and other refugees were able to get in with Neville when they were escaping the Carrows tirany in DH, and Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were able to get in in the Battle of Hogwarts while Harry, Ron and Hermione were looking for the lost Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw in DH). The reason why all these people were able to get in, but not Harry when he was trying to figure out what Malfoy was up to in HBP, was because they knew what the room had transformed to for the user already in it. Xavier knew where Victorie was going, he knew who she was meeting, and to an extent, he knew what Victoire and Teddy were doing in the room (although he definitely didn't expect what he'd just walked in on). Because he knew all this, the room opened up to him, and showed him what he wanted to see. If Harry had known more in HBP and knew what Malfoy was actually doing in the room, then he would have been able to get in. Or at least this is my reasoning. I hope it made sense and that it clears up some people's confusion, and if it doens't, well it doesn't really matter much to the plot of the story why Xavier could get in.


	26. Scheduling

A/N Part 1: Hey, her'es the next chapter. I'm sorry that I'm updating so late today, but I'm going to childishly blame FanFiction for delaying my update by cauisng me to get obsessed with the very well written Hunger Games, and Pride & Prejudice stories I was reading. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, there is some nice family moments, and another rather lame pun, but this time it's Xavier saying it, so it's still very adorable.

Make sure to read my A/N Part 2 at the end of the story beacsue I have somehting important to discuss with my readers. On to the story!

Discliamer: mina deyil (Azerbaijani)

* * *

Scheduling

"Victoire, how much do I have to pay you to get you to actually use your table manners?"

Victoire looked up from the Sheppard's pie she had been shovelling into her mouth and rolled her eyes at Xavier Wood. She swallowed and placed a wounded expression on her face. One of her hands came up clutch her chest, "Xavier! You need to stop trying to change me. Why can't you love me the way I am?"

Xavier rolled his eyes at her, "Victoire you really need to stop talking like that or people are going to start to think that there's something going on between us."

Beside Victoire, Ally chocked on her pumpkin juice. Victoire calmly thumped her back until she could breathe, "Merlin you two, keep your voices down. No wonder Skeeter keeps getting 'insider's information' on your _relationship_."

Xavier's face turned red and he looked down at his half-eaten plate of food. Victoire grabbed her fork and used it to push some potatoes around her plate. Both of them were remembering the news article from that morning. It had showed a picture of the two of them walking to Potions class together a few days ago, laughing, smiling, talking, and, horribly enough, walking arm in arm. Victoire wanted to palm her face into her hand when she saw the picture. She and Xavier had been harassing Kyle and Sandra by mimicking their 'mushy-gushy' hand holding motions. Their best friends had thought that it was funny at the time, but when they read the newspaper today, they were full of sympathy for Victoire and Xavier.

It was dinnertime right now, but they had spent the last two hours at Quidditch practice, and the one before that in Professor McGonagall's office. Kingsley had seen the paper and had immediately _flooed _to Hogwarts to talk to Harry and Ron about it. It wasn't so much what the picture was showing, as where the picture was taken, that angered Kingsley. He was upset that Skeeter had somehow gotten a picture of Victoire in the Castle; she wasn't supposed to be allowed in except for specific press conferences. Kingsley had met with McGonagall, who had requested that Victoire and Xavier to come to her office and speak with them. Kingsley had asked them if they had seen anything odd that day, he was thinking that she might be using her _animagus_ form to somehow get the information and pictures she wanted. They had told Kingsley that they hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, and then they had been excused because they were already fifteen minutes late for practice. Victoire had caused them to be even tardier, because on their way to the change rooms, she had gotten a glimpse of bright turquoise blue hair and had ran off to find it. Xavier had stood an awkward ten paces away while Victoire talked to Teddy about the article about them in the news that morning. Ted had been a good sport about it, saying that he didn't actually believe the things that the article was insinuating, but Xavier could tell from the sound of his voice that he was getting tired of his girlfriend being accused of dating someone else.

_It's not that I blame him, I mean I'd feel exactly the same way if I was in his place with . . . No. Don't even go there Xavier you have too much to think about now than to spend your time mooning over a girl . . . even if she is really beautiful and smart, and funny, and sweet, and a good Quidditch player, and even though she has really shiny hair and the prettiest eyes . . . Whoa, hold up there Wood. We don't have time to think about this, I we need to go to Quidditch practice and do a damn good job and maybe our skills will impress her enough that we won't have to make the first move . . . sigh . . . one step at a time._

At that point, in Xavier's inner monologue, he decided to stop before his thoughts totally went away with him. He walked towards Ted and Victoire, apologized for interrupting, and practically dragged her away. By the time, Victoire and Xavier had gotten changed and gotten down to the Quidditch pitch they were more than half an hour late for practice. They both apologized profusely, but were rather proud to see that Ally had taken charge while they were gone and at least had the rest of the team doing laps and basic exercises. Because they were late, Victoire and Xavier had to keep the team back for an extra half hour to get everything covered that they needed to. Time was ticking. Their first Quidditch game (which would be against Slytherin) was scheduled for the next Saturday. Because of a later practice, they ended up coming into dinner late; the majority of the students were already gone from the Great Hall. Sandra, Kyle, and Chris had waited for their friends to come from Quidditch practice and were sitting with them while they ate.

They continued to eat in silence. Victoire was almost done when she saw a tall redhead walking towards her.

"Hi Baxter!" Victoire called happily to her cousin.

"Hi Baxter," Ally repeated in the same happy tone as her elder cousin.

The third-year Hufflepuff smiled and sat down on the bench in-between his two cousins.

"Hi Vic. Hi Ally."

"What's up?" Victoire asked, polishing off the last of her desert. She hadn't talked to Baxter since before Ally had told her that he was upset about her not telling him about her relationship with Teddy.

Baxter shrugged, not looking directly in Victoire's face. When he spoke he didn't sound very excited, but he didn't sound very infuriated with her either, "Not much. I just wanted to know if you were excited for the First Task of the Tournament."

Victoire snorted, "Yeah so excited, they haven't even told us when it's going to be, or what we're going to have to do. Yet I've spent all this time practicing with Harry and Ron, stuff that I already know."

Baxter nodded absently, but then froze. He suddenly looked up at Victoire, an odd expression on his face, "Vic . . . weren't you listening to McGonagall at the beginning of dinner?"

"No, I wasn't here at the beginning of dinner. We were at Quidditch practice."

"But nobody else told you?"

Victoire looked at Sandra, Kyle, and Chris, they wouldn't meet her eye, "Told me what?"

Baxter looked surprised, "Well, I guess I'm going to be the one to tell you this then . . . McGonagall announced that the first Tri-Wizard task would be on Saturday November the third."

Victoire's mouth popped open and her eyes went wide. She looked like a deer in headlights, "What! But-but that's the day of our Quidditch game against Slytherin-"

Baxter shrugged, "That's the date the Minister set . . . there was something else about another press conference too, I think . . . but McGonagall said that she was going to discuss that directly with the Champions at their meeting after dinner."

"What! When after dinner?"

"Um," he looked down at his watch, "I'd say now."

Victoire jumped up and sent one more 'why-didn't-you-tell-me-this-earlier' look at her friends. Before rushing out of the Great Hall.

* * *

"Nice to see that you've made it Miss Weasley," Professor McGonagall said as Victoire walked into the room, fifteen minutes late.

"I'm so sorry Professor McGonagall, Quidditch practice went late and then Baxter was the first and only one to tell me about this meeting, and then I had to _run_ here . . ."

Professor McGonagall waved off Victoire's apology and told her to sit down in the open chair between Konstantin and Noëlle. She sat down facing the other people in the room; Professor Longbottom, Headmaster Jaroslov, Madame Maxine, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Percy Weasley and Minister Flannery.

"Miss Weasley, are you aware of what is going on in the terms of the Tournament?"

"I think so. I was told that the first task would be taking place next Saturday, is that correct?"

Minister Flannery answered, "Yes that is correct, now the first task and the two after it will-"

"But there can't be a task next Saturday."

Flannery glared at Victoire for interrupting him. "And why is that Miss Weasley?" He spat out through gritted teeth.

"Because the first Quidditch match of the season is next Saturday. Gryffindor verses Slytherin."

Flannery's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head, "A Quidditch match. We can't have the first task of the _Tri-Wizard Tournament_ because there's going to be a _Quidditch match_."

"Glad you understand," Victoire said as she crossed her arms over her chest, a challenging expression on her face.

Flannery's face was turning red. McGonagall interrupted before he could say something that he would really regret. She had to hand it to Victoire though; she'd really learnt how to push his buttons.

"I've been working on that Miss Weasley. And if you and Mr Knott are amendable, I'd like to place the Quidditch game for Friday afternoon, the day before your task. But if you think that won't be good for you, we could always push it back."

Victoire thought for a minute. She _would_ be rather tired from the Quidditch match the day before the first task, but if they pushed the game back, any further the rest of the Quidditch schedule would be messed up. And it wasn't fair to the other teams for her to screw up the schedule for them.

Victoire sighed, it was time to take one for the team, "That seems fine. I'll just have to try to catch the snitch as soon as possible."

McGonagall's thin lips turned up into a tiny, tiny, smile, "Alright then. You were saying Minister Flannery?"

Flannery cleared his throat rather pompously, "As I was saying before I was interrupted," he shot an angry look at Victoire, "the first task, along with the other two afterward, will follow a certain theme."

"A theeme?" Noëlle asked confused.

"Yes, each task will have a theme based on the four elements. Air, water, fire, and earth-"

"But vere are only vree tasks," Konstantin said puzzled.

Flannery sighed and shot Victoire another angry glance. He was tired of people interrupting him and he blamed her for the actions of her fellow champions, as if she was the one to corrupt them, "Yes that is what the challenge is. You won't know what the theme is until the day of the task. And one theme will never be used. So practice your spells wisely and use your time carefully."

It took a great amount of effort for Victoire to abstain from rolling her eyes; even so, her next words come out rather bitingly, "So why did you even bother telling us that there is going to be a theme if you're not going to tell us what the theme is?"

Flannery glared at her, "Because Miss Weasley, I thought one hint, no matter how broad, would be better than nothing."

Victoire mumbled something under her breath about this being a 'bloody-waste-of-time". Professor Longbottom and Kingsley smirked, while Flannery frowned at her.

"Deed you not zay zomething about anozzer prezz conferenze?" Noëlle asked, bringing the meeting back on track.

"Yes, well, I thought that it would be nice to give the press a chance to go around and talk to the champions in a calm and controlled setting, you know somewhere where they can really talk to you without you all feeling stressed or like you're being put on display. But I also wanted to arrange something where all of you can meet and speak with some of the important people from the ministry. Considering all this plus the short amount of time we have to do it all in, I've decided on a party!" Flannery said, smiling winningly at the champions (Noëlle and Konstantin in particular seeing as he was still trying to win them over).

"Huh?" Victoire asked. Voicing the confusion all three of the champions were feeling.

Flannery sighed, "The Tournament took and will take, a lot of preparation, organization, and . . . well money. Of course, the whole Ministry helped, but there are a special few people who have played a large part in it, and who should be thanked properly. So, there will be a party, here at Hogwarts, as a thank-you for all of them. Your families will also be invited, and this will also give the press a good chance to see what you all are really like as you mix and mingle. Get some real information on you."

Victoire thought her eyes were going to pop right out of her head. _Yeah _right_, we won't be on display_. Her head started to spin just thinking about the attention she'd draw at a party like that. She tried to focus her attention on listening to what was going on in the room around her, hoping that it would stop spinning.

Noëlle's eyes were sparkling with the news; it seemed she likes parties.

"Ven vill vis be?" Konstantin asked. Victoire could tell by the sound of his voice that he wasn't very excited for it either.

Flannery smiled, "Well, we need to do it before the first task, but we can't just pick any day. So I've arranged it for Hallowe'en night."

"It's not a costume party is it?" Victoire asked.

Flannery's face pinched. Apparently, he heard the thing in Victoire's voice that indicated that she might just get sick. "No, that would just be juvenile and immature."

Victoire sighed in relief.

Kingsley couldn't hide his smirk. Percy had smiled also, but then he saw the look on his niece's face.

"Victoire . . . are you alright?"

Victoire looked at her uncle's concerned face, but couldn't stay fixed on it, "I will be when the room stops spinning."

Kingsley and Percy shared a worried look with Professor McGonagall, "Victoire . . . the room's not moving."

"I know," she said before closing her eyes and bringing her hands up to clench around her head.

"Miss Weasley?" Flannery asked. He was more concerned about what it would look like if one of his champions got sick than if she was actually okay or not.

Victoire keep her eyes closed and took a few deep breaths, "Do I have to be there Minister Flannery?"

"Are you a champion Miss Weasley?"

"Yes."

"Then yes you have to be there."

"But-"

"No buts. You will attend the party and that is final."

Victoire took one more deep breath and looked up. The room was finally standing still, and Minister Flannery's face was an angry red. "Any more questions?" he huffed out.

Everyone else in the room shook their heads.

"Then I'll be leaving." Flannery walked over to McGonagall's large fireplace and _flooed_ out. Silently, one by one, Noëlle and Konstantin left with their respective Headmaster's and Mistress'. Victoire stayed seated. She wasn't sure if her legs would be able to support her.

"Vic . . ." Percy said as he walked closer to her. He kneeled down next to her to look her in the face. Percy might not have been her favourite uncle, but he does care about his family.

"Vic. Everything is going to be okay. You're not going to be alone."

"No of course not," Victoire said somewhat hysterically, "there will be a room full of people waiting for me to do something stupid so they can gossip about it later."

"No, that's not what I meant. Your Mom will be there, and your Dad, Dominique and Louis, Harry and Ginny, James and Al will be invited, although if Ginny and Harry allow them to come will be something else, Ron and Hermione, Rose, because she's already here, myself and Aunt Audrey, Lucy, Molly and Baxter will all be invited. Aunt Angelina and Uncle George, and Ally and Fred. Kingsley will be there. Everything will be okay. You won't be alone."

"Ally will be invited?" Victoire asked quietly.

"Yes, pretty much our whole family has been invited. And there will be other Hogwarts students, anybody who's parents have been invited will get an invitation. It won't just be you, Konstantin, Noëlle and a whole bunch of middle-aged Ministry fuddy-duddies."

Victoire smiled, but it faltered a little when she looked at Kingsley, "Are you really going to be there or are you going to be too busy organizing all of the Aurors?"

Kingsley grinned, "You know me well Princess. But no. I'm actually going to delegate all of the preparations to another Auror task force, so that I can actually enjoy this party."

Victoire raised an eyebrow. Kingsley's grin widened and he move down beside her and kissed her forehead, "Try to have fun with this. It's your big night to have some fun before your first Quidditch game and your first task. Okay?"

Victoire nodded.

"Good. You should get back to your Common Room." Kingsley said.

Victoire smiled, hugged her godfather, and uncle goodbye, and pranced out of the room.

* * *

"Friday . . . our Quidditch match is on a Friday!" Xavier yelled.

"Shhh!" Ally said from beside him as she hit him on the arm, "Xavier, do you want Madam Pince to throw us out?"

Victoire looked around quickly for said librarian and let out a sigh of relief to see that she was nowhere in sight. Victoire and her friends had come to the library to do some homework because the Common Room had gotten too loud. It was the day after Minister Flannery had informed the champions of the upcoming Halloween party and task. Victoire had spent the majority of the day trying to find the courage to tell Xavier about the change. In hindsight, she should have known that her plan, to tell him in the library in the hope that he'd at least keep his anger down to a whispered level, was too much to hope for.

"Yes Xavier. The Quidditch match was moved to Friday because Saturday is the first Tri-Wizard task. And in case you didn't realize, I have to do both. The game is going to stay on Friday unless you can come up with a way for me to be in two places at once," Victoire said mockingly.

"Time-turner?" Xavier asked more hopeful than realistic.

Victoire rolled her ocean-blue eyes. The Ministry had been working on re-creating time-turners after all of them were lost in the last war. They had come out with some new, rather good prototypes, but none of them were ready for practical use yet.

"Great idea imbecile."

Xavier glared at her and Ally sighed. She was thankful that there was a solid piece of wood in the form of a table in between the two Heads.

Victoire's face softened up, "I did it because if I didn't they would have had to re-scheduled it even later and all the other games would be messed up too. This was the best course of action. If it makes you feel any better, I promise to catch the snitch as soon as possible on Friday so that it lessens the chance of us losing."

Xavier's lips twitched, "Okay. But if we lose, I swear, the first task will be nothing compared to what I'll do to you."

"Oh I'm _so_ scared."

Ally sighed again and looked down at the _Transfiguration _homework she was working on. At least they weren't at each other's throats anymore.

"Vic . . . what's the incantation to conjure a flock of birds?"

"_Avis_."

"Gesundheit."

Victoire and Ally looked up at Xavier and gave him matching blank looks. Xavier exhale noisily and looked down at his own homework while mumbling angrily, 'that's the last time I try to make a joke'. They worked quietly for a few minutes before Ally spoke again, "Well Xavier, maybe now your parents will be able to make it to the Quidditch game if it's on Friday."

Xavier dropped his quill, and distractedly ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair, "Yeah, maybe . . ."

"What's this about Katie and Oliver?" Victoire asked brightly looking up from her research book -_Anthology of Eighteenth Century Charms_. She absolutely _loves_ Xavier's parents. Sometimes, (when Victoire and Xavier are in a really intense argument), she thinks that they may be one of the only reasons why she puts up with him.

"Xavier sent them a letter a little while ago telling them when our first game was but they said that they wouldn't be able to make it 'cause it was a Saturday and that Oliver had an away game. Maybe now they'll have time because it's on a Friday," Ally supplied for Victoire.

"Oh, that'd be nice . . . wouldn't it Xavier?" Victoire asked.

Xavier had buried his head back into _his_ textbook -_Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_. They could see the slight rise and fall of his head behind the book, which indicated a nodding motion. Ally looked at him worriedly, but didn't know what to say. She could almost flog herself. _I shouldn't have brought that up. Now I've gone and upset him. I should have remembered that Oliver and Katie coming to see him would be more than just his parents dropping by for a visit. If they came they'd no doubt bring a few Quidditch scouts with them, and then Xavier would be feeling even more stressed than he usually does about a game. Stupid move Ally._

"Merlin's pants. Remind me to _never, ever,_ come to the library with you lot again," Chris said coming up behind Victoire and falling into the seat next to her. His face was flushed and he was breathing heavily, but Victoire didn't think that it had anything to do with the exertion of carrying the half-a-dozen odd hardcover books in his arms.

"What are you babbling about Chris?" Victoire asked puzzled.

He gave her a dark look, "Nothing, just don't go into the Goblin Poetry Section."

Xavier, who had come out of hiding from behind his book with the sound of Chris' arrival, let out a chuckle, "Thanks for the tip. I was just about to go there."

Chris scowled at him. Ally looked across to Chris still confused.

"Why not?" she asked oh-so-innocently.

Chris' hands came up to rub his temples, as if he was getting a headache, "It's just . . . rather awkward to walk down an aisle and find two of your friends trying to eat each others' faces."

Xavier's face puckered, "Sandra and Kyle?"

Chris nodded, "I really don't understand it either. There are plenty of other places they can snog. Does it have to be in the middle of the library?"

Victoire smirked superiorly, "Of course there may be _better_ places. But it's our last year; they probably want to get to _all_ the places."

"All the places?" Chris asked confused.

Victoire nodded; holding her giggles behind her poker face, "Yes, _all_ the places. Every girl has a list of places she'd like to be snogged in. Ballrooms, teashops, broom closets, in a library behind a shelf of musty old books. You know that kinda stuff."

It was a testament to Victoire's prowess with a poker face, that Xavier and Chris were looking at her like they actually didn't know if she was telling the truth or not.

"Ballrooms and teashops I understand. Broom closets even, but in a library?" Chris asked.

"Oh yes," Victoire said, a grin threatening to take over her face, "It's sort of mysterious and a little thrilling and wild too, seeing how you could get caught any minute."

"Really? So getting a snog in the library is on every girl's wish list?" Xavier asked with extreme sarcasm. It seems someone was able to see through her poker face.

"Yes, isn't that right Ally?" Victoire asked turning to her cousin.

Ally -who had gone back to her essay and was only slightly listening to their conversation- said, "Hmm, yeah, sure. Whatever you say Vic."

Victoire gave Xavier a specific look and then looked at Ally, "Maybe you should get on that one Xavier."

Xavier's face turned red while he gave Victoire a look that said 'Shut-the-hell-up'.

"Get on what? Snogging a girl in the library?" Chris asked.

Victoire nodded, "Yup."

Xavier's complexion was slowly turning back to normal as he stood up, he held out his hand to Victoire. He smiled wickedly, "Want to go visit the Divination Research and Textbook Section Vic?"

Victoire stuck her tongue out, "Eww. No," she put on an affronted air, "That's where Dominique goes when she wants to snog _her_ boyfriends."

"What was that about snogging Vic?"

Victoire turned around in time to see her brother Louis and Xavier's sister Cecilia walking over to their table. Xavier sat back down in his seat while Victoire explained.

"Nothing. Xavier was just trying to convince me to skive off doing my charms homework to go snog him behind some old books."

Victoire words brought about a cornucopia of reactions from the group. Xavier rolled his eyes at her. Chris' head moved back and forth rapidly as he studied both Heads (he had become a little confused with the turn of the conversation and still wasn't sure if they were serious or not). Louis was looking at Victoire with an oddly protective expression (he knew that they were just joking but the idea of a guy snogging his sister -even an older sister- brought out a protective streak he didn't know he had). Ally was smirking and barely holding in a laugh as she watched Louis' face. And Cecilia was regarding Victoire with a whimsical look.

Louis was the first to speak, "It's no wonder the entire Wizarding population thinks you two are dating when you guys act like this."

Victoire stuck her tongue out at her brother.

Cecilia sighed heavily, "You shouldn't tease me like that Victoire. I've been waiting _forever_, for Xavier to find a nice girl to snog. I do want to be an Aunt some day."

Xavier's face turned red, "Cee-Cee, you wouldn't really want me to date Victoire . . . would you?"

She shrugged, "No, she could do _way_ better than you. But she would be a great sister-in-law."

Xavier frowned but Victoire burst into a huge fit of giggles. Everybody looked at her like she'd lost her mind.

"Vic . . ."

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Her friends rolled their eyes, silently communicating with each other that they were worried that all the stress of the Tournament was making her lose her mind.

"Would you bloody Gryffindors shut the hell up?"

Colton Knott came stalking out from behind the closest bookshelf. His 'Gryffindor red' face was doing a good job of clashing with his Slytherin green robes.

Victoire plastered an angelic smile onto her face, "Why hello Colton. Fancy seeing you here."

Knott snorted derisively, "It's the library Weasley it's open to everyone, not just the O.C.D. Ravenclaws."

Victoire nodded seriously, "I know. I just didn't think you knew where it was. But good for you, it only took you six and a half years to figure it out."

Knott rolled his eyes, "And imagine, I get to spend the greater part of next week stuck with you and your _charming_ personality."

Victoire's poker face failed her that time, "What in the name of Merlin's pants are you talking about Knott?"

Colton smirked and leaned casually against the closest bookshelf, "Well Weasley, not only do we get to play Quidditch _together_ next Friday, but we get to spend Halloween together too. At the party Minister Flannery is throwing."

Victoire glared at him, "_You_ got invited? _How?_"

Colton gave her a bright, slimy smile, "The Tournament takes a lot of money to put on. Money that comes from very generous donors. And who in the Wizarding world has that kind of money to throw around? The ancient pureblood families of course. My parents were approached _months _ago about giving a donation of money. This party is for _you_ champions to thank all of us."

Victoire was fuming silently, "They were approached _months_ ago?"

"Yes," he smirked even larger, "And I can't wait for the party, for you to come up to me and my parents and personally thank _us_ for all we've done."

"There's only one problem with your little scenario Knott, if I were to do that, I'd probably end up vomiting all over you."

"We shall see Victoire, we shall see," Colton said before turning around.

Victoire stared at his back as he walked away. _He can't be serious about that public thank-you . . . can he?_

* * *

First, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'd love to hear any of your thoughts.

Second, thankyou to everyone who has reviewed, or favourited and submitted! (I didn't have time to answer each review I got for the last chapter separately so stay tuned for the end for those who did review for answers and more personal thanks)

**A/N Part 2 (Important!): Okay, so I usually like to give you guys all a heads up on what my next chapter will hold. So I thought it would be nice of me to forewarn you all, that my next chapter will have a cliff hanger (Pauses for everyone to let ut their complains/and/or/grumbles) Anyway, I know that some of you absolutely abhor cliffies, but I also know that some people actually like the suspense. I'm not going to change my next chapter because I had to end it where I could because of the length, and other reasons. But an interesting thought came to me when I thought of the terrible idea of making all of you lovely readers wait a week for the answering chapter to the next cliffie, so I came up with a plan.**

**I decided that there are two courses of action I could take, I'll post both options down below, with all of the pros and cons for each, and then everyone can leave a review and tell me which plan they think I should go with. The plan with the most votes wins. So here are my plans:**

**Plan A:** I could keep my regular updating schedual. Update the next chapter (with the cliffie in a week) and then update the answering chapter a week after that.

**Pro of plan A:** In the end you will get both chapters faster than with plan B (see below).

**Con of plan A:** You have to wait a whole week to see what happens next after the cliffie (And I'm not going to lie, it's a really bad cliff hanger. _Really_ bad.)

**Plan B:** You will have to wait longer than a week for my next update with the cliffie (maybe a week and a half or maybe close to two). But I will post the chapter that answers the ciffie the next day, or the day after.

**Pro of Plan B:** You only have to wait a day or two for the answer to the cliffie (again, it's a bad one).

**Con of Plan B:** You have to wait a little longer than usual for my next update and because I'm giving you two at once, you'll have to wait a little more than a week for the next chapter after that.

So, in summary. **Plan A** will give you both chapters in a shorter time in the end. **Plan B** will give you both chapters practically at once and lessen the time you have to sit around and wonder what on Earth is going to happen next. **So please leave a review with the Plan you want if you wnat to have a say.**

Thanks again to all my reviewers!

Reviews from last week:

**brilliantbluelights**: Yes, I kinda modelled Prof. Cooke after some of my favourite teachers from school. I like the levicporpus spell too! :)

**LilyRose95**: Thanks for the, as always, awesome reviews! I'm glad you like the freindly and teasing Vic/Teddy moments :)

**AgnesPink**: Thank-you for the ego-boost! And, yes, there is definitely more to come from our mysterious note sender . . . Dun, Dun, Duh! ;)

**AliceCullenInWonderland**: It's always great to hear that someone just spent a full half-hour reading my story! I'm glad you like my characters and the plot, I wanted to make a story that was different, but was still true to how I saw the Weasleys, Potters, Teddy, and everyone else in the HP universe! :)

**imsuchanut**: Thanks! You're 'friggin awesome' too. :)

**rosebudlilac**: I'm glad you like the story. And thank-you. I try to be witty (it's really the only way that I'd be able to survive in my family, and with my friends and teachers from school) :)

**wish right now**: Thanks so much! And I'm glad you like Xavier, I do too. And based on some of the reviews I've gotten, it sounds liek a lot of people do. I bet someone could start an Xavier Wood fan club . . . :)


	27. It Never Came Up

N/A:Hey, so here's the next chapter . . . And the results of last weeks ploe are . . . Drum Roll Please . . .

11 votes for Plan A

6 votes for Plan B

And 3 votes for either or.

So seeing as how the voting ended up, I'm going with Plan A. I'll update now, and then I'll update the answer to the cliffie in one week . . . and please remember that majority ruled here, so if you didn't want a cliffie, you should have voted.

Thank-you to everyone who did vote, and I hope that you all enjoy the story. I didn't have time to answer my reviewer's again so that will be at the end.

Disclaimer: nirea ez (Basque)

* * *

It Never Came Up

"I thought we had tonight off."

Ted Lupin looked up from the report he was going through to see the exasperated look on Kurt Williamson's face. He rolled his eyes and finished jotting down two notes of script with his quill before answering in a tired voice.

"We _did_. But then Harry had to change tomorrow's lesson to tonight because Victoire was able to get the Quidditch pitch for tomorrow and they need all the time they can get to practice because the game's on Friday. And, they can't do this lesson any later because the day after tomorrow is Halloween and Kingsley wanted all of the champions' defensive lessons over by then so that they wouldn't have anything to worry about the night of the party."

Kurt sighed and twirled his quill between his fingers, "Oh yeah. Well . . . I just hope I don't get caught with one of her stunners again. Man, she's good with those."

Teddy smiled to himself, "Yeah, she is."

Kurt ignored him and continued, "I mean, I swear my calf is still bruised from the last lesson three days ago."

"Am I hearing this right? Did the great Kurt Williamson just claim that a girl got the best of him?"

Kurt groaned as Jilly Donaldson took a seat at the table he and Teddy were sitting at. She looked at Kurt questioningly, waiting for his answer.

Kurt folded his arms across his chest a huffed, "Yes. But this isn't just any girl. This is a girl who learnt how to duel from half of the Auror department."

Jilly rolled her eyes, "Can't you just say that she's good, because she's good, and leave it at that?"

Kurt opened his mouth to retort, but Teddy jumped in, "Do you want to join our practice tonight Jilly? I'm sure Victoire would enjoy the chance to go up against a new opponent."

Jilly smiled, "Is that code for she's tired of beating Kurt all the time?"

Teddy deadpanned, "No, not at all."

Kurt rolled his eyes, "You two are _so_ entertaining. I really don't know why I bother spending my time with you guys."

"It's because we're the only ones who can stand your conceitedness," Jilly reminded him.

Kurt put on a faux-affronted air, "That hurt Jill that really hurt."

Teddy laughed at the two's antics but stopped abruptly when he saw Auror McKenny coming up to their table.

"Hello Auror Lupin, Williamson, Donaldson."

Teddy, Kurt, and Jilly nodded a 'hello'.

"So Lupin, I was checking the duty roster here, and it says that you don't have a shift at all on Halloween night."

Teddy nodded, "No I don't. Harry told me that I'd be placed at the party though, because they were placing all the free Aurors there because Flannery hadn't told the department beforehand about it."

McKenny nodded, he was flipping through a clipboard, "Yes, well Potter and Weasley and I were just talking and it seems were going to have a little change of plans. The majority of the Aurors that are not on duty that night, are all first-year-trainees. And although they will be fine for patrolling the party, none of them has the experience to be in charge."

"In charge?" Teddy asked confused.

"Yes. It seems that all of the senior Aurors, who aren't on duty, were invited to the party. Therefore, we have run into a little dilemma. We don't have anyone to be the head of the security at the party. We don't need too many people of course, seeing as there will be several Aurors in the room, but nobody wants to be at the party and have someone running up to them every five minutes with a 'problem'."

Teddy nodded silently; sill not entirely sure where this was going.

McKenny smiled at Teddy knowing that he was confused, "Seeing as you are a second-level-Auror in training, who is not already scheduled for Halloween night, and seeing that myself, Harry, and Ron feel that you have the experience needed, we would like to offer you the role as head of security for the party."

Teddy's hair changed from 'Potter black' to navy blue, "What!"

McKenny smile grew, "We would like to give _you_ the position as the head of the Auror task force for the party. All of the first _and_ second year Aurors who are acting as security for the party will be under your control, they will come to you if they have a problem, and they will do as you say. That is of course, if you accept."

"Um . . . yeah. Of course. That'd be great."

McKenny nodded, "Very good. I'll go tell Harry and Kingsley that you've accepted, and they will probably give you the rough rotational outlines they planned out, which will need your approval, after your practice session with Miss Weasley in a few hours."

Jilly and Kurt waited until McKenny walked away to speak, "Oh, my, Merlin."

Teddy looked at them in surprise, "Yes . . . ?"

"This is so cool Ted!" Kurt exclaimed.

"Yeah, you actually get to be in-charge of an assignment!" Jilly said.

Teddy blushed, "It's not that big of a deal. I mean all of the senior level Aurors will be there in case things go wrong . . ."

"Yes," Jilly said impatiently, "but it isn't just about the assignment, it's the fact that they're giving it to you. Out of all the other second-level-Aurors, they gave it to you. It's proof of how highly they value you in the department."

Teddy's bright smile from her words, faltered when he heard a voice from behind him sneer, "Yes, his definitely has to do with his _talent_ and nothing to do with his personal connections with Potter or Weasley."

Teddy ground his teeth together to stop himself from retorting as Lassoder walked up to stand across the table from him.

"Something wrong Rick?" Kurt asked calmly. Out of the three of them, Kurt was the only one with a somewhat easy relationship with Lassoder. Teddy and he have hated each other since early on in their training from a year ago. And Jilly used to date him. It didn't end very well.

Lassoder smiled at Kurt before sneering at Teddy again, "Nothing really Kurt. I was just wondering how Lupin here got picked over everybody else, especially _me_, to be in charge at the party."

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Ted's more competent than you," Jilly offered sweetly.

Lassoder rolled his eyes at her, "No really, I'm very curious. I'd understand if he was dating their daughter or something like that, but seeing as their children are all under the age of thirteen that option's out. So what _did_ you do to picked?"

Teddy was saved from having to answer such a degrading question, by the sound of the office door opening and closing. The room went quiet. Teddy's, and his companions' at the table, attention was caught by the figure entering the room. Her head moved from side to side, tossing her blonde hair back and forth, as she glanced around the silent room. When her gaze caught his face, a breathtaking smile broke out across her face. Once their gazes locked, it was like the entire room full of silent Aurors disappeared, leaving just the two of them.

As soon as the thought entered his mind, Teddy shook his head forcefully. It _wasn't _just the two of them, and they _were_ in a room full of Aurors. If he let himself forget that, they'd both be in a load of trouble. He put a smaller, more platonic look of greeting on his face as she began to glide her way across the room to him.

Beside him, he heard Kurt let out a low whistle and he rolled his eyes knowing what he was going to say next.

"Man, she can make an entrance." Even though Kurt says this every single time she comes into the room, Teddy had to agree that his declaration had very much weight today. Everybody in the room was still watching her. Usually, once she moved past them, they would shake their heads lightly and get back to work, but she'd already made it halfway through the room and the people closest to the door were _still_ staring at her. And that's when he realized why.

Teddy sighed and closed his eyes before slowly opening them again and giving her a good, long, look. She'd changed out of her Hogwarts robes and was wearing a comfy looking dark scarlet zip-up hoodie and a pair of black, skin-tight, short shorts; the kind she wears for Quidditch practice. He knew _exactly _why they were still watching her. _Dear Merlin, why did she have to wear those? I know she wouldn't want to practice in her Hogwarts uniform, but did she have to wear those specific shorts?_

She was either oblivious to the attention she was getting, or just very unconcerned about it. She continued to glide up to him and stopped when she was a somewhat platonic distance away, she smiled brightly, her ocean-blue eyes sparkling, "Hi Ted!"

Teddy tried to keep his facial expression neutral, "Hi Victoire, ready for your last lesson?"

She laughed, "Definitely. I'll be so happy when this whole mess is over with. Oh, this is for you." She handed him a small white envelope.

Teddy accepted it with a quizzical look.

She shrugged and explained, "It's from James, he gave it to me during lunch and asked me to give it to you when I saw you later tonight."

"Oh, well thank-you. Do you know what it's about?"

Victoire shook her head, "No, he didn't tell me and I decided that I didn't want to know after I realized that it was leaking an odd form of yellow goo."

Teddy eyed the envelope carefully. There was no evidence of any yellow goo, so she must have vanished it off when she got it. He put it into the pocket of his pants, deciding to look at it later. He turned his attention back to the table in time to hear Victoire politely greet Kurt.

He bristled a little when he saw the effort it took Kurt to tear his eyes away from Victoire's legs so that he could answer her civil enquiry. To keep himself from yelling at his friend, he quickly introduced Victoire to Jilly. He ignored Lassoder's presence entirely; which wasn't hard seeing as Lassoder had picked up Teddy's report and had started reading through it and clucking his tongue arrogantly every few seconds at Teddy's work. At least he wasn't saying anything.

"Vic, this is Jillianna Donaldson, Kurt and I we just trying to convince her to come and practice with us."

Jilly glared at Teddy while she held her hand out to Victoire, "Please, just call me Jilly."

Victoire smiled winningly, "Nice to meet you. I'm Victoire."

She looked back to Teddy, "_Trying_ to convince her? Why? Can't handle me on your own?" Her baby-blues were shinning impishly with hidden meaning.

Teddy sighed. _Why is she making this so hard? It's like she knows that I'm struggling against the urge to just grab her and snog her senseless in the middle of this room, and not care about who's watching._

"No, I just thought that you'd enjoy duelling against someone else for a change. There are only so many times you can kick Kurt's arse without finally getting bored."

She chuckled and turned her attention to Kurt who -surprisingly- had gone back to the report on the table in front of him, instead of staring at her legs as she'd been expecting him to do, "I _knew_ it. I did hurt your leg that last time, didn't I?"

Kurt scoffed, "Pfft, yeah right-" Victoire silenced him with a stern look.

"Okay, okay . . . it's just my calf and it's fine."

Victoire opened her mouth but Teddy cut in, knowing that Kurt was too proud to admit _to_ her that she'd hurt him and that he wasn't about to take her up on the offer to fix it that she was just about to pitch.

"How was your day Victoire?" He said quickly.

She turned back to him, and was somehow able to give him a dazzling and disarming smile _and_ shrug composedly, "It was fine. I turned Austin Pennington into a ferret during Potions."

A currently dark brown eyebrow rose on Teddy's forehead, "In _Potions?_"

"Yeah he was irritating me," she answered simply.

Teddy nodded. His face was calm but on the inside, there was a rather strong feeling of glee at the image she'd conjured up. He really hates Pennington, "Good for you."

Victoire smiled, "How was your day?"

Teddy's face dropped a little. "Oh, you know. Same old, same old," he shrugged.

At this point, Jilly gave Teddy a look as if she thought he'd lost his mind. "That's not true Ted," she turned to Victoire, "Auror McKenny actually just came by and told Ted that he'd be in charge of security at the Halloween party."

Victoire's eyes lit up, "Oh really? That's fantastic Teddy, congratulations. I just _might _show up for that."

Teddy grinned conspiratorially at her, "Still haven't been able to get out of it huh?"

Victoire had told Teddy as soon as she could about the party, and about the meltdown, she'd had in McGonagall's office about it. Teddy knows how she is with attention. He also knows that despite the haughty and reserved demeanour she'll no doubt put on for the party guests and the cameras, she'll be a wreck on the inside knowing that people will be watching her every word, move, and breath.

She pouted way too attractively to be legal, "No. I've done and said practically everything I could think of and I still haven't gotten out of it!"

Teddy stood up from his seat and patted her arm in a manner he hoped looked more friendly than amorous, "It won't be too bad. At least you'll have Ally and Xavier."

Victoire smiled, "I don't know if having Xavier there would be an incentive for me to go or not, but it is nice that he and Cecilia can still go even though Oliver and Katie won't be able to make it."

Victoire had talked to Teddy earlier in the week about how the Woods had gotten an invitation (because they're famous Quidditch stars) and how that even though Oliver was scheduled for a game in Ireland, McGonagall was still allowing them to go without their parents being there.

Teddy was about to ask Victoire _exactly_ why she turned Pennington into a ferret, when Harry came up to them.

"Hey Vic," he said as he hugged his niece. He turned to Teddy and gave him a bright smile. Teddy automatically took a step back. He knew that something was up just by the look on his godfather's face.

Harry ignored Teddy's actions and sent Lassoder off on some senseless errand, "Okay, so we're just waiting for Professor Cooke and Kingsley to get here but I think we can go ahead and get the room set up. Oh, hello Donaldson. Are you joining us this afternoon?"

As Harry led the way to the office, talking animatedly, will Jilly the entire way; Victoire was left to walk in between Teddy and Kurt. Kurt was babbling on about something or another, which was good because the other two weren't paying him any attention at all. Victoire was walking so close to Teddy that her hand and arm were brushing up against his as they moved. She shifted just a little bit closer to him so she could smell his scent.

Teddy stopped where he was and groaned. He grabbed Victoire's wrist and stopped her from following everybody else through the office door. He pulled her body back to his and bent his head to whisper in her ear. He hid his frustrated expression in her silky hair as he murmured softly, "Good Godric Vic. Are you _trying_ to drive me insane?"

Victoire held her breath as she felt his hand come up from behind her and rest lightly on her hip. His sweet breath tickled her neck as he continued to whisper into her hair, "We need to be much more careful today. Kingsley's coming to your last practice to see that you've trained, and if you keep doing stuff like this to me, we're going to have a bigger problem on our hands than whether or not he thinks you can handle yourself in the Tournament."

She shivered. But whether it was at the hungry tone in Teddy's husky voice, or the idea of Kingsley finally finding out about them, she didn't know. She nodded her head, the only movement her body seemed capable of doing at this time, to let Teddy know that she'd understood his warning.

He left go of her and moved away. Victoire instantly missed the feel of his body near hers'. He stepped around her and opened up the office door for her to go through. A broad smirk crept onto his handsome face as he realized that _he'd_ actually overwhelmed _her_ for the moment.

* * *

"Okay. Now I need to see your stunning spell," Kingsley said to Victoire.

She nodded at him. Turned back around to face her opponent, and quickly rolled her eyes before Kingsley would be able to see. _Yeah, 'cause we haven't been doing this for the last half-hour or anything._ And by _this_, she means that she's been in Kingsley's office for the last half-hour performing every single spell he asks her to do (_Bloody perfectly_) as he, Harry, Ron, Professor Cooke, and Aurors Williamson and Donaldson sit by watching.

Victoire took a deep breath to clam herself before flicking her wrist and sending a perfect wordless _Stupefy_ at Teddy. As he fell onto the floor, she flinched slightly. She knew that he had volunteered to be her practicing dummy while she showed Kingsley her spells, but it still hurt her a little to see him fall like that without even bothering to raise his wand in defence.

"_Rennervate_," Kingsley said calmly as he pointed his wand at Teddy's frozen form. Once the spell hit him, Teddy slowly got up onto his feet, wincing slightly as he did.

His cringe didn't get pass Victoire. "Are you okay?" She asked hesitantly from where she was standing, a good three metres away from him.

"Yeah, I'm good. Next one," Teddy said readily as he stretched his arms out slightly.

Victoire looked at Kingsley. He gazed at her passively, "_Incarcerous_."

Victoire sighed again, and faced Teddy. She waved her wand and thick black ropes silently shot out of her wand and encased Teddy. The force of the ropes took him off guard and he ended up falling again onto his back on the floor. Victoire flinched visibly as the _thump_ of Teddy's fall echoed around the room. She swiftly placed an indifferent expression on her face for when she turned to Kingsley.

He nodded his head to Teddy direction, "And the counter-curse?"

She walked over to Teddy's bounded form, kneeled by his head, waved her wand, and whispered, "I'm sorry about that one. _Diffindo_." In a flash of light the ropes were sliced. Teddy sat up and leaned back on his hands. Victoire's eyes roamed over his body; making sure that she hadn't severed his clothing or _him_ by mistake. At the end of her search, her eyes found his.

A reassuring smile tugged his lips, as he softly spoke, "I'm fine. Just get up and ask Kingsley what the next spell is."

Victoire followed his orders and they both stood up and set themselves up in their original positions three metres apart.

"_Impendimenta_," Kingsley said evenly, with a slight raise of his black brows. Victoire gritted her teeth as she nodded. _Why isn't he conjuring up some bloody pillows? All of these hexes have ended up with me making Teddy fall or hit himself._

Victoire didn't have the heart to look at Teddy again before casting the jinx as quickly as she could. "_Impendimenta_!"

Teddy's form shot backwards the instant the spell connected with him; causing him to crash into the wall behind him. Victoire closed her eyes so she didn't have to watch him collide.

_Thud_.

The muted thumping sound confused her. She opened her eyes to see Teddy sitting up on the floor, directly beside the wall. It seemed that he was confused also; he was focusing his attention on the wall. He pressed his palm up flat against it and then slowly pulled it back after feeling it sink in a little. Victoire looked towards Kingsley and saw that _his_ wand was in his hand. That's when she clued in. _Kingsley must have put a cushioning charm on the wall knowing that Teddy would get pushed back into it._

Teddy jumped up to his feet and stretched his neck before moving back to his original spot, "Next one Vic."

She almost grinned at the easygoing attitude he was putting on. He was being such a good sport.

"Actually Ted," Kingsley broke in, "I think I've seen enough of Victoire's spells. I'd like to see her duel now." He turned to Jilly, "Auror Donaldson if you would be so kind, I believe she would benefit from duelling against you seeing as you're a new opponent."

Jilly nodded and traded places with Teddy. Both women pulled out their wands and began to duel. Teddy watched them for a minute before walking to Harry's side, "She's doing very well."

Harry grinned at his godson and patted him on the back, "Yes she is. That last jinx looked like it hurt. You okay?"

Teddy shrugged, "I'm fine. I've had worse." Harry laughed as nodded; yes, Teddy had definitely had worse.

The two women duelled for a while; sometimes Victoire had the upper hand, other times Jilly. After about ten minutes, Kingsley instructed Kurt to go in. Jilly was about to leave when Kingsley told her also to stay. He wanted to see how Victoire would fare with two-on-one duelling. She just smirked at him and nodded for the two Aurors to continue. Another ten minutes later, Kingsley walked over to where Harry and Teddy were standing; he was still watching Victoire out of the corner of his eyes.

"What do you think of going in, in the next few minutes Ted?" Kingsley asked him.

"Replacing whom? Kurt or Jilly?"

"Neither. You, Williamson, and Donaldson all against Victoire."

Teddy fidgeted. Having Victoire practice two-on-one was one thing. Having to sit by and watch two people battle her and he not able to do anything to help her was also something else. But going in and fighting against her when it was three-on-one, well, he didn't think he'd be able to handle that.

"Um, well she doesn't really need to practice three-on-one. There are only two other champions besides herself and we know that the chances of the three of them actually duelling each other are low to start with . . ."

Kingsley watched Teddy carefully for a minute before answering, "Are you saying that you won't go in?"

Teddy swallowed, "Yes. I'm not going to go in."

Kingsley looked at him coolly for another minute before smiling, "Very good; sticking by your decisions even though someone else is challenging them. Harry was right to pick you as head of security for Halloween."

Teddy forgot to morph his blush, "Oh . . . thank-you."

"_Ouch!_ How do you always get me with those?"

Teddy's eyes moved to the source of the noise. Kurt was lying on the floor with Victoire crouched beside him. She had her wand out and she was mumbling some words as she pointed it to a large bruise beginning to stain his right arm.

Teddy snorted; _looks like Vic got him with a stunning spell again._

Kurt and Victoire were on their feet again, "Seriously. How do you always get me with your stunner?"

Victoire smirked, "It's because you always drop your wand arm after performing the _Protego_ to protect yourself from my _Confringo_, which always takes you unawares because you were just dodging my stinging hex."

Kurt's mouth popped open, "What?"

Victoire's smirk grew more pronounced, "Your moves have become too predictable. I cast a stinging jinx, which you decide to dodge instead of block. Then when you're off balance from dodging, I cast a _Confringo_, which causes you to cast a shield charm because you've haven't recovered your footing. Even after you see that your shield charm has faded, you still drop your wand arm because you're mind is still thinking that you're protected. Therefore, I cast a stunning charm right where you drop your wand arm to, and _Voila_, you get stunned."

Kurt looked at Kingsley, who was smiling with affectionate warmth at his goddaughter, "I keep telling you that you need to mix up your routines Williamson. If someone like Victoire can spot your failings, then whomever you're battling against will definitely figure them out, seeing as it will probably be a life or death situation."

Kurt nodded and walked over to Teddy mumbling something about being shown up by a girl. He had a hard time holding in his smirk.

Kingsley had just told Victoire that she could have a five-minute break when an Auror walked into the room. He muttered out an apology before saying that Auror Potter was needed about something, and that Professor Longbottom had a note for Professor Cooke. As Harry spoke to the other Auror, Professor Cooke read his note. When all was said and done, Professor Cooke had to leave to go deal with a student emergency, and Harry had to leave to deal with another emergency. He took Auror Donaldson with him, leaving Victoire to train with Kingsley, Ron, Teddy, and Kurt.

"Ready for the next session Victoire?" Kingsley asked.

"Yeah, just give me a minute," she said as she walked over to Kingsley's desk (which had been pushed to the side of the enlarged room) and took off her sweater.

It took all of Teddy's energy not to palm himself in the face, as he listened to the string of unintelligible words that had started to emit from Kurt's mouth. Instead, Teddy stood where he was and stared at his girlfriend, _why did she wear that! And I thought the shorts were bad enough!_ Teddy's eyes travelled back down to the skin-tight black shorts Victoire was wearing for a minute before moving his gaze back up. Victoire had just taken off her large scarlet sweater, and was now boasting a rather _tight_ and . . . form fitting white tank top. The straps were navy blue, and the words written diagonally across the shirt alternated between blue and yellow writing. The words _Puddlemere United _started at the top on the right and angled down until the last _d_ was at the edge of the left corner of the shirt. Teddy knew if he moved closer the curly black script on the bottom right of the shirt would read the name _Oliver Wood_. And he knew if she turned around, across the back the blue ink would read _Katie Bell_ and the smaller script would say several things along with the words _Happy Seventeenth Birthday_. The autographed Puddlemere Untied tank-top Victoire was sporting was gift from Xavier and his parents from her birthday that summer.

Teddy peeled his eyes off of Victoire's clothes to look at her face. She was grinning at him wickedly; she knew precisely what she was doing to him. He attempted to glare at the blonde imp; somehow, it ended up as a wide-eyed stare and an open mouth. At least he didn't look about ten seconds away from drooling like Kurt did next to him.

Victoire fluttered her eyelashes innocently at Teddy one more time before turning around at talk to Kingsley, giving both Teddy and Kurt a _very_ good view of her back, "So what's the next session going to be? I've shown you all my defensive spells, I've duelled, what else is left?"

Kingsley smiled, "You've shown me how you can defend yourself with magic. But you haven't proven that you can defend yourself without it."

"What?"

"Victoire, you're a good witch, but you're not that physically imposing, if someone got your wand away from you, they could probably beat you physically."

"So what are you going to have us do?" Teddy asked after finally peeling his eyes off Victoire.

"Nothing to difficult. I'm going to have one of you boys pin her down and see if she can get out without magic," Kingsley answered easily.

Kurt's eyes lit up, "I can help if you want!"

Victoire glowered at him, before looking beseechingly at Kingsley, who looked like he was trying _not _to laugh at Kurt's eager tone.

"Actually-" Kingsley was cut off by Harry, who had poked his head back into the office.

"Hey I need Ron and another Auror." All eyes turned to Kurt.

"Really? Ugh, I knew it was too good to be true," Kurt grumbled as he led the way out of the office, Ron at his heels. That left Victoire alone with Teddy and Kingsley.

"Alright then," Kingsley said looking at Teddy, "it looks like you're it Ted."

Teddy felt a lump grow in his throat. _This is _not _going to go well._

Kingsley seemed oblivious to the tension growing in the room, "Okay. Victoire, on the ground." Victoire stared at Kingsley for a moment before realizing that he was serious. She complied with his words as she lay down on her back on the floor.

Kingsley then turned to Teddy, "Restrain her hands." He knelt on the floor next to her, took both of her wrists in his warm hands and leaned across her body to pin both of her hands to the floor above her head.

Kingsley nodded, "Good, now press her legs together." Teddy shot Kingsley an apprehensive look (which he didn't see) before moving to straddle Victoire. He pressed her legs together between both of his. He looked down at Victoire in the hope that Kingsley wouldn't be able to see his red face. Looking down was a bad idea. Her face was directly beneath his. Her silvery blonde hair fanned out underneath her head, the smooth pink lips stretched up into a way to sexy to be legal smirk, the wide ocean-blue eyes twinkling with mischievousness. _And then there's that damn tank top. Note to self; speak to Xavier Wood about that move when I see him next. _He shifted his gaze back up and one glance at her face made his brain completely stop working.

"Ugh . . . . . ."

"Teddy?" Victoire whispered quietly concerned.

"Ted, you have press your weight down on her. Right now you're just kneeling above her." Teddy followed his instructions and almost lost his mind at the feel of the press of Victoire's body against his.

She gasped as he pressed into her from above, _Merlin he's _so_ warm . . ._

"Good. Now Vic, try to wriggle out of Ted's grip."

She shifted and squirmed around but she couldn't get out of his strong grip (not that she really wanted too . . .).

Kingsley frowned, "If you can't do this Vic . . . you should really re-think doing the Tournament. C'mon do whatever you need to, to get out, just remember, no magic."

A thought popped into her head at his words, _but should I do it . . . well he _did _say do whatever I need to do. That's practically like permission . . . right?_ Without further thought, Victoire lifted her head off the ground and pressed her lips to Teddy's.

Teddy welcomed the feel of her lips against his for exactly seven seconds before remembering where he was. When he did, he quickly jerked back from her and stood up, both his hair and his face turning crimson red.

Kingsley eyed his Auror and his goddaughter suspiciously. Ted's face was surprised and shocked whereas Victoire's was devious. He spoke dryly to the latter, "Well, that was effective . . . but how about we try that again with you using a different technique. After all, I don't think your little move there would have worked if you had been pinned by another girl."

She smirked puckishly, "I don't know. I think that would have gotten a girl moving faster than a guy."

Kingsley rolled his eyes at her and signalled for her to try again. They lay back on the floor, Teddy's weight on top of Victoire's lithe form again, him pinning both her hands and her legs.

"Try something else," Kingsley insisted from beside them.

"Okay," Victoire called. She looked into Teddy's sapphire blue eyes and whispered, "I'm sorry about this."

_Thump! _Teddy was pushed off Victoire by an invisible force and he landed on his back on the ground a few feet away from her. The pause was long enough for her to jump to her feet and draw her wand. She pointed it at Teddy, but she was looking at Kingsley with a raised eyebrow, "How 'bout that?"

Kingsley was staring at her open mouthed, "How did you do that?"

Victoire shrugged and reached out a hand to help haul Teddy to his feet, "It's a Veela thing Mamma told me about. You know how the Veela blood gives me some form of unconscious attraction over men?"

Kingsley rolled his eyes as an answer; Teddy nodded and grumbled out an unintelligible string of complaints about people always hitting on her.

"Anyway, Mamma told me if I try really hard I can almost reverse it. Instead of drawing people in, I can push them away. It gives me a headache, and I can only do it for a few seconds, but it works in a pinch," Victoire finished as she conjured up a large armchair and sat in it.

Teddy and Kingsley continued to stare at her in surprise.

"Now do you believe that I can handle myself?" Victoire asked Kingsley.

He nodded, still wide-eyed. Teddy just smirked as he walked over to her and sat on the edge of her chair, "Neat trick. And you never mentioned this to me because?"

She shrugged, "It never came up."

In front of them, Kingsley had recovered from his speechlessness. As he looked at the two of them, a small smile formed on his lips, "Like how careful you two have been to make sure that the topic of your relationship doesn't come up?"

* * *

Okay, so . . . I know many of you are probably very angry with me now whether you voted or not . . . but on the pluse side a lot of you had asked when Kingsley was going to find out so . . . SURPRISE!

Thanks to everyone who has read, subscribed and favourited! Leave a review if you'd like with your thoughts from this chapter, you can even yell at me for the cliffie if you want. I'd just love to hear from you. Oh, and hust so you all know, next chap . . . has some very nice Teddy/Victoire moments ;)

My amazing Reviewers from last week are:

**Hayley Renee**, **Sabriel1317**, **Cat Valentine**, **Mrs. 11th**, **potterhead-weasleylover**,** brilliantbluelights**, **kraney**, **Addicted-To-Suger-Quills**, **AmandatheBookworm**, **Hipsomhaps**, **Dimcairien**, **Rachel**, & **Lauren Rees**.

**LilyRose95**: I'm glad you like my abuse of the Minister :)

**AbiQ**: Teddy/Vic are my fav couple too, along with Remus/Tonks, and Katie B./Oliver W. I like to try to keep things cannon because sometimes when things get changed around they can annoy me (I'm kind OCD like that), but I like how Teddy/Vic are the next gen. so I can use more imagination :) Glad to hear that I'm helping you during your homework breaks. ;)

**imsuchanut**: Don't worry, as you can tell there's some nice Teddy/Vic coming up . . . And yeah, I love Katie/Oliver so I'll probably be mentioning them several times during this story. That's one of the reasons why I make Xavier so awesome, how can he be anything else with parents like that?

**HarryPotterNut94**: Thanks. And, does this anser your question ;)

**PkmnLuver292**: Sorry, but I had to go with majority, I hope you don't hate me ;)

**Falling For Teddy Lupin**: Thank-you. Writing is a passion of mine and I'm glad that people like it :)

**Amara**: Thank-you!

**leauduciel**: Thanks. Sorry, but there was some good Teddy in here, and there will definitely be some good Teddy in the next chap.

**redwolf12**: I hope this gives you plenty of things to kick-start your imagination with.


	28. Finding Out

A/N Part 1: I know many of you have been waiting for this chap, so I'll save the Author's note for the end. But **_you all_** have to read it beacsue it's **_VERY IMPORTANT!_**

**Warning: **The chapter below conatins mentions of alcohol (which could or could not be considered under-age depenging on how you look at it), and a mentions of a _**very**_ hilarious when drunk Xavier Wood. Enjoy! ;)

Disclaimer: не маё (Belarusian)

* * *

Finding Out

Victoire's face was frozen. She knew that it must have been in some horrible grimace of surprise that definitely looked less than gorgeous, but at the moment, she didn't care. She couldn't care, because there was no way that she just heard Kingsley right, there is now way he just said _'Like how careful you two have been to make sure that the topic of your relationship doesn't come up?'_. She could feel more than see Teddy fidgeting beside her as he sat on the arm of her chair. She couldn't look at him. She could barely think, but she knew she had to speak. She knew that she had to be the one to break the silence. After all, hadn't she been saying all along that Kingsley's _her_ godfather?

"P-Pardon Kingsley?" she stuttered out.

The small smile, that had begun to emerge on his face a minute ago when he spoke, broke out into a full out smirk, "I was saying, that you two have been very careful about people knowing about your relationship. Haven't you?"

Victoire felt her throat constrict, "Is it too much to hope that by relationship, you mean the close brother-sister-like bond we've grown over the years?"

Kingsley nodded.

"So you know?"

Another nod.

"That Teddy and I are dating?"

Nod.

"That we have been dating since the summer?"

The next nod almost made her faint. It would have made her faint if she hadn't slowly been getting angry by his lethargic responses, "How! How did you find out?"

Kingsley regarded the two calmly, "About a week after you went away to Hogwarts I stopped by Harry and Ginny's house in Godric's Hallow to drop off some papers for Harry. Ginny had to take a floo call in the living room fireplace, leaving me alone in the kitchen with Lily. She was colouring some pictures, I recognized something that looked like a wedding. I asked her who was getting married in the picture and she happily pointed out that the bride was Victoire and that the blue-haired groom was Teddy. I laughed and asked her why she drew you two getting married, and she went on to tell me about how James had claimed to see you two snogging at the Platform."

It was one of the few times in her life when Victoire's face actually turned red. But it wasn't red from embarrassment. No. It was red from anger. Anger she directed at herself. While she had lost sleep worrying about James or Fred, or even Louis telling people, she had completely forgotten to worry about Lily telling people. Little, sweet, nine-year-old Lily who probably had no idea how complicated she just made her eldest cousin's life.

"So you've known for that long, and you haven't said anything!" Victoire said surprised.

Kingsley shrugged, "You never asked."

Victoire's mouth opened in astonishment. Teddy leaned towards her, placed his hand under her mouth, and pressed it up. He looked at Kingsley, "I'm so sorry we never told you. It was never our intention to try to deceive you. We were going to tell you the day Victoire went off to Hogwarts, but then you came back from your mission late, and things just got out of hand. But that's no excuse. I should have told you the minute you came back into the Office after your mission in the summer. I take full responsibility."

Victoire looked angrily at Teddy; _he shouldn't be the one taking the blame and potentially getting the brunt of Kingsley's anger. That should be __**me**__! Lousy chivalrous Gryffindor._

"No you don't," Kingsley and Teddy both looked at Victoire questioningly, "You're not to blame Teddy. We had a deal. You tell Harry, I tell Kingsley and then everyone else would find out from there. It wouldn't have been your place to tell Kingsley the next day, and if you did I probably would have killed you because I told you specifically that I was going to do that."

Kingsley chuckled. Victoire turned to him, "But really? You just took Lily's word for it? You didn't even think to ask me if it was true before you decided to believe a hyperactive nine-year-old?"

Kingsley smiled warmly, "No I didn't just take Lily's word. I did a study myself. Between what Lily said, the way you two act around each other, and the fact that sometimes Ted's hair turns blonde and then Ron bursts out into random fit of laughter because of it . . . well let's just say that I came up with the hypothesis that you two really are dating."

As she listened, Victoire made a mental note to hex her Uncle Ron the next time she saw him, not a bad hex . . . maybe just a _Rictusempra_.

"So . . . are you angry with us?" Victoire asked hesitantly. It was something she had never asked her godfather before. Because she knows that if he answers 'yes' then she'd probably break.

Kingsley looked between Victoire and Teddy. He thought for a minute before answering, "Am I angry about the fact that you're dating? . . . No, I'm not. It was little bit of a surprise of course, but mainly because I thought that this day was still a little farther away. But that was mostly an error in deduction on my part."

"You thought _what_ day was a little farther away?"

"The day that you come to tell me that you were dating Teddy."

Victoire looked at Kingsley shocked.

"Really Princess, it's not the fact that you're dating Teddy that shocked me, it's the fact that you didn't just come right out and tell me. I've seen that coming for years; I just thought that when it happened you'd actually tell me. I understand that you didn't want anyone to know at first in case it didn't work out, but it's been a few months now, and _you_ still haven't told me."

She was still rather shell-shocked, "Why does everyone keep saying that they saw this coming!"

Kingsley laughed, "Sorry Vic, but we've all just had a feeling about it ever since you kissed him under the mistletoe when you were four."

Victoire bristled as she always did when a family member mentioned that Christmas day, "I was _stuck_ under that damn mistletoe, Teddy was the _only_ one who would kiss me, and for the LAST time HE kissed _me _first."

She took a deep breath to calm, "But you didn't answer my question. Are you angry that we kept this from you?"

"I'm upset that you didn't tell me Vic, although you haven't really had the chance to," he looked at Teddy who stiffened under his gaze, "And you . . . well, I'm touched that I scare you enough that you're so afraid to tell me that you're dating Victoire."

Teddy blushed and looked down at his feet, "I take it you're going to re-assign me so that I'm not stationed at Hogwarts anymore?"

Kingsley blinked in surprise, "Why would I do that?"

It was Teddy's turn to look surprised, "Because Aurors who are stationed at Hogwarts are not supposed to have inappropriate relationships with students especially if said student is one of this year's Tri-Wizard Champions."

Kingsley nodded, "I'm aware of the rule Ted, I created it."

"But then-" Teddy was silenced by Victoire who had flung her hands around his head and has presently preventing him from talking.

"Shhh, Teddy. Let's see where he's going with this," Victoire said. Her hands still clasped around his mouth.

Kingsley smirked at the two before continuing, "I said all inappropriate relationships are off limits. Is your relationship inappropriate?"

"No," Victoire said. Her response was ruined by Teddy's nodding motion.

She looked at him in shock, "Our relationship is not inappropriate!"

Teddy lightly kissed her hands and then gently moved them from his mouth, Victoire left them resting on his shoulders while he spoke, "Not to you it's not. But it depends on what your idea of inappropriate is."

"Well that's what we need to figure out then isn't it?" Kingsley asked, "We need to come up with rules for you to follow so that I won't have to sack Ted for inappropriate relationships with a student and so that Victoire doesn't end up in a front page headliner and gain a reputation about some sordid love affair."

"I think I already do have a rep for that though."

He ignored her, "As I was saying. Has your relationship ended up in distracting Ted from performing his Auror Duties?"

They shook their heads.

"Has your relationship caused Victoire to get in trouble in class, or with a teacher, or caused her to break Castle rules so that you could be together?"

Again, they shook their heads.

"Have either of you done anything, or given anybody: teacher, student, or Auror, reason to think your relationship ill-advised or imprudent?"

They shook their heads again.

"Then I don't see any reason why you can't continue to see each other. If you take the necessary precautions of course and follow some common-sense rules."

"What rules?" Victoire asked suspiciously.

Kingsley smiled warmly at his goddaughter, "No . . . fraternising, while Ted's on duty," Victoire and Teddy nodded, they were already following that rule . . . mostly.

"You have to keep this relationship as secretive as possible, although I think you two already have a good handle on that. Not to mention the fact that Rita Skeeter's created a nice red herring for you in the form of making the whole Wizarding population believe that Victoire's dating Xavier Wood."

Victoire couldn't hold in the sickened look that always comes to her face whenever she thought of that. _Xavier and me . . . yuck, some people are so stupid, gullible too . . ._

"If something comes up while Ted is on duty and it has to do with you, he has to treat you as he would any other student, although, you're rather well behaved so I'm not too worried about that."

"Anything else?" Victoire asked, so far his list consisted of stuff they were already doing or things they already knew.

"Yes, but this applies specifically to you Victoire. I know you won't like it, but you can't just date Teddy like he's any other guy on Hogsmeade weekends. If he wasn't stationed at the Castle this year it would be different, but because he is it would really blow the whole secrecy thing you're supposed to be doing. But again, I think you can settle for no 'real' dates if the alternative is a chance to see Ted much more often than you would if it was a regular year."

Victoire put a fake-distressed expression on her face, "So I can't invite him to the Common Room for our illegal celebratory parties after winning Quidditch?"

Kingsley laughed, "No you can't."

"Hmm . . . okay. Deal," Victoire said smiling.

Kingsley frowned, "Princess, we weren't making a deal. If you break any of those rules I'm going to have to take Ted out of Hogwarts."

Victoire smiled angelically, "I know. So it's a good thing I agreed with your rules, isn't it?"

Kingsley gave her another odd look before shrugging her words off. It _was _Victoire Weasley he was talking to. She doesn't understand the words _commanded_ or _ordered_ she always believed that she had a say in any topic. He shook the thought off as he watched Victoire tighten her arms around Ted's shoulders and pressed her face into the back of his neck as she hugged him.

Teddy seemed to be oblivious to the blue-eyed sprite that practically had him in a chokehold. He looked at Kingsley in confusion, "Kingsley . . . if you've known that Victoire and I have been dating since the beginning of September, than why did continue to place me in patrols where I would cross her path, or give me that job to follow her everywhere she went. Shouldn't you have placed me as far away from her as possible seeing as we had a . . . connection?"

"I placed you near her because it fit my purposes. Obviously, Harry and Ron had faith that you could act professionally and responsibly, or they wouldn't have continued to place you where you would interact with her. And seeing, as they are the Head Aurors of this force, I abide by their decisions. Besides, none of the other Aurors were going to come even close to watching after her as precisely and as worriedly as you do. If anything, you would be even more protective and maniacal than the other Aurors because you care about her so much; an attitude by the way, that I'm almost certain you would have whether you were dating her or not, just based on your backgrounds together. Who better than to obsessively watch after her and make sure that she was okay than her boyfriend?"

Teddy nodded; _he has me there. I probably do pay too much attention to Victoire than the other students and other Champions. Then again, Kingsley obviously saw this coming and decided that he could exploit it so I shouldn't feel too bad. He wants her safe just like I do._

Victoire lifted her face from Teddy's neck and looked at Kingsley, "Even though you knew at that point that we were dating, I'm still surprised that you would think that I'd be okay with having Ted follow me around and bloody babysitting me for the entire Tournament."

Kingsley chuckled deeply, "I will admit that I thought that the other _benefits_ of that mission would have entreated to your . . . more devious side and that you would accept the bodyguard in the hope that it was even more _time_ you could spend with Ted."

Victoire snorted as she withdrew her arms from around Teddy's neck and sat up straighter in her armchair, "You said it yourself Kingsley, that Teddy is dedicated and responsible. There is no chance in Hades that I would have been able to coerce him away from his morals long enough to benefit from his assignment. Let alone convince him to stop walking ten steps behind me so that I could get him close enough to snog."

Teddy flushed and looked at the floor, _things were going so well with Kingsley . . . and then Victoire had to bring up snogging._

Kingsley was grinning impishly (the look thoroughly scared Teddy seeing as how much it looked like his goddaughter's when she smiled like that), "I know. That's why I did, and still will pick him to 'stalk' you over most of the Aurors in the Castle. It's because he doesn't have to _try_ to get you; seeing as he _already_ has you. It will save me a lot of time and worry, and it will save you Vic, a lot of hexes later on."

"So you're really okay with me and Teddy dating?" Victoire asked. She needed to come back to the most important point.

Kingsley smiled warmly and walked closer to the two on the chair, "Of course I am. And even if I wasn't, I'm just your godfather, what should matter more is if your parents are okay with it. And seeing as Bill and Fleur purposely asked me to make sure that Ted was stationed near you so that he could watch out for you -and that was when they knew that you are dating him- I'm sure they're fine with it."

Victoire looked up at him with a heartbreaking expression on her beautiful face, "But your approval matters to me too Kingsley."

Teddy grabbed her hand and squeezed it, "Me too."

Kingsley blinked. He blinked again; trying to make sure that no tears leaked down his face. Now was not a time to get mushy and cry, "That means a lot to me you guys. And yes, I do approve. Whole-heartedly."

He straightened and took a few steps back, "After all, he is a vast improvement on some of your past boyfriends Victoire."

She grinned as Kingsley walked closer to the door, "And why's that?"

Kingsley was at the door by this time. "Because I don't have to waste any time in putting the fear of God into him, he's already got it."

He turned and opened the door, he called to them over his shoulder one more time before leaving, "You passed training Vic. Make sure to put the room back to normal, and then have Auror Lupin escort you back to your dormitory."

* * *

"Remind me again why you just had to wear that top," Teddy asked her as they put the office back into shape.

Victoire stopped where she was, put down the object she was levitating, and spun around to face Teddy while simultaneously looking down at her favourite tank, "What's wrong with this?"

Teddy followed her gaze down to her top, but not back up again, "Uh . . ."

Victoire sighed; she walked closer to Teddy, and snapped her fingers in front of his face, "Teddy!"

"Oh, uh, it's just distracting that's all," he said as he shook his head to clear it.

She smirked, "Just because this shirt makes you drool; doesn't mean that I shouldn't wear it."

Teddy scowled, "I was not drooling, and I wasn't talking about myself. I was talking about how you reduced poor Kurt to a puddle, teasing him with that."

"Not to be mean or anything, but I kinda preferred it when he couldn't talk."

"Yeah, that was rather nice. But it would still be easier if you'd try not to put us in that situation again, so that I wouldn't feel the need to curse him when he's not looking, for hitting on you."

She took a step closer to him until her body was pressed against his and laid her head on his chest; inhaling his wonderful scent, "You're so cute when you get possessive. But don't get me wrong, if this becomes a habit we're going to have to have a little chat about it . . ."

Teddy smiled warmly at her, his arms folded around the small of her back and squeezed her to him, "Don't worry it won't be . . . as long as you don't wear that top again."

She leaned back so she could look him in the eyes, "But this is my favourite tank top."

"That may be, but it makes you look way too damn sexy."

A smile pulled at her lips, "Really?"

"Yes."

"Hmm," she placed her head against his chest again, "then how about I only wear it when you're around, or if I'm just hanging out with Sandra, Kyle, Ally, and Xavier?"

"Deal, but only if there's no firewhiskey present, and only if there is no marker in Xavier's possession," he said idly as he started to run his fingers through her long blonde-hair. He could feel her shaking against him with silent giggles.

When she'd restrained herself -somewhat- she spoke again, "I _knew_ that that bugged you!"

He sighed, "Well . . . yeah. Look at where it is!" He let go of her so that she could step back a little and so that he could see her shirt again. Written across the chest of her shirt in dark red ink was a _very_ drunken looking scrawl that read (when you squinted your eyes just right) _Xavier Wood_. The over-all very awkward positioning of the autograph coupled with the fact that Victoire -along with several other people- hadn't been entirely smashed enough to forget the circumstances surrounding him when he wrote it, equals the embarrassed reaction Xavier usually has when he sees Victoire wearing that tank-top.

She looked down at her shirt and smirked at the sight of the signature, remembering the night he wrote it . . . _It was in the summer, the night that she celebrated her seventeenth, and of age, birthday. The party was actually two days after her birthday; she had celebrated with her family on her actual birth date. All of her friends from school were at her house for the party, seeing as all of her friends, (except Ally, but Aunt Angelina and Uncle George said that she had permission) were of age, there was also a lot of alcohol. Victoire, being the birthday girl -and also trying to _not_ go blabbing to Teddy, (who had -of course- come to his best friend's seventeenth birthday party), about the fact that she fancied him- had had a lot to drink that night. Not enough to get her thoroughly pissed, but enough to get her nicely buzzed. She had also insisted to Xavier that he should get completely intoxicated. Seeing as he had celebrated his seventeenth birthday during the school year, and even though they had gone out to Hogsmeade to celebrate, he hadn't wanted to have more than two or three drinks because they had a Quidditch match in a few days. She knew Xavier wouldn't do it if she left him alone, so that night they had been drinking buddies, matching each other drink for drink and shot for shot. Sometime during the night, after Xavier and she had had several drinks, she decided to go back and look through her birthday presents. She came upon the _Puddlemere United_ tank top she had opened three hours earlier, and again looked over the autographs and birthday note his parents had written on it. That's when the thought popped into her head. If Xavier was going to be a famous Quidditch player on day, hopefully playing on the same team his parents did, she should get his autograph too on the shirt. That's when Xavier grabbed the shirt from the pile, along with a new quill she'd gotten and the new colour-changing ink, and signed his name to the shirt. Xavier and a few other of her friends had stayed over that night. In the morning, they all woke up to the sound of Victoire's hilarious laughter as she held the tank top in her hands. It was only then that Xavier realized _exactly_ where he had signed his name on her shirt._

"Ah, good times. Good times," Victoire said still laughing at the memory.

Teddy shook his head, he was there but he didn't remember it being as funny as Victoire thought it was. Then again, he _was_ much more sober than she was that night. They continued to tidy up the room until everything looked like it was back into place.

Victoire looked around contentedly, "Looks like everything's back in place."

Teddy followed her gaze, "Yup. So now it looks like I have to walk you back to your dorm."

"Okey-dokey," Victoire said happily, as she sauntered over to the door.

As soon as the cool handle of the door was in her grasp, she twisted and pulled. The door opened a fraction of an inch before slamming closed. She whirled around to see Teddy standing directly in front of her. One of his hands pressed against the door, even with her head. He had been the reason why it closed.

She looked up into his dark sapphire blue eyes, "Yes . . . ?"

He moved forward until his mouth was right next to her ear. She shivered from the feel of his breath as it stirred her hair. His lips were a hairsbreadth away from her ear; she could feel the warmth of them as he whispered, "I thought we already talked about this. You're not going anywhere in that shirt."

She gulped and took a deep breath. Her head was beginning to spin from his devastatingly amazing scent and his overwhelmingly close proximity. But she was the one who was part Veela, not him; she should be the one making _him_ lose _his_ mind.

So accordingly, when she spoke next it was in an extremely breathy and flirtatious tone, "Well then, what are we going to do about it?"

Teddy's eyes darkened, "How about this?" He pulled her scarlet sweater out from behind his back.

She took it from his hands and tossed it to the side. She placed her hands on his chest, "Oops. What's plan B?"

He grinned and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close, "I don't have one."

She ran her hand up his chest and into his, currently, forest green locks, "Gasp! An Auror without a backup plan, you better hope Harry doesn't hear about this."

He left one hand at her waist where the bottom of her tank top met the waistband of her, very short, black shorts, while the other traveled slowly up her back. She shivered again as she felt his fingers lightly touch the contours of her spine through the rather thin layer of her shirt.

His full lips stretched into an exceedingly tempting smirk when he felt her body respond to his actions, "What will I have to do then, to make sure that you don't tell Harry?"

She gripped his hair tighter as she brought his face closer to hers. "Surprise me," she whispered against his lips.

He had time to flash her one quick smirk before crushing his lips against hers. Their lips moved as if they had melted together; answering each other's unspoken words, lips mirroring each other; movement for movement. Matching pressure for pressure, and deeper down, passion for passion. She moaned into his mouth and he took advantage of it by capturing her bottom lip between the both of his. He tugged at it gently, and if she hadn't been so completely and totally absorbed in the feeling and taste of him, she would have been worrying about the rapid and erratic beating rhythm her heart was pounding out. As they kissed, the hand that had been moving up her back came to the back of her head. He threaded his fingers through her silky blonde hair and used his grip to lock his mouth tighter to hers. One of her hands stayed in his hair, still clutching at the green locks, the other moved down to the nape of his neck and started to play with the hair there.

She let out a pitiable whimper as he broke away from her mouth to sprinkle kisses down her neck. Her gasps for breath getting louder as his mouth moved lower. When he made it to the hollow of her throat, she felt her legs wobble as he opened his mouth to _just_ taste her. She felt his arm tighten around her waist to hold her steady as her explored the skin that the tank top showed that her school uniform usually covered up. Her fingers tightened in his hair, as his hand slipped beneath her shirt to feel the warm skin at her hip, and as he simultaneously started an attack of open mouth kisses on her collarbone. Her mind, which had been on hiatus, kicked into gear as she felt him start to suck on the skin of her collarbone.

It almost physically hurt her to push him away. "Wait," she said breathing heavily.

"What?" he gasped out, also trying to regain some oxygen.

"You. Can't," she had run out of air so she just motioned to her clavicle where he had been kissing heavily.

He shot her a confused look and repeated, "What?"

She took a deep breath and tried again, "You know glamour and appearance charms don't work on me."

He looked at her confused again, "So . . . ?"

She shot him an exasperated look that said 'I-can't-believe-you-actually-passed-all-of-your-N.E.W.T.s', "So, if you give me a hickey, I won't be able to bloody cover it up. And although that would be fine if I was just going to spend the next week in my school robes, there's the Halloween party in a few nights and I have no idea what in the world my Mamma is going to force me to wear. So it's better to be safe than sorry."

Teddy smirked as he took a step back from her and temptation, "I thought the spell that hid those was a healing spell?"

"It sorta is, but the part that makes the colouring disappear is a mix of a healing and appearance charm, so it wouldn't work," Victoire said.

He nodded and took one last look at Victoire before summoning her sweater from off the floor and held it out for her to slip into to, "Now quickly, put this on before that damn shirt distracts me again."

She laughed but followed his advice as she slipped her arms into the plush sweater; she zipped it up halfway, "This shirt really gets to you doesn't it? I'm going to have to thank the Woods again when I see them."

He rolled his eyes, "And earlier I thought the shorts were bad."

Victoire looked confused, "Shorts?"

"Yes. When you first came in and none of the Aurors could keep their eyes off your legs and your . . . derrière, I thought that those damn shorts were going to be what made me snap. But no, it was that damn shirt instead."

"First off, stop damn-ing my clothes. Second, you haven't paid my legs _any_ attention; you've only being interested in my shirt and up."

He smirked at her again; she was starting to hate that smirk, before pulling her close to him. He kept his blue eyes locked on hers as his hand moved down to her left knee. He trailed his fingers gently up her leg, stopping where her _damn shorts_ began just short of halfway up her thighs. His touch left Goosebumps on her skin, took the smart remark from her mouth, and wiped _her_ short-lived smirk cleanly off her face.

"I'm so sorry. Was that better?"

She nodded dumbly. He gave her that sexy smirk once more before retracting his hand, straightening up, and opening the door she had been practically glued to minutes before. She was able to shoot him a shy smile before squaring her shoulders and leaving the room, with him close on her heels.

* * *

Teddy had followed Kingsley's instructions to the letter. He and Victoire put the office back together, and then he walked her back to her dorm (after a brief snog of course, but they weren't going to mention that to him. He may have said that he was fine with them dating, but he definitely wasn't going to want the details). Victoire felt like she was on cloud nine as she stumbled through the portrait hole and into the Common Room. The bliss that came from finally telling Kingsley about her's and Teddy's relationship (or more accurate, finally _talking _about it with Kingsley), and the still present fever from her intense kisses with Teddy occupied her heart and her mind so much that she almost walked right by her friends who were sitting on one of the sofas by the fire.

Her bubble of distraction had been popped by an incoming, empty, _chocolate frog_ box. She stopped where she was and picked it up. She looked over to the four near the couch and tried to suss out the culprit. It was rather easy; she just had to figure out whose innocent expression was over-the-top. She skipped over to the couch and squeezed herself in between Xavier and Ally. Once she was seated, she threw the empty box at the couple sharing the armchair across from them.

"Ouch! That hurt Vic," Kyle said as he rubbed his eye. She'd whipped it hard.

"Oops, sorry Kyle. That was meant for the harpy who's wrapped around you," she said cheerfully, glaring at her best girlfriend.

Sandra looked appalled, "What? Why would you throw that at me?"

"You've still got chocolate at the corners of your lips," Victoire said matter-of-factly.

Sandra giggled, "Oops. I promise to hide it better next time."

Victoire laughed but it quickly turned into a groan and a collected 'Eww' from the three on the couch as Kyle offered to help Sandra with that and proceeded to kiss her noisily. They only stopped after Xavier threw a pillow at them and told them to 'get a room'.

A now-chocolate-free Sandra was giggling, while Kyle attempted to flatten his newly tousled hair, as he glared playfully at his best friend, "You're all just jealous because you haven't been properly snogged in awhile."

Xavier turned red but continued to laugh. Ally and Victoire were also chuckling, "Speak for yourself."

Everyone went quiet.

"What was that Vic?" Ally asked suspiciously.

Victoire laughed again and took off her sweater (it was very warm by the fireplace) as she prepared to settle in for a long conversation, "Well-"

"_Merlin_ Vic, why do you have to wear that!"

Victoire laughed again at Xavier's distressed tone as he stared at her tank top (he was no doubt reliving his _very _drunken memories of that night). She ignored his question and launched into a, briefly edited, retelling of her final practice session.

* * *

Well, I hope you enjoyed that! In know that it was long awaited, but if you felt that it did (or didn't) live up to your expectations please comment in a review :)

A/N Part 2: ***Important Notice* **

As I kind of **back-to-school** (even though i know a lot of you have been back to school for a few weeks or so, I'm not until Tuesday)**/Early Labour Day** (for those of you who are Canadian :) **present**, yesterday night I uploaded, on **Fanfiction**, a **Teddy/Vic one-shot **titled **"Lunch Dates and Sneakoscopes"**. It is inspired by the conversation **Ally and Vic** (and Xavier by default) have in **Chapter 8: Tug-O-War**. For those of you who love my writing, and are curious about **Teddy** and **Vic's** relationship pre **Try, Tri** **Again **I suggest you search for it in Fanfiction, or you can go to my profile page and find the link.

**If I get** a lot of good-feedback on it, I may do a couple more **one-shots** about them. Some from memories mentioned in **Try, Tri Again** (**TTA**) and maybe even some ont specifically mentioned, but some that would go along with the characters and how I characterized them. As a speacial little something too, **Lunch Dates and Sneakoscopes** is written in **first person** point-of-view through **Victoire**, seeing as the **one-shot** mostly concerns her. It's a new little twist to my writting and **I'd like to know** if **you think** I captured her as I do in **TTA** (which is third-person omnicient point-of-view).

**You can** review on **here,** or on **Lunch Dates and Sneakoscopes**, if you have any **comments or feedback** :)

_Next Chap_ . . . we'll fine, I'll tell you . . . it's Flannery's Halloween Party . . . hmmm . . . I wonder what's going to happen? ;)

Amaaazing Reviewers from last week (who helped me reach 200+ Reviews baby!) are:

**iamsuchanut**, **RobinHPObsessor**, **blackdragon2010**, **mykk47**, **Timmay08**, **Mrs. 11th**, **HarryPotterNut94**, **xLauraElizabeth**, **Cat Valentine**, **kneeecole**, **rosebudlilac**, **Amara**, **LilyRose95**, **Dimicairien**, **Fred-and-Hermione-all-the-way**, **rb96**, and **Skaterk411**!

**Ms. Teddy Lupin**: Thank-you!

**Cassandra Brighteye**: Thank-you. And it's not so much as Victoire and Teddy are perfect people (for example you couldn't pay Xavier enough to date Vic) it's more the fact that they're _perfect for each other_. But if you feel that they're still at a level that seems vaugely unrealistic, then don't worry, there will be plenty of stuff coming up that will test their limits ;)

**brilliantbluelights**: You're review made me smile :)

**DJS43**: You're very welcome ;)

**Sebastian of the Sea**: You're review _made_ my day! Thank-you sooo much! :D

**Lauren Rees**: I hope this helps keep you sane :)

**redwolf12**: Thanks _so much_ for reviewing my one-shot! I'm glad you liked it. I'd still love to hear more of your thoughts though if you'de like now that you know what my plan is!

**Amethyst Wiccan**: Wow, all in one go, you're amazing. I'm glad you liked it and *blushes* thak-you for the compliments :)

**PkmnLuver292**: Well . . . that's a first I think, making someone cry . . . I think I'll say thank-you! ;)

**Neveraskquestions**: Thank-you!

**JennyXJ**: Well . . . I love your emthusiasm. Thank you.

**sometimesfairytalesdocometrue**: Wow, that's an amazing compliment. I'm glad you like my story so much . . . I don't know if I'd say mine's the best out there . . . but I'm glad you like it so much, thank you!


	29. A Mingling We Go

A/N: Well here's the next chap. I won't say much because it's _very_ long. All I will say is, that even though it may not move the plot along much I threw in a boatload of character development so I hope you like. The begining is a little girly, but I just couldn't help myself.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed last week and to all my new subscribers! And an extra big thank-you to everyone who read my Teddy/Vic one-shot **Lunch Dates and Sneakoscopes**. and for those of you who haven't . . . well take that as a formal invitation to! :)

Disclaimer: আমি নিজের না (Bengali)

* * *

A-Mingling We Go

Victoire huffed a little as she sat down heavily onto the bedspread. She closed her eyes and scrunched up her face as another wave of pain rolled through her head. _Godric, I can't believe I've got this bad of a headache already, and the party hasn't even started yet!_ Victoire looked out the window beside her bed at the dark grey sky; little points of light had begun to materialize in the night sky. The yearly Halloween Feast in the Great Hall had ended a few hours ago. All of the students were sent back to their Common Rooms, the few that would be attending the Minister's party that night were instructed to get ready. The Minister's party would also take place in the Great Hall, but it wouldn't start until eight.

Victoire groaned and moved her head to clutch her where the pain was, but stopped short when she felt the first strand of her hair that had been -rather obsessively- spelled into place. She rolled her eyes and was tempted to just ignore the fact that she had sat on her bed for an hour while each piece of her blonde hair had been painstakingly charmed to curl. She was just about to clutch at her head again, when she remembered her sister's threat, _Dom had come into Victoire's dorm room and had been the one to use about a thousand and one curling charms to fix her sister's blonde hair until it was what she deemed 'presentable'. Before Dom left the room to let Victoire get dressed, she had pointed her wand threateningly at her elder sister and had warned her that if she even so much as touched a hair on her head that she would come back up and hex her, most likely with a Bat Boogey Hex. _

So Victoire was left with a massive headache, which no numbing charm would work on, and a head full of perfectly spelled curls that would probably end up falling out halfway through the night whether she touched it or not. She looked out the window again and began to curse the night sky. Her internal cursing at the, rather ironic, night that Halloween fell on was interrupted by the creak of a door opening. Across the room, Sandra stepped out of the bathroom. She spun around slowly once to let Victoire get a good look of her outfit.

"Oh Sandy! You look absolutely fantastic!" she said to her friend as her eyes went up and down her form to take in the cute, ruffled sleeveless red silk blouse, the sleek looking black dress pants, and even the shiny black patent leather shoes with a (very small mind you) wedge heel. Victoire gazed again at her friend and felt a stab of jealousy at the fact that _Sandra_ didn't have a fashion obsessed little sister and Mamma that totally forced her into a skirt instead of a comfy pair of pants because a skirt is much more 'respectable' looking for a Tri-Wizard Champion.

While Victoire envied her friend's ability to be allowed to wear pants, Sandra was envying her best friend's ability to look utterly gorgeous without trying, and then look devastatingly stunning when she did. Victoire was clad in a slightly shorter than knee length black satin skirt with what looked like a thin layer of crinoline underneath, along with a midnight-blue satin shirt that left on shoulder bare, while the other had a two-inch thick strap of fabric in the same shade of blue, decorated by folded fabric in the shape of miniature rosettes. The midnight blue fabric of the shirt twinkled spectacularly with hidden silver glitter when the light hit it right. Along with the head full of silvery-blonde curls somewhat longer than shoulder length, the outfit was pulled together by a pair of silvery coloured flip-flops with a glittery kitten heel.

Sandra's self-satisfied expression had dropped from her face as she inspected her best friend, "You look fabulous."

Victoire shrugged, "Thanks. I'm not too happy about the heel, but it's shorter than the one Dom had given me at the start, so I did make some progress. I like my hair like this but it's not going to last."

Sandra tugged gently on one of Victoire's curls; her own light brown hair was prone to natural curls slightly tighter then the large ringlets Victoire was sporting, "Did you put a curling charm on every one of these?"

Victoire laughed, "Merlin no. Dom came up and did it, and then she threatened me not to touch it because she wants it to last as long as possible."

"Yeah, I didn't think that curling charms would work very well on your hair, since you're a Veela and all," Sandra answered.

"They work better on my hair than they would on my skin but they still won't last very long."

"Well, in the Muggle world we have something to fix that," Sandra said smugly as she walked back into the bathroom. She came back with an aerosol spray can of some sort of pink tinted liquid.

Victoire took an automatic step back. It wasn't that she didn't trust her friend; it was more the fact that she had bad experiences with some Muggle things in general, (usually because Uncle George was trying to adjust it to make something new for the shop). Then again, Sandra _was _a Muggle-born; she would actually know how the stuff works instead of just guessing like George usually did.

Sandra smirked knowingly, "It's called hair spray. It smells and tastes bad, so make sure you keep your mouth closed, but it should make your hair stay for a few more hours after the spells wear off."

Victoire nodded and closed her eyes and mouth as Sandra sprayed liberal amounts all around Victoire's head. When Sandra was done, Victoire reached up to feel a curl, it didn't feel any different it was still soft and silky, "Are you sure it worked?"

Sandra tugged a curl again and it moved straight before jumping back into the original ringlet shape, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it worked. But leave it to your stupid Veela blood to keep your hair from going stringy from the spray."

Victoire giggled along with Sandra, "Yeah, it comes in handy sometimes. Anyway, we should go get the guys."

Sandra asked her to wait a minute while she grabbed her jewellery and put it on. Sandra's request reminded Victoire that she had forgotten to put her jewellery on. She went over to her small wooden box (one that Grandpa Arthur had made her when he went through a Muggle woodworking phase) and pulled out a pair of small diamond studs, and her large oval gold locket (which she had easily charmed silver to match her shoes) that was attached to a long chain. Once she had donned her jewellery she turned to Sandra and was pleased to see that she was wearing the pearl necklace and pearl drop earrings that Kyle had given her for the last two Christmases (one last year, the other the year before. And this year Kyle was getting her the matching bracelet, even though she didn't know it yet). When they were ready, Sandra and Victoire left their dorm and went to find the guys, ignoring the wolf-whistles they got as they walked across the Common Room to the staircase that would take them to the guys' dorms.

Victoire knocked loudly as they got to Xavier, Kyle, and Chris' dorm room. She barely had time to start tapping her silver shoe on the floor before the door opened to Kyle's smiling, and surprisingly debonair face.

Kyle's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head as he gazed at the girls, "Wow, you look so beautiful."

Victoire giggled; knowing that he wasn't talking to her but answered anyway, "Thanks Kyle, but maybe you should close your mouth, wipe up the drool at the corner of your lips _there_, and then say something nice to your girlfriend so that she doesn't get the wrong idea about the two of us."

Kyle finally peeled his eyes off Sandra and then smirked at Victoire, "Oh, hi Vic. I like your shoes."

She scowled at him; he knew she hated heels almost as much as Sandra did. Victoire fidgeted as she tried to look around Kyle to see into their room, "Where are Xavier and Chris?"

Kyle walked out of the room and shut the door behind him; "Chris went to Ravenclaw tower to pick up Belle Wembley-" Victoire nodded. Chris had gotten an invitation to the party because his father works for the Ministry in the department of Magical Games and Sports, and he has actually done a lot of work to arrange for the Tournament. Much to Victoire and Xavier's insistence, they convinced him to ask a date seeing as his Dad had given him an extra ticket.

Kyle continued, "And Xavier is in the bathroom still getting ready, he'll be along later. Besides, you need me to get in." He pulled out two invitations and gave one to Sandra.

Because Sandra is a Muggle-born the chance of her actually getting an invite to the party because of who her are parents was zero. Fortunately, for her, Kyle Line is a pureblood, and being such, his parents were eventually approached by the Minister (not months before them finding out like Knott's family was) to give a donation for the Tournament. Kyle's parents, being the of the few purebloods left in the wizarding world that didn't actually put store in the whole pureblood mania that was somehow still alive, owned one of the largest Wizarding construction companies in the world. The company was started by Kyle's great-grandfather and has always been handed down in the family from father to son; Kyle would be the next in line to inherit it. His parents had given a large donation, securing not only them and their son invitations for Flannery's party, but also one for their son's girlfriend of more than four years whom they completely love. Seeing Mr. and Mrs. Line treat Sandra with respect and affection always brought a smile to Victoire's face, and gave her the much-needed reminder that not all purebloods are prejudiced, Slytherin gits.

Victoire smiled at her friends as they grasped each other's hand, and then led the way down the stairs, through the Common Room, and out into the corridor.

* * *

"Well Miss Weasley, don't you look absolutely lovely tonight?"

Victoire plastered a fake appreciative smile onto her face, even though deep down she was anything but grateful that this creepy old man was staring at her legs and her chest, instead of looking her in the face as he attempted to listen to her sparkling conversation. Along with her fake smile, Victoire leaked some fake interest in her voice as she chattered out, "Why thank you Mr. Lombard, but I can't take all the credit for lighting up the room, you look very dashing yourself tonight."

The old wizard just nodded; his eyes still on her body rather than her face. She gritted her teeth and made a mental note to furtively curse Flannery before she left for the night. She had spent the last forty-eight minutes meeting different wizard and witches who he always claimed had 'made a great contribution in helping with the Tournament preparations', most of the time it meant that they gave a lot of money, but every once in awhile, she _did_ meet someone from a Ministry department that actually did the grunt work. The only people so far that she had enjoyed seeing were Chris' parents Mr. and Mrs. Mullin. They had been some of the first people Victoire had met, and it only took a few old bats after them to make Sandra and Kyle ditch her under the pretence of trying to find his parents.

Presently, Victoire shot a glare through the crowd of people in the Great Hall to the figures of her two friends dancing on the small dance floor section of the room. As she glared at her best friend and her _good-for-nothing_ boyfriend, another figure from the crowd caught her sight. Victoire hastily excused herself from the old bag, who was still staring at her legs even as she walked away. She slipped through the crowd, saying 'hello' here and there when people recognized her and called her name, until she came up to a brunette in a simple, short-sleeved, purple sweater dress.

"Ally, thank Godric I found you, I thought I was going to go crazy by myself," Victoire said as she pulled the brunette into a tight hug.

Ally Weasley laughed at her cousin's earnestness and deftly slipped out of the embrace, "Hey Vic. I take it this party hasn't been much of a walk in the park then?"

Victoire scowled and mumbled about perverted old men staring at everything but her face. Her grumbles were met with an assortment of laughs, and it was at that moment that she realized that Ally hadn't been by herself. Victoire apologized for ignoring them when she first walked over, and gave both her Uncle George and her Aunt Angelina a large hug while asking them the normal pleasantries. She chatted with them for a few minutes before asking, "Is Freddie here tonight?"

Angelina laughed, "Merlin no. We didn't think he'd be able to handle himself. I spoke with Ginny though, and she wasn't planning on letting James, Al, or Lily come, so he shouldn't be too upset."

Ally added, "Besides, can you imagine having him here? He'd be running around putting burping potions in the punch and slapping 'hex me' signs on people's backs."

"Yes," Aunt Angelina said looking around before stage whispering, "I have enough trouble trying to stop George from doing those things; I don't need to worry about Freddie too."

Victoire's quiet giggles grew louder as Angelina speedily said goodbye, and walked off to see George who had been creeping closer and closer to the refreshment table with each passing minute; a giant devious smirk on his face.

"It's a good thing your family got the invite because your Mum's one of the head Healers at St. Mungo's and not because of your Dad," Victoire told Ally, still sniggering from the hilarious look on George's face.

Ally sighed, "Yeah, I know. We probably wouldn't have gotten invited if it weren't for Mum, or if it weren't for the fact that you're a Champion."

Victoire sighed too, "I wish my Dad would do something embarrassing that could get _me_ kicked out of this party."

Ally laughed.

"There's my two favourite Weasley's! And don't they both look _gor_geous!"

Victoire recognized that voice. Both her and Ally spun around; bright smiles coming to their faces. The woman standing in front of them was short and slim. She looked to be in her late thirties, her athletic body was being shown off by her sleek and simple little black dress with a cinched gold belt at the waist, her shiny dark hair was in her normal just off the shoulder bob, and her arms were spread open wide in preparation for a hug. Victoire and Ally didn't disappoint.

"Hi Katie!" Victoire and Ally said together as they hugged her.

Katie Bell laughed and squeezed the two Gryffindor girls closer to her before letting them go and stepping back to look at them again. When she spoke next, she had a sly smile on her face, "Seriously girls. You both look so hot. I'm surprised that your Dads let you come tonight. Especially you Vic."

Victoire beamed, "Well, Dad didn't really have a say tonight. The word came down from the Head Idiot that I had to be here. Besides, Dad couldn't come tonight."

Victoire looked up at the roof of the Great Hall and pointed to the full moon that was an exact replica of the one out in the night sky. Even though Bill Weasley's meeting with the werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, twenty years ago hadn't ended up cursing him with full-blown lycanthropy, he did come out of it with a few wolfish characteristics. Along with a love of rare meat, Bill had become aware of a few symptoms he did get when the moon was full. He would get aches in his scars, usually get a blinding headache that normal healing potions and spells wouldn't work on, and he'd sometimes get moody. As he got older, the symptoms got more irritating. Several years ago, Aunt Hermione and Aunt Angelina had suggested that he start taking the wolfsbane potion, even though he didn't actually get anywhere near transforming, it did end up helping with the aches and pains. Seeing as he would have taken the potion, he probably could have suffered through Flannery's party like Victoire was doing (sans potion), but he had used the full moon as a ready excuse not to be around the assembled group of bigoted, bureaucratic Ministry personnel. And Victoire couldn't find it in herself to be angry with him for it, because she wished the full moon excuse would work with her too.

Katie nodded understandingly, and smiled, "The Head Idiot? How has Flannery upset you so early in on the party? That must be a record."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Just making me come and making me the center of attention is enough to make me hate him."

"Don't be so egotistical Victoire, you're one of the _Tri_-Wizard Champions, therefore you're only a _third_ of the centre of attention," Katie said as she threw her arm around Victoire's waist.

Victoire smiled, "Silly me."

"Now, I know I'm probably going to regret asking this because, you know, speak of the devil and the devil shall appear, but do either of you know where my children are?" Katie asked imploringly as she threw her other arm around Ally's waist.

"Which one?" Victoire asked, "The short one who's _really _good at putting Louis in his place, or the tall one who's dangerously obsessed with Quidditch?"

Katie shrugged, "Either, I'm not very picky."

Ally's smiling face, (she's also a very big fan of Xavier's mom), turned into one of confusion as she asked, "Wait, I thought you guys told Xavier that you wouldn't be at the party because Oliver had a game in Ireland?"

"I did, but I lied. It shows how much attention Xavier pays to us anyway, actually believing that Oliver's next game was in Ireland."

Victoire shrugged, "She's got a good point."

"Anyway," Katie continued, "I wanted to surprise my children, for once, with the fact that I'm here."

"You have to be careful when it comes to surprises Katie. You could've walked in and if Xavier wasn't expecting you he might've been standing near the refreshment table snogging some chick," Victoire said in a warning tone even though she wanted to both burst out into laughter and scream 'Eww' with the thought of Xavier and some girl getting involved in some good old-fashioned P.D.A.

Katie laughed heartily, "Oh dear Merlin, I do love you Vic, but that's just funny. _Xavier_ getting the guts to snog some girl in the middle of this party, it's like you think that I don't know my son at all."

Victoire sniggered, "Good point."

"_Mum?_"

Katie's face turned into a blinding smile as she let go of Ally and Victoire to smother her daughter in a hug. Cecilia had just squeezed out of the crowd, coming out of practically nowhere. Her face was still shocked at the sudden appearance of her Mom.

"What are you doing here?" Cecilia asked, still shocked.

Katie let go of her daughter so that she could look at her face, "It's a surprise for you and Xav, Cee-Cee"

"Oh . . ." Cecilia said looking down past her deep blue blouse, grey dress pants, and to her blue-grey flats.

"Are you upset about this?" Katie asked, noticing that her daughter didn't look very happy to see her.

Cecilia looked up in surprise, "What. Oh no. It's great to see you. Sorry, my mind was just wandering to something else . . . Vic . . . is Louis here yet?"

Victoire only had time to flash Ally a raised eyebrow before she was rearranging her facial features into a look of apology, "What? Oh, I'm sorry Cecilia, but Louis isn't coming tonight."

For the second time that night, Victoire nodded to the full moon on the enchanted ceiling as an explanation. When Victoire was younger, her parents had realized that she would get crankier and would be more likely to get sick on a full moon. In normal circumstances, when a man who had been attacked by a werewolf when it wasn't a full moon had children, it would be impossible for them to inherit his wolfish traits. But Hermione had studied Victoire and had realized that she was showing some of the same symptoms Bill had: headaches, body aches, mood swings, upset stomachs, and things like that. Hermione had just shrugged and suggested that it was a mix of the magic in Fleur's Veela blood and the little bit of werewolf in Bill's that caused Victoire to inherit the symptoms. When Dominique and Louis were born, they showed a few of the same symptoms on full moons, but not as bad as Victoire's. Victoire always felt that the symptoms hadn't gotten worse as she got older, just more irritating. She didn't find that they were usually a big deal to begin with; it was like P.M.S., but just for one night and always on the full moon. Usually she'd just get a headache and be moody the whole day, nothing she couldn't handle. It was slightly worse tonight, seeing as she was already stressed out about the party, and the upcoming Quidditch game and task. She would have loved to use the full moon as an excuse like her father had, but when Dom had came into her room to do her hair and give Victoire her 'Mamma approved' outfit for the party, she had also carried a warning from her mother about trying to skip the party because of a headache. Louis and Dom, who would under normal circumstances absolutely love to be at the party and in the centre of attention, had been feeling bad enough that they had both (sadly they thought to themselves) opted out of the party; leaving Victoire and Fleur to be the only ones of their immediate family that could come to the party.

Cecilia followed Victoire's gaze and looked at the ceiling, "Oh, I forgot."

Victoire raised an eyebrow, "How could you forget? Louis has been acting cranky and moody all day." She wasn't joking, at breakfast Victoire had taken the last cranberry muffin and he had snapped at her about how selfish and inconsiderate that was. Louis doesn't even like cranberry muffins.

Cecilia blushed, "I haven't had the chance to talk to him at all today, that's why I was looking for him, anytime I went near him he stammered out some excuse and walked away from me as soon as humanly possible."

Victoire could see the hurt and the concern she was trying to hide with nonchalance, "I'm sure it had nothing to do with you Cecilia, he always acts odd on the full moon, and if you don't believe me, then just wait for next month."

Cecilia smiled a little, "'Kay. So what have you guys been doing?"

Ally smiled and said 'nothing', while Victoire went on a rant under her breath about; 'getting ogled by creepy old people'. As if to prove her point, Victoire heard a low wolf-whistle from behind her.

The two Weasley's and the two Woods turned around to face a pair of sandy-blonde-haired devils. The two men were tall (the younger one was only about an inch or two taller), with extremely lanky builds, and strong Scottish facial features. The older man (who had whistled) was unabashedly checking out Katie; his eyes were roaming all over her body and desire was clearly written on his face. The younger man's face was red, most likely from embarrassment, and he was diligently studying his shoes.

Victoire burst out into very un-lady-like laughter at the look on Xavier's face as he watched his dad checkout his mom. She couldn't find it in her heart to feel sorry for him though; personally, she thought it was cute that Oliver and Katie still felt so attracted to each other. Besides, she was used to parents checking each other out like Xavier's were doing. Her parents still did it to each other, the only time it gets awkward is when it's somebody else checking Fleur out when Bill's around.

_Or when he's not around_, Victoire amended in her head as she spotted her Mamma in the crowd talking to the same old wizard she had just made her escape from, who was staring at Fleur in the same manner her had just been staring at her.

"Hi Xav!" Katie called to her son as she grabbed her son and pulled him into a tight hug. Xavier nimbly slipped out of his mom's arms after a few seconds and gave her a peck on the cheek, "Hi Mum."

"Hello girls," Oliver said to Victoire and Ally in his Scottish brogue as he released Cecilia from the hug he'd just collected her into.

"Hi Oliver," Ally and Victoire responded.

Oliver shifted around until he was standing next to Katie, he threw his arm around her waist and pulled her in close, "So what have you girls been talking about?"

Katie smiled at her husband before shooting her son a wicked grin, "Just having a nice chat with our future daughter-in-law."

Xavier's face turned crimson red and he began to sputter out a string of unintelligible words. Victoire was the only one to notice that he glanced at Ally out of the corner of his eyes.

"So you've seen the last few _Daily Prophets_ have you?" Xavier asked grudgingly, when he'd finally remembered how to talk.

Katie and Oliver shared a smirk, "Yes. Have to say that the first one really was a surprise, but after a while we got used to the idea."

Xavier's face turned white, "Wha- But- you don't actually believe that Victoire and I are dating- do you?"

Katie grinned, "Of course not Xavier. You'd be more likely to kill Victoire than you would be to snog her."

Victoire smiled and then threw her arm around Xavier's shoulders, "She's right you know Babe."

Xavier glared at her and lightly pushed her away. Victoire made and offended face, "I never would have pegged you as an abusive boyfriend-type Xavier. You should probably work on your anger issues before you _actually_ get a girlfriend."

Xavier rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to retort when Oliver broke in sarcastically, "Don't get all mushy you two. There are dozens of photographers here; they might be trying to get a picture of you for the paper tomorrow."

Victoire groaned, "This whole rumour would be totally done away with if Xavier actually got a real girlfriend." She gave Xavier a specific look and then moved her head in Ally's direction. Xavier gave her a look in return that said 'shut-up' and sighed thankfully when he saw that Ally was to engrossed in a conversation with Cecilia to notice their exchange. While Ally might not have noticed the two Head's exchange, the knowing look Katie and Oliver shared, showed that they did.

"So Ally, where are your parents?" Oliver asked conversationally.

Ally sighed, "Mum went to find Dad after she saw him inching toward the punch bowl with his 'Pranking' look on his face. Even so, I wouldn't eat anything from the refreshment table if I were you."

Katie laughed, "Thanks for the tip Ally."

Oliver raised an eyebrow as he looked at Katie, "You want to go over to the food table and laugh at whatever George set up, don't you?"

Katie smiled brightly and kissed Oliver on the cheek, "You know me so well." Victoire and Cecilia laughed while Xavier groaned.

Ally's face suddenly perked up and she turned to smile at Xavier shyly. She grabbed his hand and pulled, "C'mon, let's go dance!"

Xavier's eyes widened and he took a step back from Ally, almost stepping on Victoire's foot as he did, "I-I'd love to Ally but you know me, on the ground I have two left feet-"

Victoire cut in; smiling brightly at the both of them, "I can _transfigure_ one of them into a right foot if you like."

Xavier glared at Victoire. Ally tired again, "Please Xavier. This is one of my favourite songs."

The accompanying pout was so close to breaking him that he had to look away from her face. His gaze went to his parents instead, "Besides, I'm sure my Mum and Dad want to catch up on what's been going on with me . . ."

Katie interrupted, "No, we actually don't."

Xavier frowned at his Mom, and Ally decided that this was her last chance, "_Pleeease_, Xavier?"

He made the mistake of looking at her face. It was hopeful, and pleading and just all together such a sweet expression that it left him a little dazed, "S-sure . . ."

Ally smiled brightly at him and towed him off through the crowd; still holding his hand. Victoire was smiling impishly as the two disappeared from sight, "I've got to remember this for later. Very good blackmail opportunities here, I should have brought my camera again."

Oliver raised a blonde eyebrow at her, "Again? Are you telling me that you already have a few pictures that would make good blackmail?"

"That depends . . . are you okay with that?"

Katie grinned, "Only if you give us a copy of said blackmail-worthy photos."

"Only if you give it to the press when he gets named 'Quidditch's most eligible bachelor'," Victoire countered deviously.

Katie put on an affronted air, "Did you expect anything less of us?"

Victoire chuckled and threw one arm around Katie's shoulder and the other around Oliver's, "Have I ever told you guys how much I love you? Next time I talk to Xavier I'm going to tell him that he really undervalues you."

Cecilia laughed at Victoire and her parents, "Well you guys enjoy your bonding, I'm going to go find one of my friends . . . I think I saw Danielle around here somewhere . . ." With that thought, Cecilia sped off through the crowd.

Victoire laughed but stepped away from the Woods, "I'm sorry but seeing as I've just spent ten minutes of this party in actual pleasant conversation I'm probably overdue to spend the next hour in mind-numbing and shallow conversation with spoilt rich people."

With that comment, Victoire said her happy goodbyes to Katie and Oliver and went off to find the other people she was supposed to talk to. Another hour went by and by the end of it; she had to have chatted with forty different people, fake-smiled for fifteen different pictures, been interviewed (more like interrogated) by twenty different reporters, and would have had to bite her tongue about one-hundred and thirty-six times to stop herself from saying something that would more-then-likely have deeply insulted the people that were forced upon her. The only few bright spots of the past hour were when she'd gotten a chance to chat with her Aunts and Uncles; even though many of them had only stopped to see her because they were afraid that she was going to hex the 'old-toss-pot' she was talking to. And had decided to intervene before she did something she'd regret (or at least they told her that she'd regret it, even though few of them believed their own words). Victoire's headache had grown over the time she spent at the party -thanks to the music being played for the people dancing and thanks to the irritating conversation of the people she was stuck listening to- and now it was pounding so loud that it was starting to make her feel nauseous. She was left standing in the middle of the crowd by herself; after the latest intervention into one of her conversations (Kingsley had been the one to save her but he had to leave quickly after that because someone had demanded his attention), when none other than Baxter Weasley walked over to her.

Victoire was especially delighted to see her cousin; the last time she had talked to him had been when he had given her the heads-up about the meeting for the Champions in McGonagall's office. She still hadn't had the chance to talk to him about her relationship with Teddy.

"Hi Bax."

"Hi Vic, enjoying your party?" he asked a knowing smile on his face.

Victoire grimaced for his benefit, "No, not only do I have to talk to a bunch of pillocks, but I've got a pounding headache and I feel sick."

Baxter nodded sympathetically, "Yeah, you must be feeling bad. After all, you get it worse than Louis and Dom and they didn't even think that they could handle the party tonight."

"Yeah," Victoire said. After mentioning to Baxter about her headache, her skull seemed to double in pain. She was tempted to put her hands up to her head and squeeze it, but then she remembered Dom's threat about her hair. She sighed and let her hands fall back down to her sides.

"Something else wrong?" Baxter asked.

Victoire shook her head, "Not really, I mean half of the old men I talk to end up staring at my body rather than look at my face, but besides that no."

Baxter smiled but it faltered, "Yeah, I noticed."

Victoire's eyes widened, "They aren't that blatant about it, are they?"

He shook his head, "No, it's just easy to tell when a person's been staring at you wrong because an angry look comes onto Ted's face."

"You've seen Teddy?" Victoire asked excitedly; her head now moving swiftly from side to side as she tried to see through the crowd to grasp a peek at the metamorphmagus.

Baxter looked down at his toes, "I catch a glimpse of him every once in awhile . . ."

Victoire stopped her fruitless search and looked at her cousin, "Baxter . . . I'm so sorry that you had to find out the way you did, from Fred and James and all. That's not how I wanted people to find out . . . seems like that's the story of my life though with people finding out about our relationship," she muttered the last part more to herself than to Baxter.

Baxter looked at his cousin, "It's okay . . . I know that it's not really any of my business. I-I just kinda feel left out sometimes . . . being the only Weasley in Hufflepuff and all."

"You know Baxter. I envy you. I've spent my last six years here at Hogwarts trying to do something that sets me apart from the rest of the family, and you were able to do that the minute you were sorted."

Baxter looked surprised, "Really?"

She nodded.

"It's not much of an accomplishment, I was just sorted differently. In the end you did better, you're a Tri-Wizard Champion after all."

Victoire smiled sadly, "Yeah, just like my Mum and Uncle Harry."

Baxter nodded empathetically, finally understanding where she was coming from, "Even if you aren't set apart from all the other Weasley's at least you're one of the ones that people want to talk to. You can light up a room Vic. People always notice you."

Victoire was about to tell him that sometimes fading into the background was a good thing compared to being forced into the spotlight, when she realized that he must have a specific reason for saying this. She studied Baxter closely and noticed that he wasn't looking directly at her; he was actually looking at something behind her. She turned around to see that his attention had been caught by two third-years a few metres away. One was Cecilia Wood, and the other was Cecilia's friend, a fellow Gryffindor, Danielle Reed. Victoire was a little confused at the yearning look on Baxter's face. Even though he was in Hufflepuff, he was close friends with Cecilia and Danielle. He could often be found hanging out with them and Louis.

_Louis . . ._ Victoire thought, she might have just hit upon the reason for Baxter's self-consciousness, "Is there something wrong Baxter?"

Baxter opened his mouth, ready to lie, but thought better of it. Victoire might not have been sorted into Ravenclaw, but she was no mindless bimbo; she'd noticed who he was looking at, "It's just . . . sometimes it's hard to get attention when Louis is around . . ."

"Or at least it's hard to get the right kind of attention from a thirteen-year-old girl when a Veela's standing next to you, practically demanding _their _unconscious attention."

Baxter blushed, "Am I _that_ transparent?"

Victoire chuckled, "To a seventeen-year-old girl yes, but most likely not to the thirteen-year-old one. But a good step to letting her know that you're interested would be going up and talking to her _alone_."

Baxter shot her a worried look.

"C'mon, this is one of the best chances you're going to get, and Louis isn't here to distract."

Baxter looked back to the girls, "It doesn't matter, she never notices anyone but Louis anyway . . . I'm probably overstepping my boundaries. It's so easy to see that she has a crush on him."

Victoire looked at the two girls worriedly, "Um . . . Baxter, before we go any farther here I need to know. It's not Cecilia you have a crush on, is it?"

Baxter visibly squirmed, "What? Oh Holy Helga Hufflepuff, no. Not that Cecilia isn't great and all . . . it's just that she's a little to . . . challenging for me. And a little to headstrong, although most Gryffindor's are head strong, she's a little bit more seeing as she's a Wood."

Victoire let out a sigh of relief; she needed to know what she was working with before giving advice that might ruin a friendship. She was pretty sure that there was at least _something_ going on between Cecilia and Louis, "So is it Danielle you like?"

Baxter nodded, "Yeah. I know I just said something about headstrong Gryffindor's but she's just . . . different. But it doesn't matter, 'cause like I said, I'm pretty sure that she has a crush on Louis."

Victoire chose her next words carefully, "She might, but I'm rather certain that Louis has his hands full with . . . someone else right now, and I'm almost certain that he doesn't like Danielle that way. Even if she does have a crush on him, well . . . I don't want to make her sound fickle, but I'm pretty sure that if you show her the kind of attention a girl wants to get from a boy, she'll forget about Louis and probably start thinking about you."

"Do things really work that way?" Baxter asked doubtfully.

Victoire shrugged, "You're young. If she does feel attracted to Louis, it's probably nothing more than the normal Veela magic. And since _he _doesn't like _her,_ the way and you do, well, even Veela magic can't stand up to real feelings. She'll see that you're a handsome, smart, and charming guy and if it's meant to be, things will work out. And if she still doesn't like you, well, it's pretty obvious that she has some kind of brain damage."

Baxter smiled, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, but you need to take tiny steps. And the first one is definitely going over to talk to her sans Louis."

Baxter smiled one more time before walking away to where Cecilia and Danielle were standing. Victoire smiled happily, it felt good that she was able to at least give _one_ person some good advice, and possibly make their night. It took her two minutes to realize that she was presently standing by herself. And if Flannery came by and saw her like this, he would no doubt pull her away and introduce her to the largest prat at the party. So Victoire looked around the crowd until she spotted a pair of people she hadn't talked to yet whom she could actually stand.

"Hi Mr and Mrs Line!" Victoire said brightly as she walked over to Kyle's parents. They smiled when they saw her and struck up a nice, gentle conversation. Victoire wasn't as obsessed with Kyle's parents as she was with Xavier's, but they were still very nice people whom she'd rather talk to than practically anybody else at the party. They chatted about some inconsequential things for a few minutes before being interrupted thusly.

"Marshall I _cannot_ believe that you would allow your son to make such displays in public!"

Victoire's face turned into a scowl as she saw a group of three people join them. They were Colton Knott and his parents. Colton's father Mr Knott was still addressing Mr Line with rebukes about how he raised his son, Mrs Knott was eyeing Mrs Line's dress with increasing envy, and Colton was smiling pretty much evilly at Victoire.

When Mr Line heard a break in Mr Knott's speech, he broke in, "Why Creighton, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. If you are going to continue berating my son to me, I would appreciate it if you would tell me what exactly you saw him doing so that we could be on the same page."

Victoire was always surprised at the civil and almost unfailingly polite manners Mr and Mrs Line had. She usually equated it to their pureblood upbringing (the whole be-nice-to-people-to-their-face-but-mean-behind-their-backs thing), but even when it was obvious to Mr Line that Mr Knott was trying to insult him, he still kept cool.

Mr Knott frowned, "We were just by the dance floor and saw him and his _Muggle-born_ girlfriend putting on a rather disgusting public display of affection."

Victoire couldn't help smirking, "Just say PDA, really speeds things up."

It seemed as though Mr Knott hadn't noticed Victoire until she spoke. He stopped short and openly considered her. Whatever conclusion he came to, he seemed to table it for the chance to criticize Kyle again, "But really Marshall, you should speak to your son about how he displays himself in public. He _is_ to inherit your business someday; you should be more worried about how he represents your family. And you ought to inform him that kissing in the middle of a party like this is definitely not good for your family name."

"If you think this is bad, I'd hate to see the look on your face if you had caught them snogging in the library like they were doing last week," Victoire said lightly.

Mrs Knott looked scandalized at the very idea and then quickly looked to Colton and gave him a look that said 'if-you-even-think-about-disgracing-us-like-that-you-can-kiss-your-inheiritance-goodbye', Mr Knott also looked appalled. Mr Line on the other hand, winked at Victoire before fully facing the Knotts again.

"Thank-you for your concern Creighton. I'll be sure to mention that to Kyle if I see him later," his tone clearly implied that he had no intention whatsoever of doing that.

Mr Knott's head whipped to Victoire's direction as he heard her giggle at Mr Line's words, "Miss Weasley I presume?"

Victoire nodded haughtily, "Yes."

He practically sneered at her, "When we were approached to give money for the Tournament I was rather excited. I had hope that a talented champion would be chosen for Hogwarts. Seeing as the ones from the last Tournament seemed to be _lacking_, but then I read the _Prophet_ and saw that _you_ were picked. And well, now I'm rooting for Durmstrang to win."

Victoire squared her shoulders, "Well you're certainly entitled to your own opinion on who will win Mr Knott. Whether your opinion will be proved correct, could turn out to be a whole different matter, however."

Mr Knott narrowed his eyes, but Colton decided to speak up, "Speaking of the donation my parents' gave Victoire, isn't there something you wanted to say?"

"Besides the fact that you didn't think that it was odd that Flannery was asking you for money for a Tournament you hadn't even heard was going to be put on . . . no, not really," Victoire said smiling pleasantly at Colton.

Colton raised an aristocratic brow, "Really Weasley, there's nothing you want, or are _required_ to say to us?"

Victoire faked innocence, "Nope, nothing. I mean, there are several things I'd love to say to you, but it's nothing that's required of me. Actually, Flannery would probably be upset with me if I did say them."

"And those things would be?" Colton asked his face red.

The pressure of a hand on her shoulder stopped Victoire from speaking. She looked beside her to see that Mr Line had placed a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure she would love to. But there must still be plenty of people Victoire needs to speak with, so she should probably be going now." Mr Line gave her a friendly push in the direction opposite the Knotts. She smiled at him and Mrs Line once more before leaving.

Victoire walked around not looking for anyone in particular. Her talk with Mr Knott had increased the pain in her head and had left her entirely out of the party mood. It was one thing to go around talking to these people and imagining that they think of her as some incompetent giggling schoolgirl, but it was another thing to have it voiced aloud and verified. She had been walking around by herself of about fifteen-minutes, while wallowing in self-pity, before she decided that she needed something to take her mind off her troubles and her pounding headache. She spotted a tall, dark, and thick build and briskly walked over to it.

"Hi Konstantin."

Konstantin Krum turned around slightly and smiled at her, "Hello Vik-tor-ee."

In her haste to get to Konstantin, Victoire had missed the second person standing near him. Beside Konstantin, looking oddly like a twin to his elder brother, was Valentin Krum.

"Hi," she said as she held out her hand to him, "Valentin, right?"

He nodded shyly and shook her hand, "Ves, and you are Viktoree?"

Victoire nodded and smiled, "Yes, although I know my name's a bit of a mouth full, so you can just call me Vic if you want."

"Vic, ves, vat is better," Valentin said blushing lightly.

Although he was being polite, she could tell that he was extremely uncomfortable, so Victoire turned slightly and addressed the rest of her conversation to Konstantin, "Are you enjoying the party then?"

Konstantin fidgeted, "Vould it be rude to say vat I'm not?"

Victoire smiled, "Yes, but I won't hold it against you. I totally agree."

Konstantin smiled, and then looked over her head, "But it does seem as vough somevun is envoying the party." He pointed behind her. Victoire turned around to see that Konstantin was pointing at a cheerful looking Noëlle Varens, who seemed to be in her natural element (the center of attention); there were several foreign looking people around her, who Victoire took to be her family.

"Yes she does . . . who's that?" Victoire asked as she watched Noëlle turn slightly and noticed the small, probably four-year-old, boy latched to her hand.

Konstantin smiled, "Vat's her vittle cousin Bruno. He's a Muggle. The eleven-year-ovld girl on her over side is his sister Blanche, she's also Muggle-born but she _does_ go to Beauxbatons."

Victoire watched the little boy closely, he looked around the room with pale, large blue eyes, but it didn't seem as though he was taking much in, his movements were abnormal and timid. Every once in a while he would let out a quiet sound that seemed similar to a wail, when this happened Noëlle would get down onto her knees and speak quietly to him. She wouldn't stand back up until he smiled at her again.

Konstantin noticed her gaze, when he spoke next it was very softly, " Novëlle vas tellving me about him earlier. She said he had some svort of Muggle genetical probvelm. I vink she called it Autvisome."

Victoire nodded, _Autism; I thought so. The movements and the expression on his face seem to be along the lines with what I saw that time Aunt Hermione took me to the Muggle hospital when she found out that I wanted to be a Healer._ (Hermione had thought that it would be a good thing for Victoire to learn how Muggle doctors worked along with magical ones.)

Victoire spoke her next words carefully, "She seems . . . very good with him." Very good was a bit of an understatement, anytime Bruno looked like he was going to have a fit she was able to calm him down. She even seemed to be paying more attention to him than to the reporters who were trying to get her to answer their questions.

Konstantin nodded, "Ves, she seemvs to care about him a lot. Earlier, I overheard a boy talkving about him. He vasn't sayving very nice theengs. I vas about to go and speak vit him, but it seemed vat she heard. She vas very angvry and had some very intervesting vings to say to him."

Victoire nodded again as she took in this new information about her fellow Champion. It was easy for her to think of Noëlle as some mean harpy who was only interested in herself, and make Victoire feel justified in her hate for all Beauxbatons students. But this new development was, if not warming Victoire to her, at least making her see her in a new light; she was loyal to her family, and seemed to care about them a lot. And that had to mean _something_ in Victoire's books. If anyone knew about the importance of family, it was her.

Victoire didn't have much time to think about Noëlle and this new discovery about her personality, before Konstantin was asking her questions about some of the people she'd talked to tonight. She answered him with a funny anecdote about how she was so close to hexing a sexist old witch that she'd actually pulled her wand out, when her Uncle George intervened -with a bowl of popcorn- and said that he wanted to watch. Angelina was close behind him taking him by the good ear and then pulling Victoire away before she could curse the woman. Konstantin laughed and tried to one-up her as he shared a funny anecdote about someone he had met at the party who was almost blind and couldn't hear what he was saying very well. It ended up in a very _interesting_ conversation.

As Victoire listened, she became aware of the fat that her head was starting to hurt even more, she tried to take her mind off it by looking at Konstantin's face, but it didn't work very well because then she realized that his face was starting to move. She began to get even more worried as the room started to spin around her. She closed her eyes as a spasm of pain shot through her entire body; starting at her head and ending in her toes. She tried to open her eyes again. The last thing she saw before completely blacking out was the concerned look on Konstantin's face.

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**Okay so 5 things:**

**1.** I'm sorry for the cilff hanger. I know some of you haven't fully recovered from the last one, but this chapter was getting so long I had to end it. But don't worry, this will be the last cliff hanger for awhile.

**2.** Yeah Katie and Oliver! they are _so_ awesome. And don't worry, they will have a few more appearences, they're just that cool.

**3.** For those of you who thoguht Victoire and Baxter needed a little talk, well here it is :)

**4.** Ha, oh George. The picture of Angelina angrily dragging him and Victoire away by there ears was just too humourus to leave out.

**And 5.** The whole Autisum thing. I know some of your probably read that and thought that it may/or may not have been uncalled for. So what I first want to say is that I didn't add that to make fun of or to disrespect people with Autisum or other genetic/mental/physical disabilities. I added that because it was my plan to add more depth to Noelle's character by showing a bit about her family life. I wanted her family life to seem real. And in real life, people have beloved family members who have disabilities.

That's just the way it is. I'm not going to hide it and pretend that she has a perfect family. And I'm also not going to hide the fact that even though she isn't the one with the disability, that it doesn't affect her, because it does. Finally, I'm modelling her devotion to her family a little afer my own. No, I don't have a cousin who has Autisum, but I do have one that has a genetic disability that affects his emotional and mental development, along with many other things. Him, and mine and my family's devotion and love for him is shown through Noelle's devotion to her cousin, and will be shown through other things yet to come.

I know topics like this can be hard to touch on, but I'm touching on it because I don't feel as though something like this should be hidden. It's such a common thing in our world and our society. Again, I mean _absolutely no disrespect_. This is just a common occurence I decided to add to my story. That's it.

Thank-you again to everyone who has read reviewed or subscribed. Fell free to drop a comment about anything in the chapter I've touched on. I know I put a lot in.

Coming next week . . . Teddy/Vic moments . . . lots of them . . . and a rather awkward feeling Konstantin . . . :)

Happy Reading!


	30. Sleep Over

A/N: Hey! Sorry this is a little late I had a ton of homework, lots of presentations to go to in school 'cause it's my grad year, an eye appointement that left me with my pupils dialated for half a day and on top of it all I got sick. Still am right now actually . . .

Anyway hope you enjoy this chapter, just so you know, fluffiness abounds.

Disclaimer:Аз не притежават това. (Bulgarian :)

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Sleep Over

The first thing Victoire noticed when she regained consciousness was the fact that she wasn't on the floor like she'd expected after passing-out, but that she was being held up by a pair of strong arms. The noise surrounding her had started as a low buzzing sound, but it had grown louder, and proved to be a multitude of voices. She realized that she recognized many of them, although at the moment she couldn't exactly place faces with the sounds. A minute after regaining awareness, she was able to wretch her eyelids open. The face in her direct line of vision was a blurry spot of black, white, and deep blue. She blinked a few times and the face came into clearer focus: shaggy black hair, pale face, and bright, currently anxious looking, sapphire blue eyes. It was Teddy.

When she recognized him, her heart started to beat faster, her gaze swept over him and she noticed that he was crouched down so that his face was face level with hers'. One of his hands was clenched tightly around his wand. The other was resting on his knee. This confused her. If she could see both of his hands . . . than who was holding her up?

Teddy must have seen the distress pop into her eyes. He smiled gently and swiftly pocketed his wand. He held out his hands to her, to pull her upright onto her feet. When she was erect, he placed one hand at the small of her back to steady her better. From her other side another hand did the same thing, but higher up on her back, she turned her head and was surprised to see Konstantin beside her, concern also on his face. Victoire guessed that he must have been the one to catch her when she passed out, seeing as he was the closest person to her.

"Victoire . . . are you alright?"

She turned her head to focus on the place where the sounds were coming from. Kingsley came into her field of view; unease was clearly etched upon his face. Victoire nodded her head but then stopped and grabbed her forehead as the motion caused her head to flare up with pain.

"Ughh!"

Kingsley eyed her nervously, and then looked around them. Victoire followed his gazed and noticed for the first time that pretty much the entirety of the party was gathered around her, watching closely. If her head wasn't aching so much she would have blushed from all of the attention she was getting.

Kingsley looked back towards her, but spoke to Teddy and Konstantin, "Help her outside the hall." They nodded and proceeded to support her until she was out of the stuffy Great Hall and into the much cooler and breezier corridor. She attempted to shake off both of their aid (even though she really _wouldn't_ mind Teddy holding onto her, it was the principal of the thing), as Kingsley and a few more people exited the Hall and came up to her. They stood in a small circle around her; Kingsley was on her left beside Teddy, Fleur was beside Kingsley, her Aunts Hermione and Angelina were beside her Mamma, speaking to each other in quick whispers, Ron and Harry were beside them, and then Konstantin finished the circle beside her, with his arm still supporting her upper back.

Fleur spoke first, "Victoire are you alright mon chère?"

Victoire successfully shook off both Teddy and Konstantin this time and tried her voice, "Yes . . . I think so . . ."

Fleur eyed her dubiously but Angelina broke in, "Are you in any pain?"

"I've got a headache, and my body hurts."

"Nausea?" Hermione chirped in.

"Yeah, a little . . ."

"Did you have a headache before the party, or just after you passed out?" Angelina asked; it seemed that she had gone into what Ally and Fred usually referred to as 'Healer mode'.

Victoire frowned, "Yes, but I didn't think anything of it. My blackout has seemed to make the headache worse though . . . incidentally, how long was I out for?"

"Only about five minutes, it could have been worse if Konstantin hadn't noticed that you were about to fall and caught you," Harry supplied for her.

Victoire nodded and quietly thanked Konstantin. He smiled self-consciously and mumbled something she didn't really catch.

Angelina moved closer to Victoire. She made her wand tip glow and then moved it in front of Victoire's eyes, checking her pupils the way Muggle Healers did. Next, she grabbed Victoire's wrist and checked her pulse.

"So do you think this is just the normal full moon symptoms?" Kingsley asked Angelina and Hermione.

"Seems like it," Angelina said dropping Victoire's wrist and stepping away, she ran her wand up and down Victoire's body as she mumbled a few spells, "There doesn't seem to be anything else wrong. She's never passed out before, but that could be a combination of all of the stress she's been under lately, along with the stuffiness of the Hall, and the immediate anxiety of the party. All of that coupled with the fact that the symptoms have been getting slightly worse as she gets older, well that would probably account for her fainting. People have done so with far less to trigger it."

Hermione nodded in agreement, "Even so I think that maybe she should start taking the potion, it doesn't stop the symptoms but it'll help with the pain, and that's what makes this time of month the worst anyway."

Victoire smiled, "Don't tell that to Ally, she'll say that you should be focusing on my extreme crankiness before tackling any other symptom."

Angelina and Hermione smiled. Harry turned to Konstantin who he could tell felt very much out of place, "Thank-you for your help Konstantin, but you can go back into the great Hall now." He smiled gratefully at Harry, said a polite 'Hope you feel better' to Victoire and walked back into the Great Hall.

"Now, what are we going to do about you?" Kingsley said turning to Victoire.

"Let me skip the rest of the party because of my blinding headache, and go back to my dorm room and sleep for the rest of the night?" Victoire propositioned hopefully.

Kingsley frowned, "I don't think we can let you do that. You need someone to watch over you for the rest of the night in case it isn't just the normal full moon symptoms. Personally I think you should go to the Hospital Wing."

Victoire's mouth popped open, "Now way. If I go to the Hospital Wing then the front page of tomorrow's _Daily Prophet_ is going to say something about me suffering some ghastly terminal illness."

Kingsley sighed, she had a point, "Well then what do you suppose we do?"

"I already told you, just let me go back to my dorm . . . there will be other people there . . ."

Kingsley shook his head and folded his arms across his chest, "No. Whatever we do with you, I want you with someone who knows basic healing spells."

"So what we need is someone to watch her who knows healing magic, and who can handle Victoire's odd full moon symptoms and potentially deadly mood swings," Ron summed up. Even though most people would, Victoire didn't take offense to Ron's use of the words 'potentially deadly'; she _has _come close to scorching people with her Veela temper before.

"Good luck with that," Teddy muttered under his breath. Victoire turned and glared playfully at him. She stopped when she realized that everyone else was staring at him to. The only difference was that they all had their heads cocked to the side with calculating expressions on their faces.

"What?" Teddy asked self-consciously.

Fleur, Harry, and Kingsley all shared a brief look. Harry spoke for all three of them, "Well . . . we were thinking that maybe Teddy should stay with you tonight Vic . . ."

Victoire thought that her eyes were going to pop out of her head, "What!"

Fleur answered, "Teddy knowz bazeek 'ealing zpells, 'e knowz 'ow to take care of your full moon seemptomz, and 'e defeneetely knowz 'ow to 'andle you w'en you are een a bad mood Victoire."

"We also wouldn't have to worry about your safety while you're out of our direct line of view," Ron added.

Teddy coughed, "Even so . . . where is she supposed to go. We already decided that she couldn't go to the Hospital Wing, and I very well can't go up and into the Gryffindor girl's dormitory . . ."

Kingsley was surveying them thoughtfully, "Ted . . . isn't Auror Williamson on the night shift today?"

Teddy narrowed his eyes warily, "Yes, but I don't see what that . . ." He trailed off as he looked at Kingsley. In return, Kingsley raised an eyebrow and gave him a specific look.

Teddy's face turned red as he realized what Kingsley was getting to, "No! I-I mean . . . there's got to be something else, _anything _else . . ."

Harry jumped in understanding what they were getting at, "It makes the most sense Teddy . . ."

"But-"

"What on earth are you guys blathering about?" Victoire asked irritated. She had no idea what they were getting at.

"Well," Kingsley said turning to her, "Ted's roommate has duty tonight so he won't be home until the morning. That means that if you go to his room it will just be the two of you and he won't have to answer any odd questions about why we want him to watch over you for the night."

Victoire looked at Kingsley disbelievingly, "You want me to stay over in Teddy's room tonight so that he can watch me to make sure I'm okay?"

"Yes."

Victoire then looked to her Mamma, "Really?"

"Oui."

She even turned to Harry, "_Really?_"

Harry smiled wickedly, "Sure, why not Vic?"

She scowled at him and didn't answer, she looked towards Teddy; he wouldn't look at her. He was facing Kingsley instead; they seemed to be having a conversation without actually saying anything. After a minute, he sighed resignedly, "Alright. C'mon Vic it's getting late." He put his hand back to the small of her back and pushed her towards the staircase. She only had the chance to wave goodbye to her Mamma and Kingsley before he'd whisked her away to his room.

* * *

"So . . . this is your room?" Victoire questioned as she looked around the space. Room was probably the wrong word for it seeing as it was most likely several rooms put together. One thing she did realize though was that the . . . _area_ was definitely larger than it looked from the outside. _After they had left her family, he had practically dragged her up two staircases and down four different corridors, before stopping by a dark oak door with the number 207 on it. Along the wall across from the room and along the walls around it were several dark oak doors with the numbers ranging from 200 to 265 on them. She had expected the room to be small seeing, as there was only about two metres of space on each side before the next doors. She definitely hadn't been expecting what she found when he did open the door and gestured for her to go through._

Presently, she was standing in the middle of what seemed to be a large sitting/living room. It was a wide space that easily connected into a small, yet still spacious, kitchenette with a small table surrounded by four chairs. On either side of the room were large white doors. They were both closed.

Victoire was still glancing around the room when she spoke again, "How many _undetectable extension charms_ do you think had to be used to make all of this fit?"

Teddy laughed, "I used about two in here and one in my room," he nodded to the white door to the left of the room, "But I'm pretty sure Kurt used at least two in his room, and he probably even used one on his bathroom. There's a bathroom off of each bedroom."

Victoire raised an eyebrow, "You had to charm your own room?"

He grinned, his sapphire blue eyes sparkling mischievously, "Each pair of Aurors got a room the same size and with the same features . . . after that it was up to your own magical ability to adjust your room. Except for Jilly, she's the only female Auror so she gets a room all to herself; she has more room and doesn't need to use extension charms."

Victoire nodded she moved to sit down in the arm chair closest to her, but before she got there, another sharp pain shot through her head and she felt her knees go out from under her. She had expected to hit the ground, and it had actually taken a few minutes before she realized that that didn't happen. Her eyes had closed when the pain in her head emerged, so she tried to wretch them open now to see what had kept her from hitting the ground. Her blue eyes met another, darker pair, and she could feel the air leave her lungs in a gasp. Teddy had caught her, of course, but even though the idea was logical, she was still overwhelmed by his sudden proximity; her skin was tingling everywhere where their bodies were touching.

For his part, Teddy seemed completely oblivious to the feeling of Victoire's skin against his. He was too intent on scanning her face with intense and worried eyes, "Are you alright?"

She opened her mouth to lie, but he saw it coming, "No, really Victoire, are you okay? Are you in pain?"

She sighed and tried to ignore the tingling feeling that his body against hers was bringing, so she could seem semi in control of herself when she answered, "My head just hurts that's all. It's something I'm used to by now."

Teddy smiled sadly and sighed. He shifted his grip on her so that he was able to scoop her up in his arms. She gasped at first with his movement, but she wasn't going to complain about the new positioning. She threw her arms around his neck, not because she was afraid that he would drop her, but because it was a perfect excuse to get closer to him; to be pressed tighter to his chest.

She caught the roll of his eyes at her actions as they swiftly shifted down to her, before looking back up as flicked his wrist and wandlessly opened up his bedroom door. He dropped her gently onto the foot of the bed, which was in the middle of the room, before moving across the room and digging through the top drawer of a dresser. While Teddy was searching, Victoire shifted backwards on the bed until she was in the middle, she turned until she could look out the window near the bed, and gazed up at the sky. She was easily able to spot several constellations; Orion, Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, and Minor were a few of them. But she was also able to pick out some of the more difficult ones like Andromeda, Cetus, and Hydrus; they were harder to find without a telescope, but she had a bit of a love, and a lot of talent for Astronomy, so she had no trouble finding them. However even the brightest stars in the sky were to be outshone tonight. After a minute or two of stargazing, her attention was expectedly, drawn back to the silver glow of the large full moon. When she looked at it, it was as if her gaze had been glued to it. She couldn't move it away. Just watching the moon made her head and body pulsate, it was intense, but not entirely painful.

"Vic . . ."

Teddy broke her out of her trance; she turned to him with a smile on her face. It disappeared when she become conscious of what he was holding in his hand.

"NO! There is _no way_ in Hades. I am _not_ drinking that. No way." She folded her arms across her chest.

Teddy sighed and sat down on the bed next to her, the clear glass cup, tinted with a slightly sinister silvery-grey coloured liquid, was still clutched carefully in his hand. He held it out to her, "You said you were in pain."

"I said it wasn't that bad. And it isn't, no pain will be that bad that I'd ever voluntarily drink that."

He exhaled noisily, "You know that it's just a matter of time before you have to. Hermione and Angelina even said so. C'mon it'll take a few seconds to down and that's it."

She shook her head and pouted attractively.

"Will you do it if I promise to give you something to wash the taste away with after? Maybe a _Chocolate Frog_?"

She shook her head again, "No."

Teddy gave her a tried look, "Please Vic . . . it'll make you feel a lot better, I promise. It helps me."

Victoire's eyes moved away from his face (his expression was making her feel incredibly guilty and sorta childish), to lock onto the glass in his hand. She glared at the potion. The sight and smell of it was beginning to make her stomach turn. She didn't know how her father and Teddy could handle it every full moon. As she looked at it, the _Wolfsbane Potion_ bubbled in the glass, it almost looked like it was about to overflow. She knew what it would taste like, not from her father (he would never tell her in the hope that she would begin taking it as her symptoms got worse, and telling her would be like a step backwards), but from Teddy.

Teddy's father had had lycanthropy, and because of it, Teddy had inherited some wolfish characteristics from him like Victoire and her siblings did from their father. His symptoms were always the same as Victoire's; headaches, sore limbs and bodies, upset stomachs, mood swings, etc, nothing worse. When Teddy was very young, he would never be able to sleep on a full moon; the adults had figured it out that it probably was because the moon had some sort of call on him due to the genes he inherited from his parents. Since Bill was always awake on full moons anyway, Teddy's grandmother, Andromeda, would take him over to Shell Cottage and Teddy would spend the night with Bill. After Victoire was born, and as she got older, she and Teddy would spend the full moons together. They would stay up and play until the very early morning when the moon would begin to set and when they'd finally be able to fall asleep. Their symptoms from full moons were something that had brought them closer together. It was a shared experience that they could go through as one and learn from; it made them connect on whole other emotional level. It was something that they would always have in common, and a little annoyance that they would always have to deal with.

Victoire knew that Teddy would have taken the potion earlier in the evening to help avoid the pain, and to make sure that he was alert for his job at the party, "I'm sorry Teddy, but I-I just can't bring myself to drink it. I think I'll get sick if I do."

He gave her his best imploring look, "Pretty please, with cobwebs and a pickle on top?"

She chuckled, "Fine . . . but only because you look so darn adorable with that pleading expression."

Teddy smiled brightly and handed her the _Wolfsbane Potion_. She gave it an apprehensive look as if she expected it to jump out of the glass and bite her. She raised an eyebrow at Teddy before bringing the glass to her lips and downing the potion. A disgusted expression crossed her face as she swallowed. She had to clench her teeth together in an attempt to not throw up what she'd just drunk. She handed the glass back to Teddy, "_Chocolate Frog_ please."

He smirked but glanced down at the glass, there was a thin layer of the potion still left at the bottom, "You didn't finish it all. You need to drink every last drop if you want it to work properly."

Victoire frowned, "No, I'm not drinking anymore of that sludge."

He sighed; he seemed to have accepted the fact that she wouldn't drink more. He put the glass to his lips and drank the rest of the potion.

Victoire's face slipped into a flabbergasted expression; _did he just voluntarily drink the remainder of my potion?_

Before she could vocalize her surprise, Teddy placed the glass on the floor near their feet. When he was done, his next movements were made gently and swiftly. He placed his hand on the back of her head and quickly brought her in for a kiss.

At first, Victoire was stunned by his actions, but her astonishment speedily changed into pleasure. She threw her arms around his neck, pulled herself closer as she closed her eyes, and concentrated on the feel of Teddy's lips against her's. The gentle pressure he had started with turned firmer as he pressed his lips harder to her's. She sighed and opened her mouth to his insistent pressure. Just when she expected him to taste her, she gasped and pulled back.

She started to cough loudly, Teddy began patting her gently on the back until she stopped and swallowed. When she was able to breathe normally again, she glared angrily at him, "I can't believe you did that!"

He looked innocently at her, "What did I do?"

Her glare turned even darker, "You practically choked me with your tongue."

He rolled his eyes, "I did not. I was just trying to make sure that you drank your entire potion."

Victoire was still glaring at him. When he got her to open her lips, she'd encountered the last few drops of the potion she'd thought he'd finished for her. He'd made it so that she had to swallow the rest of the vile liquid.

Teddy threw his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him, "You're just upset that I was able to outsmart you."

She was still looking at him petulantly, "So?"

He grinned and stood up, "Okay, onto other things. Now that we've gotten that headache of yours taken care of; we should probably get you out of those party clothes."

She raised a blonde brow at him.

His face turned red, "No, I-I meant that you should probably get changed into something more comfortable to get ready for bed."

The other brow travelled up her forehead to join its' pair.

Teddy's hair changed red to match his face, "Merlin that didn't come out right either. What I mean is that you should probably transfigure your clothes or something because those would be uncomfortable to sleep in."

Victoire giggled, she knew what he meant; it was just too easy, and too fun, to torment him, "Good idea. But we're going to have to go with the 'or something' part of your suggestion because Mamma put a spell on my clothes to make them impossible to transfigure, and I don't know the counter spell."

Teddy studied her. He took in the tight deep blue one shouldered shirt and short black skirt. Her outfit had completely driven him crazy during the party. Not just by how hot she looked in it, but also because it caused pretty much every man she talked to to stare at her with want.

"Why would she do something like that?"

Victoire shrugged, "Dom said that she was worried that I'd do something immature like transfigure myself a pair of pants instead of a skirt."

He chuckled, "So your plan was thwarted before you could even go through with it?" She nodded sadly.

"I'll lend you something then." Teddy walked over to his dresser and began searching for something for her to sleep in. He pulled out one of his older _Puddlemere United_ jersey-shirts and tossed it to her.

Victoire laughed, "So I can wear _your Puddlemere_ memorabilia, but not my own?"

Teddy nodded, thinking back to her autographed tank top, "Darn right. Give me a minute and I'll find you some bottoms." He turned around and found an old pair of sweatpants that he could probably charm or transfigure until they fit her better. He turned around to give them to her, but realized that she wasn't in the room anymore. He glanced to the closed door on the left side of his room and concluded that she had already gone into the bathroom to change her shirt. He was right.

Not two minutes later, she came out of the bathroom. Only this time, instead of wearing the gorgeous and, rather revealing, outfit she'd had for the party, she was wearing a much more revealing outfit in the form of his jersey, and only his jersey. It hung off of her thinner frame; the neck showing a tantalizing glimpse of bare skin from her neck to her right shoulder. The shirt was long; it came down to her mid thigh. It wasn't _that_ revealing, but it was a little to exposing for Teddy's taste at the moment. When he peeled his eyes from her bare legs, he moved them to the teasing smirk on her face. She had caught him staring. It was obviously a part of her evil little plan to try to make him forget that his_ job_ for the rest of the night was to watch and take care of her.

In an attempt to keep his grip on the situation he held out the track pants he'd found, "Here, put these on."

Victoire stared at the pants, "No, it's too hot in here to wear those."

He sighed, "You need to wear something as . . . bottoms . . ."

Victoire grinned slyly before rolling her eyes, "I do have bottoms on Teddy." Before he was able to ask her what she was talking about, she pulled the edge of the jersey she was wearing up.

Her actions rewarded Teddy with an enticing sight of skin that was her bare midriff, but below that, he saw that her lower body was clad in a tight pair of short black practice shorts. He groaned, "Why are you wearing those _damn_ things?"

She smiled impishly, remembering how he had complained earlier in the week about her _damn_ shorts and her _damn_ tank top, "When I realized how short the skirt I was supposed to wear was, I decided to put these shorts on underneath to make me feel more comfortable."

Teddy nodded; _smart plan. Of course, it's a little annoying that those shorts have to be so damn short that they don't go below the hem of the shirt she's wearing, but it won't be too bad if I just keep my hands to myself._

"Whatever," he looked towards the wall and glanced at the clock hanging there, "It's already twelve o'clock; you should try to get some sleep."

Victoire pouted, "Why should I even bother. I can hardly ever sleep on nights when there's a full moon."

Teddy smiled gently, "All the more reason to try to go to sleep earlier, if it usually takes so long."

She sighed, "Fine. Where?"

He rolled his eyes, "My bed of course."

Victoire's ocean-blue eyes lit up wickedly, before she could say something impish that would probably make him regret what he just said; he added, "And _I'll_ be sleeping on the couch in the living room."

The excitement drained from her eyes but her face was shrewd, "And if you sleep in the living room Kurt will know something's going on when he gets in early in the morning. Next plan?"

He frowned as he listened to her statement. She was right, "Fine. I'll conjure a bedroll and sleep on the floor near the bed. I'll be able to watch after you better that way anyway."

"C'mon Teddy, it's not like it'd be the first time that we've slept together," Victoire said persuasively.

Teddy closed his eyes, and brought his hand up to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. He exhaled noisily, "Victoire . . . you were five and I was seven . . . and the only reason I let you sleep with me in my bed that night was because, A.) It was one o'clock in the morning and I was too tired to argue. And B.) I was afraid if I sent you back to the room you were sharing with Dom and Molly that you'd have another nightmare, scream and wake up them and the babies."

Her face finally turned into a pout, "Please Teddy? Even if I do end up falling asleep tonight it'll be riddled with nightmares . . . I might need your proximity to keep me calm and quiet again."

The unreadable mask he'd placed over his features broke as the corners of his mouth turned up. He tried to sound stern but the smile threatening on the edge of his lips was ruining it, "Vic . . ."

She sighed; upset, "How about just until I fall asleep?"

He rubbed his forehead, "Fine. Just let me change my clothes."

"Okay!" She chirped happily she moved down the bed until her head was resting on her arms, which she's crossed behind her head on top of his pillows, she crossed her ankles as she stretched out. She watched him search through his dresser again expectantly. When he'd found some clothes he turned around and was frozen by the hungry look in her eyes as she watched him.

"I'll be right back," he mumbled as he went into the bathroom. Twenty seconds later, he re-emerged wearing a grey V-neck short-sleeved tee shirt and black track pants. Victoire moved her eyes up and down his figure, appreciating how his tee clung to his chest and upper body, showing off his muscles, _Damn, I forgot he was built like _that_. Note to self, convince him to stop wearing such baggy robes so I can see that more often . . . actually never mind. Why should I let other people enjoy this view? He's mine._

"Vic?"

Teddy's words broke into her reverie. A slight blush came into her cheeks, "Yeah?"

His eyes narrowed on the red staining her face; she wasn't one to blush easily, "Do I even want to know?"

Victoire shook her head, "No, probably not."

He smiled and nodded before walking over to the bed. While he was changing, she had folded the blankets halfway down the bed and had snuggled her legs under them. Teddy awkwardly got into bed beside her before pulling the blankets up higher to where the stomachs were. Victoire lost no time, once he had lied down, in cuddling closely next to him and placing her head on his chest. She could feel his body stiffen beside her.

"What's wrong Teddy?" She kept her gaze focused on the grey of his tee instead of drifting to his face. She was afraid of what she might find there.

She heard him take a deep breath before answering quietly, "Vic . . . this-this isn't appropriate . . . I'm supposed to be watching you tonight not . . ." He trailed off.

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to take a . . . _hands-on_ approach to your job," she said breathily, not meaning to sound like that but hoping that it might help convince him all the same.

He groaned, "Vic . . ."

"I swear Teddy in your next sentence has the words 'Kingsley', 'Harry', and 'my responsibility' in it I'm going to smack you."

She felt a light chuckle vibrate through his chest, "But you are, and they do expect me to-"

"Teddy, Kingsley -my _godfather_- asked you _specifically_ to take me to _your room_ and watch me tonight. Knowing not only that your roommate wouldn't be here, but also informing you that when he does get back, that you should keep this a secret from him. And he told you all of this, knowing that you're my boyfriend. I'd also wager a guess that he knows that we're going to use this time to . . . our advantage."

As he took a deep breath, his arm slowly came around her body to rest at her waist, his hand gently finding purchase on her hip.

"Is that you conceding?" She asked her heart starting to beat faster from the contact.

He pressed his face into her hair, wavy from her previous curls that had ended up falling out as she had predicted at the beginning of the night, and chuckled quietly, his soft breath stirring up strands of her blonde-hair. "Yes, until you fall asleep."

She moved her head slowly from his chest and shifted more onto her side so she could look him in the face. His arm was still wrapped securely around her waist. The persisting contact plus the sweet and adoring expression on his gorgeous face made her heart beat even faster. She swallowed loudly before moving to whisper into his ear, "We'd better make the best of it then, if we have a time limit."

As soon as the words left her lips, she moved her lips from his ear to his mouth. Deciding to skip past the gentle kiss that they usually started with, she pressed her lips firmly to his straight from the beginning, causing a shocked gasp to escape from him before he responded more than eagerly in-kind. The hand on her waist gripped her lithe body tighter to him as the other hand occupied itself with fisting around her soft silvery-blonde hair. As their mouths melted together, one of her hands clutched his shirt; pressing herself closer against his chest, and the other slid behind his head to push his mouth harder to hers.

Her mouth pressed against his insistently until she was able to capture his bottom lip between both of hers. When she pulled on it, he moaned and his hand slid down her hip until he got to where the hem of her shirt ended. He slipped his hand underneath the fabric and slid it back up, passing over the thin layer of material that was her shorts and up until he reached the middle of her back, where his fingers lightly travelled up and down the lower part of her spine. She whimpered into his mouth at the feel of his rough and warm hands against her back. He took advantage of her action and pressed a heated passionate kiss into her mouth.

When she broke away from his mouth to breathe, his lips moved from her lips to her jaw, the area directly below her ear, and then down to her neck; kissing her at an agonizingly slow place until he got to the hollow of her throat and placed a long, hard kiss there. Since her mouth was free, her next gasp was so loud and broken that it lingeringly echoed around his room, as his lips travelled from her neck to the skin around her left collar bone and shoulder, that had been exposed by the large neckline of the borrowed jersey she was wearing. As he tenderly kissed her skin, her hands slid from their positions in his hair and on the neck of his tee to his chest, and then down his body until she found the bottom of the grey shirt. She slipped her hands under it and crushed her hands against the hard muscles on his stomach.

She could feel his lips turn into a gentle smirk against her shoulder as he listened to her erratic breathing which kept getting louder and louder the longer he kissed her. She dug her fingernails slightly into the skin of his stomach to stop him before he could begin to laugh at her predicament. He moved his lips off her skin and he moved his face above hers and looked down at her with a playful sparkle twinkling in his eyes. She hadn't noticed it until now, but as they kissed, he had shifted them so that he was lying over top of her. He held himself carefully, but she could feel the press of every part of his body against hers'. As her eyes roamed his face, she realized that he still had a smirk plastered across it, a sexy smirk, but a smirk nonetheless. In an attempt to wipe the smirk off his face she grabbed his head in her hands and brought his lips to hers in a searing kiss. Just when he began to respond to the kiss, she shifted their bodies again and rolled until she was on top. She moved her head back, out of his lips reach; a smirk now dominate on her face.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "You. Are. A. Brat."

Before she could retort he was rolling them over again and his mouth went back to her neck. He placed a series of open-mouthed kisses across her skin, stopping at her collarbone and began to suck the skin there.

Victoire took a ragged breath and said shakily, "_Teddy_ . . . you . . . stop . . ." She closed her eyes as she trailed off and moaned at the feel of his mouth on her skin.

Teddy chuckled lightly and rolled until they were both on their sides again, looking into each other's faces, "Yes Victoire?"

She took a ragged breath and didn't answer until her heartbeat had slowed down, "You can't . . . you know . . ." She finished as she brought her hand up to her neck and shoulder, feeling for marks.

He smiled slyly and took her searching hand. He kissed the palm delicately, "I didn't. Not that that should matter to you. Didn't you tell me that Kingsley would expect this?"

He was teasing her, and she knew it, but she still felt compelled to answer, "Yeah, well he might expect it, but Xavier sure as hell won't. And everyone's going to think that he did it, we really shouldn't take advantage of that." Her voice was almost whimsical, as if she was trying to convince herself of what she was saying.

Teddy ran a hand through her long hair. His face had fallen a little at the mention of Xavier. He said he was okay with the whole 'everybody-in-the-world-believes-that-Victoire-and-Xavier-are-dating' thing, and he was, to an extent, but it still bothered him a little when mentioned.

"Thanks for that image of you snogging Xavier Wood. That's really something I'll want to think about before falling asleep."

Victoire smirked deviously, "Sorry. But I can give you a better image before you go to sleep if you want."

"Is my little seductress back? Or are you going to turn back into that gasping trembling girl when I kiss you again?" Teddy asked, his eyes sparkling mischievously

Victoire narrowed her eyes, "Our whole dynamic only works when one of us is impish, the other has to be red-faced and breathless."

"And let me guess, you think it's your turn to be impish?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Victoire whispered before crushing her lips to his. They kissed for another minute before Teddy gently pulled back. He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and shifted their positions around. When he was finished, Victoire was lying on her side with her back to him, she could feel his body pressed against her back. Teddy slid one arm under her head as a pillow, and the other slipped around her waist, his hand resting on her stomach.

Teddy moved his head closer to her's and whispered into her hair, "Now will you _please_ go to sleep?"

Victoire nodded her head slightly. The last thing she remembered before sleep encased her was moving her hand to her stomach and placing it on top of his hand. Entwining her fingers with his.

* * *

**First**: I hope you enjoyed it!

**Second**: "Pretty please with cobwebs and a pickle on top?" Is not my own creatation I stole it from an old T.V. series/movie. (I wonder if any of you can guess what it was from?)

**Third**: My updating schedual may get a little wonky in September and October because there will be less time for me to write because of all the university presentations and important dates for grades going on in these months. Not to mention the fact that I'm in all University or University/College level courses this semester. The one course I took for my fun course (World's Histroy) is even a U level course so yeah, I'll be pretty busy. But if I'm not able to update at least every two weeks please don't think that I'm abandoning the story. I will get back to it when I find more time to write :)

**Thanks to all of my readers, subscribers, and reviewers!**

Especially . . .** iamsuchanut**, **brilliantbluelights**, **AbiQ**, **Malehkia**, **xLauraElizabeth**, **JennyXJ**, **Puffin Person**, **Sabriel1317**, **confusednikki24-7**, **Mrs. 11th**, **avidficreader**, **alayna**, and, **Amara**.

**rosebudlilac**: Thank-you. And don't worry, I get in the same zone after re-reading my favourite Austen stories :)

**redwolf12**: Thanks so much :)

**wish right now x**: Thanks. Oh, Ally is George and Angelina's daughter and Fred's sister. Cannon wise there is no Ally, and Fred has a twin sister Roxanne. But I created Ally before finind FanFiction or the HP-Lexicon, and I just couldn't part with her so I added her into the family. I didn't use Roxanne because I didn't feel as though she was a big part of the story, at least for me. And also because (being a fraternal twin myself) I know how rare not only they are, but how rare it is to have more than one set of twins in a family (again I know this because my family actually has more than one set of twins). In the end, it just fit my purposes for Ally to somewhat take Roxanne's spot, and just not put Roxanne in all together.

_**Next chapter . . . well . . . let's just say that there are some interesting developments in a few cases . . .**_


	31. Morning After

A/N: Hey. I'm as_ sooooooooooo_ sorry that I didn't update last week. Things were just so crazy I didn't have time to write. I had lots of homework (again, I'm in all U or U/C classes this year, even Religion), there were tons of University presentations I had to go to, and there will be even more htis month, school club stuff, driving, weddings and babysitting on my weekends, football games (my brother plays on our school's team along with a bunch of his friends), and Terry Fox Run and Spirit Day at school, and even now, I _just_ finished, a minute ago, my 1,600+ essay on Ancient Islamic Civilizations and their contributions to world culture for World History.

So yeah, again I'm sorry, I'll try to find more time to write, but I might not find much anytime soon . . . I've got another busy weekend coming up because it's Thanksgiving in Canada next week . . .

Anyway, hope you enjot this chapter! :)

Disclaimer: Jo no tinc (Catalan)

* * *

Morning After

When Teddy woke up the next morning, he was surprised to see that he was still lying on his bed with Victoire in his arms. _Crap. I fell asleep. I was supposed to move out of the bed and onto the floor when she fell asleep and _I _fell asleep . . . _

_Oh well, what's done is done I suppose._ His peeled his gaze off of the beautiful sleeping girl encircled in his protective arms and to the clock on the wall. It read eight-fifteen o'clock. He sighed and slowly moved his arms away from Victoire, holding his breath in the hope that he wouldn't wake her up. Once he had freed his limbs, he quietly tiptoed out of his room and into the shared living room, shutting the door to his bedroom quietly and securely before walking over to the little kitchenette. His plan to silently make some tea for Victoire and himself, wake her up, and then sneak her out of his room before Kurt came back from his night shift was thwarted by the, rather loud, arrival of the aforementioned -most likely sleep deprived- Auror.

"Morning Ted," Kurt yawned as he dragged himself through the front door and their shared living area.

Teddy turned his back to his friend and pretended to be occupied with the task of filling a teakettle full of water while he tried to hide his distress at his friends' sudden arrival. _Just keep calm Teddy. All you have to do is convince Kurt to go to bed, which shouldn't be hard seeing as he looks like he's about to fall asleep on his feet. And then wake Victoire up and sneak her out of the room without him knowing of her presence here._

"Good morning Kurt . . . tired?"

Kurt nodded and yawned again, despite being tired he sat down in one of the chairs around the round table. He seemed to be settling in for a conversation, "Yeah, I'm going to go to bed as soon as I get a cup of coffee."

Teddy took a deep breath to keep himself calm, "If you have a cup of coffee you'll just end up keeping yourself awake. You should grab a glass of water and then go to bed."

"Ted, I'm so tired that I need a cup of coffee just to get the energy to move from this seat to my bedroom. Trust me; no amount of caffeine is going to keep me up today."

Teddy grumbled under his breath and made Kurt a cup of coffee. He hoped that by surrendering to his whims he would get him moving faster. He leaned against the counter as he hurried Kurt along, his eyes flickering over to his bedroom door every ten seconds praying that Victoire wouldn't choose that moment to walk out of his room.

When Kurt mentioned getting another cup of coffee, Ted was about to snap. He was only stopped by the sound of the front door opening and the appearance of an unexpected whirlwind of bustling energy in the form of Auror Jilly Donaldson.

"Have you seen this morning's _Daily Prophet_?" She asked as a greeting as she strode through the living area to take a seat across from Kurt at the round table.

Teddy felt the urge to bang his head against the wall. Now he had _two _people to get rid of before he could sneak Victoire out of his bedroom.

"No, what does it say?" Kurt asked suddenly alert as he continued on a conversation with Jilly. Teddy had been too busy trying to devise a plan to get his friends out of the way.

"Look," Jilly said as she tossed it towards Kurt and Teddy. They picked it up and read the front page.

"Those-" Teddy stopped in the middle of his sentence when he heard the creak of a door opening. He felt his heart stop as he directed his gaze to the part of the room that both of his friends were now staring at wide-eyed and open-mouthed. _Bloody Hell._ Was all he thought. Standing in the now open doorway of his bedroom was Victoire. She was apparently oblivious to the attention she was getting from Jilly and Kurt, as she stood in the opening of the room wearing his old jersey-shirt; her shiny silvery-blonde hair was rumpled in an excessively seductive and tempting way. Her eyes were closed as she yawned loudly and took a few steps forward. She stopped when she finally opened them and saw who was in the room.

Victoire was only stunned for a second before she placed a charmingly tired looking smile on her face, "Good morning." She said happily, finishing with another yawn. She had begun to move again and was nonchalantly walking through the room to the kitchenette where Teddy was standing.

Kurt and Jilly transferred their attention from the attractively bedraggled seventeen-year-old as they turned to stare at Teddy. Kurt's stare said that he was impressed, and a little jealous. Teddy only had time to frown at Kurt before getting completely scared from the intense look of displeasure and anger he was getting from Jilly. He sighed and attempted to compose himself for the interrogation he was no doubt about to get. He turned around and grabbed the two cups of tea he had gotten up to make and handed one to Victoire as she walked over to him.

"Thanks," she said simply before sitting down in a chair next to Kurt's.

Teddy grabbed another mug and filled it with coffee before sitting down next to Victoire, in the one remaining chair. He pushed the cup of coffee in Jilly's direction, hoping to calm her down a bit before she began the Spanish Inquisition.

She ignored the proffered cup and frowned at Teddy, "And what is _this_?" She waved her hand to Victoire, the suspicion and disapproval clearly heard in her voice.

Teddy sighed again, "_That_ is me working over-time."

Victoire scoffed, "Over-time? Is that really all I am to you Teddy, a job?" She looked at him archly.

Teddy was about to ask her to 'please stop making this situation appear worse than it is', when Kurt spoke up for the first time.

"You can be more than job to _me_, if you want." He winked at her and then placed a hand on the bare skin of her knee, which the skimpy looking jersey she had slept in left exposed.

Before Teddy could do something obsessively possessive, like breaking both of Kurt's hands so that he'd stop touching _his_ girlfriend, Victoire gave Kurt a glare so cold that Teddy wouldn't have been surprised if Kurt had turned to ice right where he was.

"Kurt . . . do you _want_ me to stun you again?"

Kurt quickly took his hand of her knee, "No Ma'am."

"So will you ever be touching me again?"

"No Ma'am." Victoire nodded approvingly before picking up her tea and taking a long drink.

When Teddy was sure that Kurt wasn't about to say anything, or do anything more than attempt to surreptitiously ogle Victoire while they explained (even though it would still annoy him, it was something that he'd have to get used to . . .) he turned to Jilly.

She looked very disappointed with him. She was about to open her mouth, to no doubt berate him for what this situation looked liked, when Teddy spoke quickly, "Calm down Jilly. It's not what you think."

"Well then what is it?" She asked, her gaze switching between both Teddy and Victoire.

"Pretty much this," Teddy said as he pointed to the _Daily Prophet_ she had brought, which had been left on the table with Victoire's confusing entrance.

Teddy's words brought Victoire's attention to the paper; she gasped loudly when she saw it and snatched it up off the table, "You have _got _to be kidding me!"

Teddy shook his head forlornly and patted Victoire's arm comfortingly, "Sadly, no."

Victoire's eyes scanned the picture on the front page again. It was a black-and-white shot of herself from the party last night. She watched her form wobble slightly then begin to fall. Before she could hit the ground, Konstantin Krum grabbed her and held her up. The picture played in a loop of those five seconds over and over again. Above it in large letters the headline read: _HOGWART'S TRI-WIZARD CHAMPION COLLAPSES AT HALLOWE'EN PARTY LAST NIGHT._ Below the picture read, _Victoire Weasley faints from an unknown reason and is caught by her fellow Champion Konstantin Krum._ She was only able to read the title and the caption before she threw the paper back to Teddy.

"Is the rest of the article that bad?" She asked folding her arms on the table and burying her face in them.

She felt a strong hand reach out and begin to gently rub her back, she was about to look up to make sure that Kurt wasn't the one touching her, when she heard Teddy's voice from the side the hand was from.

"Hmm, let me see . . . _Miss Victoire Weasley, Tri-Wizard Champion for Hogwarts, collapses from an unknown reason at Minister Flannery's Halloween party at Hogwarts last night. Mr Konstantin Krum from Durmstrang Academy was seen speaking with Miss Weasley at the time of her collapse and was able to catch his fellow champion before she hit the ground after she lost consciousness . . . Miss Weasley was removed from the room as soon as she fainted, although it was denied that what illness she had was contagious . . . This reporter has found out that she was unconscious for a good four hours before finally waking . . . After leaving the Great Hall she wasn't seen again . . . wasn't in the school's Hospital Wing when Minister Flannery went to check on one of his champions . . . a reliable source from the party states that Miss Weasley had been complaining about headaches, stomachaches, and nausea for the entire night, day, and for the last few days preceding the party. . . Many guests that had attended the party last night have stated that they are worried about the Hogwarts Champion and hope the her illness is not as life-threatening as it seemed and that she would be healthy enough to compete in the First Tri-Wizard Task of the Tournament which will be taking place on the day after the next . . . _that is a complete load of rubbish!"

Victoire lifted her head up from the table and looked at Teddy, his face was set into an unreadable mask, but she could see the anger and outrage in his eyes. That, along with the fact that his turquoise blue hair unconsciously turned to a very dark brown (the only time he ever wore his hair that colour was when he was very upset) showed his rage at the press for what they had written about her.

"Well then, what happened? And why is she here?" Kurt asked breaking into Teddy's angry reverie.

"She passed out last night at the party. Konstantin Krum caught her. She was unconscious for a few minutes at most. Kingsley and Harry decided that they didn't want her to go back to the party, so they were just going to send her to the Hospital Wing. She didn't want to go because then people would think that she was suffering from some life threatening illness. They didn't want her to go back to her dorm room because no one would be there would be able to take care of her properly. That left them with their only other plan. Me. Kingsley wanted me to look after her last night in case she fainted again or got sick or something," Teddy explained.

"Are you saying that Shacklebolt asked _you _to bring her to _your_ room and watch her for the night?" Jilly asked sceptically.

"It was Kingsley and Uncle Harry's idea. I did _not _want a babysitter," Victoire commented still frowning at the newspaper.

Kurt looked at Teddy petulantly, "Why do you get all the good jobs?"

Teddy glowered at him before looking at Jilly, "You do believe me don't you?"

She sighed, "I know I shouldn't jump to conclusions like that . . . but c'mon Ted, that looked way too incriminating to be legitimate."

Teddy nodded, _of course it looked bloody incriminating; why do you think I was trying to hide it? _

"Is this the only time I'm mentioned in the paper today?" Victoire asked Jilly hopefully.

Jilly gave her a sympathetic look before shaking her head, "Go to page ten."

Victoire raised an eyebrow, "The society pages?"

Jilly nodded. Victoire frowned and flipped through the paper to page ten.

"You've got to be _bloody_ kidding me."

Teddy looked over her shoulder to see what on the page had claimed her attention. It wasn't hard to find. The page was full of photos from the party last night. The photo in question was slightly larger than the other photos, but it was near the bottom and in the corner, so there was a chance that not as many people had seen it as they did the one on the front page. The picture depicted a naturally smiling Victoire with an arm friendly tossed around the shoulders of both Oliver and Katie Wood. Xavier's parents were laughing at something she said, and standing to the side at the edge of the picture was a grinning Cecilia Wood. There was a tiny caption underneath the photo stating everybody's name. Seeing, as the picture wasn't used for an article by Rita Skeeter, there was nothing else written that could be taken the wrong way and further the gossip going around about Victoire and Xavier.

"At least it doesn't say anything suspicious," Teddy offered comfortingly.

"Yeah, but a picture's worth a thousand words . . . I can hear all the Slytherins now. 'Nice picture of you and the future in-laws Weasley'," Victoire said disdainfully.

Teddy knew that nothing he was going to say was going to comfort her so he reached out and patted her arm sympathetically. This was something she was going to have to work out with, with Xavier and his family.

After Victoire skimmed through the rest of the pictures on that page and another, (there were no more of her and she was very happy for that) she put the newspaper down and picked up her tea. Teddy, who had still been reading over her shoulder, picked up his tea also. He went to take a sip before recognizing that it was empty. He frowned at mug while he quickly debated on whether he should get another cup. He decided to get up and get a refill after realizing that he'd probably need the caffeine to get through the rest of the day. Because he was getting more to drink, his back was turned as the front door opened.

"Morning Uncle Harry!" Teddy heard Victoire call out in a chipper voice.

Teddy took a deep breath to steel himself for the interrogation he was more than likely about to get about last night's events. He turned around to face Harry and saw that Victoire had gotten up out of her seat to give him a hug. He was scrutinizing her outfit with a raised eyebrow.

Teddy was about to open his mouth to explain why Victoire was standing there wearing seemingly nothing but his shirt when Harry spoke, "Fleur put a charm on your clothes from last night so that you couldn't _transfigure _them, didn't she?"

Victoire pouted, "Yeah, she was under the, completely correct mind you, illusion that I'd do something unsophisticated like change that horrid skirt into jeans."

Harry grinned, "And you can't figure out the counter-spell?"

She shook her head.

"Figures. Your mother is very good with charms. However, I know the counter-charm to this specific spell of her's. Go change back into your clothes from last night and I'll take the enchantment off so you can transfigure them before you leave."

Victoire smiled happily and walked across the room and into Teddy's bedroom. Harry's eyes had followed her progress; as soon as the door was shut behind her, he turned to godson.

"How was she last night?" Harry asked worriedly yet quietly. His eyes flickering back to the door Victoire had disappeared through in case she came back out.

Teddy frowned, "When we got here, I asked her if she was in any pain. She said no, but then she almost fainted. I caught her, carried her into my room and then I practically had force the potion down her throat-"

"You got her to drink the potion?" Harry asked surprised.

Teddy nodded, "It took a lot of convincing and then eventually a lot of force, but she drank it all."

Harry looked impressed, "Wow. Good job. I didn't think anybody would ever be able to get her to drink that, force or no force."

Teddy looked down at his bare feet; there was no way he was going to tell Harry what he had to do to coerce her into drinking _all _of the potion. So he continued with his recital, "I think her headache went away after that. It was about twelve o'clock by the time I convinced her to go to bed, and then probably about a quarter to one by the time she finally fell asleep."

Harry nodded. "Did she get much sleep during the night, or did she keep waking up?" Harry asked, knowing how both his niece and his godson had a hard time sleeping during full moons.

"She didn't wake up, but her sleep was very fitful. I doubt it was restful."

"How was she feeling this morning?"

"She seemed fine . . . she's probably very tired though. But she'll never admit to it," Teddy added.

Harry nodded once more before the door to Teddy's room opened and Victoire walked out in the clothes she had from last night. Teddy looked over to the table where he heard a loud coughing noise. Kurt's face was red and it seemed that he had chocked on his coffee. Jilly had gotten up and was standing next to him thumping his back. She was rolling her eyes at him in irritation, so it was rather easy for Teddy to figure out what had caused Kurt to choke on his coffee. Especially since Kurt's eyes were still focused on Victoire and her revealing outfit from last night. The only differences from how she looked now, and how she looked last night was that she was carrying her silver shoes (she had vanished the heel off them earlier last night when Teddy had dragged her up the staircase), and that her hair was no longer curly, but straight and pulled back into a low pony tail. Teddy thought she still looked gorgeous even though she most likely hadn't had the chance to brush her hair out, (although she didn't really need to with the Veela blood and all).

"Come here, I'll break the enchantment," Harry said easily once Victoire was in the room. He was trying to give the impression that they _hadn't _just been discussing her behind her back.

Harry waved his wand and Victoire was able to change her black skirt and black shorts into a pair of black jeans. Her sparkly and clingy blue and silver top, changed into a navy-blue and grey stripped long-sleeved sweater. And she adjusted her silver shoes, again, into a pair of white flats.

"How are you feeling?" Harry asked her while she worked.

"I'm fine, no more headaches or stomach-aches."

"Do you feel like you're going to faint _again_?" Harry asked concerned.

Victoire shot Teddy a glare before answering, Harry's use of the word again told her that he had told his godfather about her almost fainting in his living room, "No, I don't feel like I'm going to faint. I'll be perfectly fine for classes this afternoon."

(McGonagall had announced earlier in the week that the day after Halloween the students would only have to attend their classes into the afternoon because she knew that several of them were going to be up late from the Minister's party the night before. And because she knew that those who hadn't attended the party would probably throw Halloween parties of their own.)

"Actually Vic, Kingsley and your mother discussed this with McGonagall, and they decided that because of your fall last night, you could be excused from your classes for the entire day so that you can rest," Harry informed her.

"But what about my class work?" Victoire asked.

Harry waved off her concern, "Xavier will collect all of the assignments you'll miss."

Victoire was so tired that she folded, "Fine."

Harry smiled then looked at Teddy, "I've changed your schedule today. You don't have any patrols."

"But-" Teddy started.

Harry cut him off, "It's obvious that you barely got any sleep last night, so you're going to spend the day sleeping and resting too."

Teddy knew better than to argue with Harry. Harry was also correct about the fact that he didn't get much sleep last night. He was too busy watching Victoire and making sure that she was okay. Anytime he moved away from her to sleep on the floor, she would toss and turn restlessly until he came back and held her. That was until he ended up falling asleep with her on the bed like he _wasn't _supposed to.

"Good. I should be going then," Harry said. He nodded at Jilly and Kurt over at the table before leaving.

Teddy turned to Victoire, "You should probably leave now."

Victoire smirked, "Probably. But there's something I need to talk with you about first."

Teddy looked surprised, "What is it?"

Victoire's blue eyes shot over to where Jilly and Kurt were sitting before moving back to Teddy's face, "Umm, could we talk about this in your bedroom?"

Teddy raised an eyebrow but gestured for her to lead on. He shot a scowl at the leer on Kurt's face before closing the door to his bedroom behind them.

"What is it?" Teddy repeated calmly.

Victoire held her hand out; there was a small piece of parchment in it. He took it as he shot her a questioning look. Written on the paper, in plain black ink were the words:

_. . . The First Task's quickly approaching and you're a mess . . ._

_. . . You should withdraw before you can collapse from the stress . . ._

_. . . This is your final warning before the games begin . . ._

_. . . You'll fail because you don't know what is within . . ._

"Where did you find this?" Teddy asked his eyes refusing to leave the paper in case the words would disappear like Victoire had said the other notes did.

Victoire had the same worried expression on her face that Teddy did, "It was on the pillow of the bed when I came in to get dressed . . . I swear it wasn't here when I woke up . . . another thing . . . the bed was a mess when I left the room, and when I came back in to get changed it was made. That's why I was able to see the note on the pillow."

Teddy finally peeled his eyes away from the parchment to look at the confused look on Victoire's face. It was a look that he'd only seen once ever on her face before. This wasn't good.

"Are you saying that . . . whoever left the note, also made my bed?" Teddy asked sceptically.

Victoire shrugged and folded her arms across her chest, "Apparently. The more important question should be how in the world did someone get this note into your room. We would have had to see them come in through the front door and the only one who came in was Harry."

Teddy sighed, "I don't know Vic, I really don't know. But this note doesn't seem much different from the others. They're just trying to persuade you to quit the Tournament. Although, that line about failing because you 'don't know what's within', sounds more than a little ominous."

"And puzzling, what could it refer to?" Victoire asked.

"I don't know what to say Vic . . . other than we should just ignore this."

Victoire's ocean-blue eyes grew wide with disbelief, "Ignore this!"

Teddy pinched the bridge of his nose; he was really tired, "Yes ignore this. This is obviously some ploy to get you worked up over the first task and I'm not going to let that happen. You need to forget about this so that you can go back to your dorm room and get some sleep."

Victoire smiled slightly and suddenly attacked Teddy with a hug, "I'd get more sleep if I stayed here with you . . ."

He couldn't help the grin that slipped onto his face. He squeezed her tighter to him for a minute and buried his face in her sweet smelling hair. After a minute, he let her go and stepped back, "No. I gave in last night because you needed me to watch over you. You're fine now, so you're going to leave my room and go get some sleep in your _own_ bed."

Victoire smiled, she didn't think that he was going to give in, but she still had to try. "Fine. I'll just have to comfort myself with the knowledge that I'll be on your mind the entire time you're asleep, before you fall asleep, and when you wake up."

Teddy smirked, "And why is that?"

"Because you won't be able to stop thinking about this."

She grabbed his head in between her hands and pulled his face down to hers'. She crushed her mouth against his in a searing and passionate kiss so hot and heated that he was starting to get light-headed because he didn't want to take time out to breathe. Victoire broke the kiss as soon as the passion had reached its peak and swiftly left the room.

It took Teddy a full three minutes before he was able to realize that Victoire had just left him in the middle of their kiss and without saying goodbye. He took another minute to compose himself before he left the room and went back into his and Kurt's kitchenette.

Jilly was sitting in a chair again and was drinking her coffee as she scanned the newspaper. Kurt was staring longingly at the door. Teddy concluded that Victoire did leave for good. He sighed and ran a hand through his sleep-dishevelled hair, "I think it's time we both hit the sack Kurt."

Kurt agreed and Jilly stood up and said her goodbyes before leaving. When she was gone, Teddy and Kurt left to enter their own respective bedrooms. Before Teddy collapsed onto his bed with exhaustion, he picked up a piece of bright red and blue fabric that had been neatly folded on the foot of his bed. It was the _Puddlemere United_ jersey he had leant to Victoire for her to sleep in. He lifted it up to his face and realized that it smelt just like her. _Fresh and clean, yet somewhat spicy. _He couldn't name any particular scent it reminded him of; it was just her. He tossed the jersey onto the chair in the corner of the room and lay down in bed. He didn't need the jersey because his bed still smelt of her from last night. He knew that her scent, along with that amazing but not completely satisfying kiss, was going to keep him up for a long time, and that when he finally does end up falling asleep, that it will be the focal point of his dreams.

_Damn Victoire; she was right._

* * *

So what did you guys think?

Leave me a message if you wish. And thank-you to everyone who has reviewd, subscribed, read, or just enjoyed my story.

Next chapter . . . My first time writing a Quidditch Game! Yup, that's right, lots of action coming up ;)


	32. Quidditch Games

**A/N:** **I am soooooo sooooooorrrrrryyyyyyy! Life has just been so hectic, I meant to update two weekends ago (as a thanksgiving teart for all my fellow Canadians out there) but as usaul life got in the way. Darn it!**

**All I can offer you is the usual appologies of procrastinating: babysitting, homework (lots of projects), University presentaions and lots of prep for that, driving (Although that won't be an issue anymore because I got my G2 a week ago!), and then just no time to get on my laptop because my brother needed it for his bio assaignment or something "improtant" like that.**

**Anyway here's the latest chapter, it's got some nice action packed Quidditch in it (hopefully you think that . . .)**

Disclaimer: 我没有自己 (simplified Chinese).

* * *

Quidditch Games

Victoire was slowly awoken from her deep slumber by an incessant poking of her arm. She sighed before throwing her arm out to the direction of whoever was prodding her.

"Ahhh!"

Her eyes flew open as she heard the voice, "Ahhh!" She ended up twisting in her narrow bed and falling out. A long body broke her fall.

"Geroff me Vic," Xavier grumbled from under her. He was trapped between her body and the hardwood floor beside her bed.

"Xavier Wood how in the name of Merlin did you get into my dorm room?" Victoire asked as she tried hard to speak quietly. It was early in the morning and she didn't want to wake up any of the other girls who shared a room with her. Especially not Pamela.

Xavier grumbled again from underneath her, "You don't have to be quiet Vic, I cast a _muffliato_ charm on your roommates."

Victoire breathed a sigh of relief before asking again, "Why are you in my room," her eyes flew to the clock on the wall, "and at seven o'clock in the morning!"

"Will you get off of me so that I can tell you?" Xavier asked evenly.

Victoire considered his request for a moment. He was more likely to get to the point of the talk if stayed on him.

"No, tell me first and then I'll move."

"Fine," Xavier griped, "I came here to make sure that you were up in good time for our first Quidditch match today."

"YOU BLOODY SNEAKED INTO MY ROOM AND WOKE ME UP AT SEVEN O'CLOCK JUST TO MAKE SURE THAT I'D BE IN GOOD TIME FOR THE QUIDDITCH MATCH TODAY?"

"Will you keep it down? Some of us are trying to sleep!"

Victoire's head whipped around to look at the person in the bed across from her's. There was an irritated expression on her drowsy face as she glared at Victoire and Xavier.

"Sorry Sandy," the two Heads muttered quietly.

Sandra rolled her eyes and pulled the blankets back up over her head. She wasn't very interested in the scene she had just witnessed; she just wanted to get back to sleep.

Victoire turned slightly so she could glare into Xavier's face, "I thought you said you cast a _muffliato_ charm?"

"I did on everyone else . . . I guess I forgot to do one on Sandra. But it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that you need to get off me now, and then get downstairs to the Common Room so we can discuss the Quidditch game this afternoon."

Victoire ignored him demand, "How did you get into my dorm?"

Xavier raised an eyebrow at her, slightly surprised at her train of thought, but decided to answer her anyway. She was probably more than a little sleep-deprived; and definitely cranky, "I went to see Professor Longbottom yesterday; I wanted to know if there was a spell I could use to get into your dormitory to give you your assignments that you missed yesterday afternoon while you were sleeping. . ."

Victoire blushed a little as she remembered everyone's surprised and suspicious looks they'd given her last night at dinner when she told them all exactly where she went after she fainted at the party. Nobody really knew what to say after she told them that she ended up spending the night in Teddy's room. Nobody except Dom of course, but then again she'd shut her sister up as soon she'd opened her mouth, knowing that whatever Dom had to say was _not _going to be good.

Xavier smirked at her slight embarrassment and continued, "But when I went to ask Professor Longbottom he gave me an odd look and told me that he had given _you _the counter-enchantment at the _beginning_ of the school year. And that he had told you to give it to me so that I'd be able to get into the girls dormitory in case of an emergency. Because I _am_ Head Boy."

Victoire tried and failed to ignore Xavier's pointed glare for not telling him earlier of the counter-spell, "I'm sorry, but I didn't think you needed to know of the spell since I was here."

Xavier raised an eyebrow, "Liar, you were just waiting until I figured it out, weren't you?"

Victoire snickered, "Pretty much, yeah."

Xavier frowned again but changed the subject, "Now will you please get off me."

Victoire deliberated, "That depends . . . are you going to make me get up and talk about Quidditch non-stop for the rest of the day until the game after classes this afternoon?"

"Yes."

"Then no, not really."

"Victoire!"

"What in the name of Merlin's pants is going on?" A new voice shouted from out in the hall.

Victoire and Xavier only had time to share a scared look before Ally Weasley walked into the room. She was wearing a baggy white t-shirt and long blue and green polka dotted flannel pyjama pants. Her brown hair was pulled back into a rumpled braid, several pieces were loose; it was easy to see that she'd just woken up. Her brown eyes popped open wide as she took in the scene in front of her; namely that of Victoire lying on the floor on top of Xavier.

"Ally no-" Victoire tried. But she was too late.

Ally pulled her wand out and swiftly waved it. A second later, something came zooming down the hall into her hand. She held it in her hand and almost instantly, Xavier and Victoire were blinded by a flash of light.

When the black dots cleared from her line of vision Victoire scowled at the sixth-year holding her Muggle camera, "What was that for?"

Ally smirked and played with the camera in her hands, "That Victoire, was counter-blackmail, and a very nice one at that."

Victoire shrugged her shoulders as she listened to her cousin's reasoning. She couldn't get angry with her for that, one of the Weasley traits that they both shared was a love for blackmail; fair is fair after all. Xavier on the other hand was distressed. His face was red from a deep blush, and he was trying harder than ever to push Victoire off him. It shouldn't have been too hard, he was stronger than her after all, but he didn't want to hurt her. She had a game of Quidditch to play this afternoon, and she had to be in good shape.

"Well as nice as it is for the two of you to have some blackmail to use against each other, why does it always have to be with me?"

Victoire laughed thinking about the picture she had taken months ago of Ally and Xavier asleep on the couch, "Because Xavier, our blackmail would be absolutely useless if it didn't have you in it. It's not blackmail if you can't get it on the front page of _With Weekly_ in some odd five years because it has Quidditch's most eligible bachelor in it."

Xavier grumbled and Ally and Victoire laughed.

"Will you all just shut up? Some of us actually don't have to play Quidditch today!" Sandra said angrily as she came out from under her covers to stare at her rowdy friends.

Xavier -who had finally succeeded in pushing Victoire off of him- stood up and rolled his eyes, "Oh, go back to dreaming about snogging Kyle, Sandy."

"That's what I was trying to do -and it was a rather nice one too- when you guys decided on making all this bloody noise just so you're up in time for Quidditch!" Sandra retorted.

"Well now that you're awake you can go to my dorm and maybe actually snog Kyle," Xavier suggested as he held his hand out to help Victoire up.

"I don't know . . . sometimes he's better at snogging in my dreams," Sandra mused distractedly.

Xavier raised an eyebrow, "I'm sure if you gave him more incentive he'd be much better at it."

Sandra threw a pillow at Xavier's head, "Just leave so Victoire can get dressed. Unless you're going to stay to watch."

"Like hell he is," Victoire snapped.

"Touchy, touchy Vic," Xavier tsked.

Victoire her pillow at him too.

"Okay, okay. I'll be waiting for you in the Common Room," he turned to Ally, "you too. Now that you're up." And left the room before Ally could summon a pillow and hit him with it. Ally and Victoire shared a look before moving to get dressed. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

_If Xavier Wood weren't such a bloody good Keeper, I'd have killed him at lunchtime . . ._ Victoire mused as she tore through her locker in the Gryffindor changing rooms. She spotted a dirty white shoelace underneath a pile of towels (clean; her locker wasn't _that_ messy) and pulled at it. When she realized that it was just that; an old shoelace, and that her Quidditch shoes weren't attached to it, she swore loudly.

"What's wrong _now_ Victoire?" Xavier asked testily from where he was standing at his locker, directly across the room from her's.

Victoire scowled at him, "My shoes aren't here. I need to go back to the tower and get them." She straightened her shoulders as she waited for the angry lecture she expected to get from him.

He didn't disappoint, "That's so irresponsible! How _could you_ forget something like that! It's our first . . ."

_Correction, I should have killed him this morning when he woke me up from my sleep_, Victoire thought as she did her best to tune out Xavier's irate speech. It wasn't too hard; she had listened to about twelve different variations of it already today. Apparently, she couldn't do anything right in his eyes.

Xavier's speech was cut short by the loud slam of the change room door as the rest of the team entered. Victoire was glad that she would no longer have to be the only one listening to Xavier's stress induced rants. The last player to come into the room was Ally. She had a large smile on her face as she skipped over to Victoire and held her arms out to her elder cousin.

Victoire breathed a sigh of relief as she accepted the shoes from Ally, "Thank-you. Where in the world did you find them?"

Ally laughed, "Dom gave them to me."

Victoire's raised an eyebrow. Ally laughed again before answering, "I turns out that she had them from our last practice. She was afraid that you were going to wear those grubby things as everyday shoes and she was _not_ about to let that happen. She was trying to find you to give them back so that you could use them today, but you and Xavier had left class early to help set things up on the pitch. She saw me and gave them to me and instructed me to apologize for her, but also say that if you ever think about wearing these outside of the Quidditch pitch again, well, she'd take them for good."

Victoire rolled her eyes at the thought of her fashion obsessed younger sister.

As she sat down on the bench in the middle of the change room to put her shoes on, she gave Xavier a specific look that said 'see-it-wasn't-my-fault-you-owe-me-an-apology'. On any other day, Xavier probably would have sucked up his pride and just apologized already, but this was the first Quidditch match of the year; he was strung rather high.

He just scowled at her, "If you had a better grasp on what was going on around you, you wouldn't have just wasted fifteen minutes looking for them."

Victoire opened her mouth to retort. But wasn't able to get the scathing comment out before Ally interceded. She easily recognized today as one of the days in the 'hate' part of Victoire and Xavier's 'love/hate relationship'. She had to sit between them during both breakfast and lunch to make sure that they didn't strangle each other. Not that they still hadn't tried.

"Xavier . . . everything is going to be okay. We've practiced, and practiced, and practiced again. The chasers are in top position; Fred and I are so in sync today that we've actually been finishing each other's sentences -which has rather scared me to tell you the truth. Victoire has cut down more than nineteen seconds on how long it takes her to travel from one end of the pitch to another, and you've done so much extra practicing that you could be Keeper in your sleep. I'm not even kidding; Kyle and Chris said that you were talking in your sleep last night and that they had both chucked some stuff at you to wake you up. They said you deflected it before it hit you, in your _sleep_," Ally said smiling sweetly at the end.

Xavier's face went red, Chris and Kyle had told him the same thing at lunch to try to calm him down, but he hadn't even bothered to give them half of the attention he gave Ally when she was trying to reassure him. He closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and took a deep breath before saying, "Fine," he opened his eyes and looked at Victoire before grudgingly saying, "I'm sorry Vic. I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just worried."

Victoire tried to smile; it was hard though. She hadn't expected him to listen to Ally's calm rationale. He was _in deeper_ than she'd even thought, "It's alright Xavier. It's not all your fault; I've been testy today too."

He smiled sadly, "Yes but you have a reason. Some idiot woke you up at seven o'clock this morning and has been yelling at you the whole day. Not to mention the fact that you're probably stressed out about tomorrow."

Victoire had a genuine smile this time, "Why? What's tomorrow?" Xavier's smile turned genuine also.

"Oi, you lovebirds done now?" James asked cheekily as he straightened the Quidditch robes that he had just changed into.

Victoire sent her cousin a playful glare before inspecting the rest of the team. They were all dressed and looking ready to go. Even Ally who must have found the time to change somewhere during Victoire and Xavier's 'making-up' period.

"Yes. But before we go, I just want to say to you all, that no matter what may happen out there today, I'm very proud of you. We've all come a long way, and I know we came do this."

She smiled at them all before nodding her head at Xavier, "Remember to always keep your eyes open and fly assuredly. It doesn't matter how fast you're going, if you don't know where you're going and what your next move is. Most importantly, nothing is more imperative than your safety. Slytherins are known for -well, let's just say not playing fair. Be careful out there and watch each other's backs. We don't need anybody to get a first class trip to the Hospital Wing." He shot Ally a worried glance, before smirking at Victoire. The last three times someone had hurt themselves playing Quidditch, it was her.

"And let's go kick some Slytherin arse!" James and Fred called out together.

Everybody was laughing as they walked out the changing room, and began their way out to the pitch; Victoire, Ally and Xavier were at the end of the group, smiling as they watched the newer players' excitement grow. At the end of the hall, Caroline Hilbert had opened the door, letting in a nice, cool November breeze. The air caused Victoire's blonde hair to whip around her face.

_Shoot! I forgot to pull my hair back._ "I'll be back in one minute guys; I need to go grab a hair tie." Victoire sped off back to the changing room before Xavier could complain about her absentmindedness. She wretched open the door and ran to her locker to find a hair elastic. When she saw one, she grabbed it and jogged back out the change room door. As she ran, she pulled her long slivery-blonde hair back into a ponytail.

"Vic! Wait a minute!"

Victoire stopped where she was and spun around. Running up to her were Louis and Cecilia. When they reached her, Louis held his hand out. There was a torn and folded piece of light red parchment paper. Across the front, her name was written in familiar writing. She snatched the note out of Louis' hand and greedily read it. A bright smile came to her face as she read the words. She re-read them three more times before folding the note up and stashing it in an inside pocket of her robes. When she looked up Louis was smiling impishly at her.

"He didn't know if he'd have time to find you before your game so he gave it to me," Louis answered before she could ask.

"Don't worry, we didn't read it," Cecilia added.

Victoire smiled at the two thirteen-year-olds, "Thanks."

"No problem," Cecilia said before grabbing Louis' arm, "C'mon we need to go find out where my parents are sitting."

Louis nodded and they both turned away.

"Wait! What was that Cecilia?" Victoire called to them, suddenly confused.

Cecilia looked back, "Mum and Dad are coming to the game today. Don't tell Xav 'till after it's finished though. He'll be a basket of nerves when he hears that. They brought along a scout."

Victoire was stunned. Katie and Oliver Wood came to the game to watch their son, but didn't tell him. And they brought a Quidditch scout. She knew that Xavier was going to be angry about that when he did find out. But Cecilia was right; if she told him know he'd _probably_ breakdown. So Victoire pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind and ran out onto the Quidditch pitch to begin the game.

* * *

The first Quidditch game of the Hogwarts House Cup League began at four o'clock on the dot. Madame Hooch made Victoire shake hands with the Captain of the Syltherin Quidditch team; Colton Knott. Colton squeezed Victoire's hand painfully before letting go and walking back to where he had set his broom. Victoire rolled her eyes as she turned her back and cast a wandless and non-verbal numbing charm on her hand to stop the pain from Colton's handshake. She mounted her broom and both teams kicked-off at the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle.

As soon as she was in the air, Victoire felt her stress and worry leave her. The relaxing and familiar feel of the broom under her and the way the cool wind bit her face and played with her newly pulled back hair, brought her back into her 'Quidditch zone'. She flew up until she was well above the height of the Quidditch hoops and so that she could easily see the scene of her teammates flying below her. She squinted her eyes to the glare of the sun -extremely bright seeing, as it was a cloudless day- and began to search for the Golden Snitch. She tried to block out both the jeering and the cheering of the crowds as she focused on her one task. Finding the Snitch.

Not five minutes into the game, the eager sound of the announcer broke into Victoire's concentration.

Jacob Niles, the sixth-year Hufflepuff who was doing the commentary, was obviously excited, "And Caroline Hilbert of Gryffindor has the Quaffle. She dodges Hodges, she zips by Slattery and-Oh! Pucey's making a beeline right for her! If she doesn't move soon she'll-"

Victoire moved around swiftly on her broom until she saw the play that Jacob was screaming about. Caroline was flying quickly in the direction of the Slytherin goal hoops; Pucey (a very large Chaser for Slytherin) was flying directly towards her. She was about to swerve out of the way when Victoire noticed a small black Bludger soaring speedily towards her, curtsey of Davis, one of the burly Beaters for the green-and-silver team. Before she could scream for Caroline to turn and look at it, Ally came zooming in out of nowhere with her Beater's bat in hand. She hit the incoming Bludger so hard that when it went whizzing back the way it came, it ended up cracking Davis' bat in half.

Victoire smirked as she listened to the restart of Jacob's commentary, "And Ally Weasley of Gryffindor knocks the Bludger back at Davis -bugger deserved it for sending a Bludger at someone whose back was turned,-" he muttered into the microphone, sending a furtive glance at Professor Linkwell who was sitting next to him on the commentators stand, "Hilbert swerves past Pucey as she passes the Quaffle to James Potter."

"Potter races to the posts and goes to throw- But WAIT! POTTER FAKES THE THROW THEN REVERSE PASSES TO HILBERT . . . HILBERT THROWS THE QUAFFLE AND GRYFFINDOR SCORES! TEN POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR!"

Victoire did a quick loop-de-loop on her broom before going back to focusing on looking for the Snitch. She spotted a gold glint of something half-way down the pitch. She leaned forward on her broom and sped forward towards the shine.

"And Hodges is flying to towards the Gryffindor goal . . . he dodges Hilbert, he flies past Roger Michaels -a new addition to the Gryffindor team this year- AND HE THROWS THE QUAFFLE . . . BUT WAIT! XAVIER WOOD, KEEPER FOR GRYFFINDOR STOPS THE GOAL! Quaffle's back in Gryffindor possession. Michaels passes it to Hilbert -Hilbert passes to Potter- Potter passes back to- Wait one minute! Victoire Weasley of Gryffindor is speeding down the pitch. Could she have . . . ? Yes! I believe she has spotted the snitch!"

The crowd got louder as Victoire sped down the pitch. She looked to her right and saw that Colton Knott had begun to follow her lead. He hadn't seen it but he believed that she did.

"And now it looks like the Seeker for Slytherin has also seen the Snitch. Yes Knott seems to be narrowing in on something instead of just following Victoire blindly because he couldn't find it for himself-"

"Mr Niles!" Linkwell yelled at him.

"Sorry Professor got caught up in the action. Anyway it seems as though Weasley and Knott are neck and neck -Make sure to watch Weasley closely here people, you may just get an sneak-peek of something you may see tomorrow during the First Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament-"

"NILES!"

"Right Professor, back to the game . . ."

Jacob continued to say the play-by-play while Victoire flew. She was now only three arm lengths away from the snitch. It was to her left, and Knott was to her right. There was no way he'd be able to get it before she could. She was just about to stretch her arm out in front of her when Knott checked her with himself and his broom.

The force of the body-check unseated Victoire from her broom. The only reason she was able to stay in the air was by the hard grip she had on broom with her hands. She dangled from her broom forty-feet up in the air.

"Oh! And Knott knocks Weasley off her broom and scares away the Snitch. Will she be able to get back on?"

Victoire tried to block out the commentary as she narrowed her eyes at Knott who had decided to come up right beside her to watch her get back on her broom.

"Need a hand Weasley?" Colton asked contemptuously.

Victoire scowled at him and swung her legs and body up. She was able to get back on her broom, and ended up kicking Colton in the stomach with the same move.

"And Weasley's just amazing, the way she can gracefully get back on her broom while simultaneously giving Knott a piece of his own medicine . . ." Jacob said. He would have continued to sing Victoire's praises if it wasn't for the glare Linkwell was giving him.

"Ugh!" Colton grunted as Victoire's shoes made contact with his stomach.

"Nope, no thanks Colton," Victoire said cheerfully before zooming away. _And Dom didn't think that these shoes would have a practical use._

The game continued much in the same vein as Victoire regained her high position in the air to search for the Golden Snitch. In the next forty-five minutes Gryffindor scored eleven more goals, Caroline got three more, Roger Michaels got three also, and, amazingly, James was in the lead with five goals making the score 120 for Gryffindor and 30 for Slytherin. Xavier could have saved all three of Slytherin's goals, if it weren't for them playing dirty. Twice they were able to shoot both Bludgers at him while also throwing the Quaffle at the goal post, causing him to let them in. And the third goal was because Slattery had knocked almost knocked Ally off her broom and Xavier was the closest one to her and had to help her back up before she fell off -which could have easily happened if he didn't get there right away. But aside from those three goals, Xavier was on fire. Saving practically everything and showing some good moves, and flying as he went. Ally and Fred worked amazingly together, and were able to keep control of the Bludgers and saved almost everyone on their team from being hit by them during the course of the game so far. Victoire was just finishing what must have been her eighth complete circuit of the entire pitch when she caught a glimpse of gold over near the bleacher-tower that was decorated with Ravenclaw colours.

She shot towards it with a burst of speed. As she came closer and closer to it, the sound of Jacob's commentary broke through her quiet bubble of concentration.

"And Victoire Weasley rockets down the pitch toward the Ravenclaw tower! She must have . . . Yes! Victoire Weasley has seen the Golden Snitch! Sadly, Colton Knott was at the other end of the pitch when she made this discovery. It seems as though everyone can see who the competent Seeker is out of these two teams, and the best looking-"

"Niles!" Professor Linkwell berated him.

"Sorry Professor just stating facts. Weasley's prettier than Knott is-"

"NILES!" Linkwell roared half into the microphone.

"And Knott is coming up fast behind Weasley. He's about to get even with her when . . . NICE! Ally and her brother Fred Weasley both send a Bludger directly at Knott! He dodges the first one but the second one hits the tail end of his broom . . . Knott's going down and Victoire has yet to given up on the Snitch!"

Victoire didn't even have time to see if Knott had fallen to the ground. All of her attention was focused on the Golden Snitch fluttering in front of her. She reached out when she was few arms lengths away . . .

"YES! VICTOIRE WEASLEY GOT THE SNITCH! WEASLEY GRABBED THE GOLDEN SNITCH! 150 POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR WINS!"

When the cheers erupted, Victoire instantly descended to the ground below her. She opened up her still clenched fingers to see the Snitch lying in the palm of her hand, its wings still gently fluttering.

"We did it! We did it! Oh my Merlin _you_ did it!" Ally screamed as she landed next to her cousin.

Victoire beamed and the two girls closed the short distance between them with a hug. They were still embracing each other Victoire felt a strong arm come around her waist and lift both her and Ally in the air to spin them around for a minute before setting them down. Victoire and Ally were both laughing as they broke their embrace to see Xavier standing next to them, an arm around both their waists. Victoire was more than mildly impressed, she didn't realize that he was strong enough to lift up both in the air and spin them around like he just did.

Ally and Victoire shared a look before pulling Xavier into a large group hug. "I can't believe we did that!" Victoire said laughingly. Both Ally and Xavier knew she was referring to the large margin they'd beaten the Slytherins by: 270-30, and in just under an hour of playing time!

They broke apart and Xavier smiled brightly at the two girls, before raising an eyebrow at Victoire, "And I can't believe you kicked Knott in the stomach like that."

Victoire's eyes were shinning, "Really? You can't believe I did that?"

Xavier and Ally laughed, "Okay, maybe I can."

At that point, the rest of their smiling and laughing team converged on them. Victoire praised Roger and Caroline for their great job at scoring, pulled both James and Fred into a big hug, and then made them both blush bright red when she gave them each a kiss on the cheek.

Xavier had just been complementing Ally on the very nice Bludger she sent at Knott during the last play (although Victoire was almost completely convinced that it wasn't actually her skills with the Beater's bat he was attempting to praise) when they were interrupted by a loud call from behind them.

"Way to go Xav!"

Following the praise was small blur of a red jumper and dark brown hair.

Xavier laughed as his sister launched herself into his arms and gave him a hug, "Hi Cee-Cee. So I take it you think I did well?"

"She's not the only one."

Xavier froze. He easily recognized that voice. He turned to it and his face went white as he saw his Mother walking towards him, oddly enough, Louis was with her. But Xavier only had eyes for the former, "Mum? Wha-What are you doing here?"

Katie Bell smiled at her gobsmacked son, "I came to watch you play of course Xav, oh and Ally and Victoire too." She added winking at both girls.

"Hi Katie," they both said cheerfully. Cecilia broke away from her brother and joined Louis in congratulating Ally and Victoire on their game.

Xavier was still trying to control his shock at his mother's sudden appearance, "But . . . I thought Dad had an away game somewhere today . . ."

Katie sighed, "Really Xavier. I know you believed us the first time when we lied to you about not coming for the Minister's party. But I would have thought that that would have made you at least _research _where your father's next game was."

Victoire broke in, "To be fair Katie, he's been rather busy lately. So busy in fact he felt the need to wake me up at bloody seven o'clock in the morning today."

Katie eyed her son, "How'd you wake her up without getting into the girl's dormitory?"

Xavier's face turned red, "Well . . . I kinda was in the dormitory . . ."

Katie gave her son an impressed look, before giving Victoire a glance, "Most mothers would be worried about you corrupting their son . . . but I'd like to say good job."

"Thank-you," Victoire beamed.

Xavier rolled his eyes before addressing his mom, "So where is Dad then, if he's not in some other country playing Quidditch?"

"I believe he went off in that direction," Katie gestured to somewhere to the right of the pitch, "with Morton."

Xavier started, "Morton Scrivener?"

Cecilia scoffed, "Of course Xavier. Who else do we know named Morton?"

Xavier didn't even bother to give his sister a look; his eyes were locked on his mother's face, "Why did you bring _him_?"

Katie sighed and spoke calmly to her newly stressed son, "Because he wanted to see you play Xavier."

"But why didn't you-"

"We didn't tell you beforehand because you would have completely worried yourself out and you wouldn't have done well. I know you sweetie; you're just like your father. You can get rather stressed-out about Quidditch sometimes, and when that happens, the best thing to do is to not tell you all the details. We knew you'd be upset with us -your father wouldn't talk to me for two months after we refused to tell him what game we were in, in the playoffs back in 1999 after he'd been knocked out for a week by a Bludger. But he ended up forgiving all of us on the team after a time. And I know that when this year's over, you'll be thanking your father and I for not telling you when we were going to show up at your game with a scout, and when we weren't."

Xavier closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "But if I had known I would have played better . . . let less in . . ."

"Bollocks, you played amazingly Xavier."

Xavier's face turned white as his father walked over to the group along with the short, slightly pudgy, middle-aged man that had just spoken.

"You did a very fine job m'boy, a very fine job indeed. You only let three Quaffles in the entire game. The first two were because of a cunning play on their side to obtain control of both Bludgers, but when they did that they allowed your team to score an extra three goals each time -not very worth it in my opinion. And the last time you had to make a choice between saving the goal, or letting it go in, when you were well ahead, to save a teammate from falling off their broom and injuring themselves-" Morton Scrivener waved his hand in Ally's direction, "During a professional game you might have made a different choice. But during a professional game, you also have several back-up members to take the place if the original player gets hurt. And of course, in a real game, your teammate who is about to get swept off a broom usually isn't as pretty as yours was-" he nodded his head in Ally's direction and winked at Xavier; causing the young boy's face to turn the perfect shade of crimson red to match his Gryffindor Quidditch jersey.

"Not that we'd ever hold something like that against you," Morton continued, "It shows teamwork and cooperation. Besides, you wouldn't be the first man to be distracted for a moment by a pretty face. You definitely wouldn't be the first Wood. If fact, when Katie had first gotten on the team, and your father was denying his attraction to her, I'm sure he must have let at least eight goals in the first hour of one of the games they were playing. He was too busy watching her play to realize that the ball was whizzing right past his face. He only snapped out of it when your mother actually came up to him -during a small break we had while a referee was getting fixed up after falling off his broom- and chucked the Quaffle right at his head. Then she yelled at him to start, I believe her exact words were, 'Bloody playing the game like the bloody maniacal Oliver Wood that we're all usually bloody scared of, instead of playing like my bloody grandmother'. So you see it happens to the best of us. Heck, even last week your father let in thirteen goals at practice when he caught sight of your mother out on the field giving some flying pointers to some of the reserve team-"

"And I think you've given Xavier enough evidence to get it through head that he did a good job today, and that letting in three goals of about fifty-seven shots, is nothing to be ashamed of," Oliver said as he smoothly cut Morton off. He smiled at his son and clapped him on the back as he walked over to stand next to his wife.

Katie looked intently into her husband's face as he placed his arm around her waist, "Did you really let thirteen goals in just because I was standing on the Quidditch pitch?"

Oliver's face was red; he nodded but then decided to change the subject, "You did very well Xavier. Morton was very impressed, not that he was all that surprised of course. I'm even surprised that you seemed very calm and collected as you stepped out on the pitch when the game started. I truly expected you to look more nervous. You've gotten better at that."

Xavier's face went red, "Um, actually Dad-"

"I don't think he's as good at handling his emotions as he led you to believe Oliver. And that's fine, it will come in time, he does seem to have improved though," Katie added in quietly.

"It's only really because Ally gave him a good talking to today before we went out. If she hadn't done that I probably would have killed him before we left the changing room," Victoire jumped in.

Katie and Oliver laughed as Xavier's face turned even redder.

Morton Scrivener looked at Victoire, "Miss Weasley, right?"

She nodded.

He smiled, "You played an excellent game today. Very good. Tell me my dear, have you ever thought about a professional Quidditch career like your friend Mr Wood here?"

Victoire eyed him unbelievably before answering politely, "No, Quidditch is more for fun than anything else. I'm actually looking into being a Healer . . ."

He smiled sadly, "Okay, but if you ever wish to change your mind, I'm sure Katie and Oliver would be more than happy to get you in touch with me if that is what you so desire."

Victoire nodded smilingly before excusing herself and Ally to leave Xavier alone to claim his spotlight.

* * *

Will you look at that . . . I incorperated Vic/Xavier interactions, some awesome Oliver and Katie moments, and even some Colton Knott bashing moments . . .

Even though this update was long awaiting I hope you liked it!

I know I don't deserve it for not updating earlier, but I'd love it if you would review, however, I don't want you to feel obligated, seeing as I haven't been the best author in awhile . . . again, I'm so sorry, please forgive me.

Thanks to everyone who's still reading and reviewing! I love you all so much!


	33. Getting Caught

A/N: Hey, well here's the next chapter! I've made you wait long enough (SOOOOOOOO SORRY :() so I'll leave my grovelling and my apologies untill the A/N at the end.

Hope you enjoy this one. I had some fun writing it :)

Disclaimer: 我沒有自己。(Chinese Traditional) . . . (I think . . .)

* * *

Getting Caught

"Done . . . Are you coming Vic?" Ally yelled from out in the locker room.

Victoire was in a shower stall changing her clothing; she had just changed out of her Quidditch shorts, and into a pair of blue jeans, "Just give me a minute!"

"Okay!" Ally called.

Not two seconds later, as Victoire began to button up her coral coloured dress-shirt, Xavier yelled to her, "Actually Vic, Ally and I are going to go ahead to the Common Room. Don't worry; we got everything else put away."

Victoire heard their footsteps and began to do her buttons up faster, "Wait for me you guys," she finished with her buttons and ran out of the stall and into the locker room, "what's your big-"

Victoire stopped where she was in the mouth of the room, "Hurry."

Her face turned bright red as she looked in front of her. Xavier and Ally were standing together near the end of the room, a smug look on the former's face, and a sweet one on the latter's. But she barely had time to read into the arched eyebrow Xavier was giving her, before all of her attention was caught by the person leaning oh so casually against the doorframe. His blue hair was shinning from the light coming into the room from the open door.

Victoire smiled shyly as she locked eyes with Teddy, "Hi."

"Hi," he answered back just as quietly.

Xavier rolled his eyes at the two of them, "Man you guys are articulate."

Victoire peeled her eyes off of Teddy and narrowed them at her fellow Head, "You want to talk to me about articulate Wood?" Along with her mischievous statement, she moved her chin to Ally's direction.

Xavier's face went red, he opened his mouth to retort when Ally broke in, "C'mon Xavier let's go back to the Common Room before they send a search party for us."

Xavier smiled at her and they left with a quick pair of 'goodbyes' to both Victoire and Teddy.

Teddy moved into the room so that Ally and Xavier could leave and sat down on the bench in the middle of the room, his head was turned in the direction of the pair who'd just left, "What's going on with them?"

Victoire smirked rather evilly as she sat down with Teddy, "I knew it was obvious. I can't believe that two people, as smart as they are, can be so thick sometimes."

He laughed, "This is Xavier Wood we're talking about here."

She giggled, "Yeah. And who knows, maybe this win, and him saving Ally from falling off her broom and plunging thirty-feet to the ground, will give him the courage to actually go somewhere."

They looked at each other for a minute before bursting into laughter. "Yeah right," they said together.

"Oh well, as much as I'm itching to barge in and take over, I'm going to let them work this out on their own," Victoire said.

Teddy smiled brightly at her, "You were brilliant today Captain."

A light red blush began to stain Victoire's pale cheeks as she looked at her feet, "Thank-you."

She felt a finger lift up her chin; causing her to look him directly in the eyes, "Is something wrong?"

She shook her head, "No, it's just . . . usually after a Quidditch game I'm so happy and elated. As if the bubble of worry and stress that emerges during the day vanishes after we win. But . . . I'm not done worrying . . ."

Teddy nodded; she didn't need to finish her sentence for him to understand where she was going. He placed his arm around her waist and pulled her against his side, her head rested on his shoulder, "I know that tomorrow's going to be stressful, but you needn't fret so much. You're going to be amazing. Just like, you were today . . . although I'm not sure if it will be as entertaining to watch. It's hard to top catching the Snitch _and_ kicking Colton Knott in the stomach in one game."

Victoire smiled into his neck and laughed, her breath tickling his skin, "I knew you were going to like that."

"I did. I'm sure that he deserved it too, trying to knock you off your broom and all."

She moved her head off his shoulder to look him in the face. He was frowning, "You were about five seconds away from hexing the arse weren't you?"

Teddy smiled ruefully, "Maybe . . ."

Victoire smiled, and looked at him sweetly. "I wouldn't have played so well if it weren't for this," she said as she pulled out a note from the pocket of her jeans. It was the one written on light red parchment that Louis and Cecilia had given her right before the game. She opened it, there were seven little words written on it: _Don't go flying off the broom handle_.

Teddy smiled as he looked down at the note he'd written her. He knew it would calm her down. It was their little 'thing' for whenever one of them (usually Victoire) was stressing out completely. It originated from when they were younger, and their Aunt Hermione had used the Muggle phrase 'Don't go flying of the handle' when trying to get Uncle Ron to calm down about something or another. The two children had at first thought she was talking about Quidditch and assumed that Hermione had meant a _broom handle_. As they got older, they learned the real meaning of the phrase, but didn't change how they said it. It became a tradition to tell each other the saying before playing Quidditch. It started when Victoire said it to Teddy before his matches, and then they said it to each other just before each game, after Victoire had joined the team. It grew from being a phrase to help calm each other's nerves with Quidditch, to calming each other's nerves with about everything else; tests, O., N.E., just about everything.

When Victoire read it before the match today, it calmed her down right away.

"Thank you so much, it really helped."

Teddy smiled, "My pleasure, make sure you keep it for tomorrow too."

Victoire pouted, "I don't get another one for tomorrow?"

He laughed, "If you want another one, I'll write you another one."

She smiled and placed her head back onto his chest. His arm came around her shoulder and he squeezed her to him. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes more before Victoire sighed.

"I should probably get going back to the Common Room; everyone's going to start to wonder where I am."

Teddy sighed also, but stood up. He held his hand out to her to help pull her up. One of Victoire's hands grabbed Teddy's as they walked through the change room, and the other waved in a circular motion, wandlessly turning the lights out as they left, and shutting the door behind them.

As they walked hand-in-hand down the hall, they traded shy glances up at each other's faces. Each one wondering who was going to let go first in case they ran into someone. They had almost made it to the end of the corridor when Victoire felt Teddy drop her hand.

A smile began to tug at her lips; _I knew he was going to cave sooner or later. He's way too uptight about us not being caught._

The thought had barely entered her head before she felt herself being pushed gently, yet firmly, against the far wall. She gasped when she felt the cold of the stonewall seep through her blouse. She opened her mouth to say something when she felt Teddy's mouth crush down on her's. She moaned into his mouth and flung her arms around his neck; her fingers grabbing at his blue locks. As she pressed her mouth harder against his, she felt his arms come around her. One slipped between the wall and the small of her back to hold her against his chest, and the other moving to cup her face and stroke her cheekbone gently.

Victoire attempted to press down on his bottom lip with the both of her's; she was trying to deepen the kiss. Teddy wouldn't have that. Anytime she pressed harder, he would pull his lips back until they were barely touching, still keeping contact with her mouth, but completely teasing her. She groaned in complaint and tried to force his mouth closer to hers with the grip she had on his hair. It wasn't working. She groaned again, with what sounded a lot like defeat. She moved her lips from Teddy's and glared at him.

He was smirking his sexy smirk, "Something wrong Vic_toire_-" the last syllable of her name hitched in his voice as Victoire attacked his neck and jaw with kisses. She found one spot _right underneath_ his ear, and realized that when she pressed a firm kiss there; his breathing would speed up rapidly.

She was exploiting her little newfound piece of information about her boyfriend when she heard him let out a sound that sounded like a strangled mix of a moan and a groan. Before she could feel smug about turning the tables on him, she felt his hand moving her face back to his so he could attack her lips with renewed energy. Giving into the deep kiss, she'd wanted from the beginning. She could feel her heart beating faster as her mouth moved with his. She let out an irritated groan when she had to break away from his mouth to breathe.

As she breathed, Teddy continued kissing her, deciding to bend his head, and move down her neck this time with a series of open-mouthed kisses. When he reached the hollow of her throat, she felt his arm tighten around her waist and lift her up. Victoire's legs wrapped around his waist out of reflex and her new, higher, position let him kiss her neck without having to bend down anymore. He nudged the collar of her dress shirt out of his way with his nose so that he could get to her collarbone.

Victoire gasped for more breath as each of the kisses against her heated skin left her more breathless than before. She used her grip on his hair to tilt his face back up to her's so that she could shove her mouth against his. He laughed into their kiss (most likely at her unabashed eagerness) and moved one of his hands from her waist, to play with her soft, silvery-blonde hair.

"A-hem."

Victoire and Teddy froze. Their eyes snapped open and they were staring at each other's faces with wide-eyed shock. Victoire watched Teddy's face (and hair) turn bright red and realized that even her complexion must have been stained crimson, _Good Godric, what have we just gotten ourselves into?_

She let her legs drop from his waist and they disentangled the rest of their limbs so that Teddy could take a step back from her. They each took a deep breath before turning at the same time to the source of their interruption.

"Charlie!" They yelled in a surprised unison.

The stout and largely muscled red-haired man was leaning against the wall a good seven paces from the couple. He had his scarred arms crossed against his chest and his face was unreadable except for the questioning look of his raised eyebrow as he watched the two.

Victoire knew that this was probably her field again, and tried to speak calmly, "Uncle Charlie . . . um . . . it's . . . well . . ." She wasn't able to get anything out.

Teddy jumped in but didn't seem to be making any more headway with the explanation. Together the two of them sounded like babbling first-years when they first are confronted with McGonagall's patent 'I-just-caught-you-doing-something-wrong-now-explain-why-I-shouldn't-give-you-detention' stare.

Their mixed mumblings caused Charlie to laugh at his eldest niece, "Calm down Vic. I know."

Victoire felt faint, this was the second time that week someone had admitted to knowing about her and Teddy before she told them, "How?"

"Your Dad wrote to me about it in the summer," Charlie said smiling at the surprised looks on Victoire and Teddy's faces.

"What! Why? He wasn't supposed to tell _anyone_."

Charlie walked closer to the two and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I think he thought that by the time I'd actually be in England again, everybody would know by then. Plus he was rather excited to tell me that he was able to use the 'Daddy-daughter's-new-boyfriend-talk' that I'd helped him come up with at your last birthday party." He turned to Teddy this time, "Did your entire face and hair actually turn white?"

Teddy laughed a little awkwardly as he remembered 'the talk' with Bill when he first went to take Victoire out, "Yeah . . . but in my defence, it was rather frightening."

Charlie laughed good-humouredly, "Oh, I don't blame you. I did help Bill come up with it after all. I just wanted to know it what he wrote me was true. He does have a talent for embellishing the truth when he writes to me."

Once they were over that awkward conversation, Victoire could feel her brain beginning to work properly again, "What are you doing here anyway Uncle Charlie? I thought you weren't going to be back in England until Christmas."

Charlie Weasley worked at a dragon reservation in Romania, he never comes back to England unless it's: A.) Christmas, B.) His two weeks of vacation in the summer (sometimes), C.) Important weddings or funerals (And every one of his friends and family have been married for a while), and D.) If someone is celebrating a milestone Birthday (11th, 17th, 50th . . . ect. And that's only if he could get the time off). The only child of his siblings, whose birthday was even close, was Alexandra's seventeenth, and that wasn't until the very end of November.

A flash of an emotion Victoire couldn't name flashed through Charlie's eyes before answering Victoire evenly, "Yes, well can't a man come back to England to see his favourite niece compete in the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament?"

Victoire raised an eyebrow at her uncle. She loves her uncle, but she knows that he only takes time off work when he really needs too, because he loves his dragons so much. Coming to see her in the Tournament doesn't really seem like something he would do when there were probably much more pressing matters at hand.

"Well I'm surprised that you're here the day before the Tournament too. I would have thought that you would have taken off as little time as possible seeing as its nesting season for a lot of the dragons isn't it?"

Charlie gave his niece a tiny smile, she was one of the only one of his nieces and nephews that actually listened to him when he talked about his work. Victoire would have been the only one who would have recalled that late fall was an important nesting time for half of the dragon species, "Yes well a Quidditch game against Slytherin _and_ a task in the Tournament is quite the double feature."

Victoire smiled, she wasn't completely appeased by his answer, but she was very happy to see him anyway, she hadn't seen him since her seventeenth birthday party in the summer, "Did I make you proud by how quickly I caught the Snitch? Dad does say I take after your Seeker talent after all."

Charlie grabbed her and gave her a tight hug, "'Course you did. Have to say catching it within an hour was very impressive. As was your move to get back on your broom when you almost fell off; you're the first person I've seen get back on a broom and sock a Slytherin in the gut all in one move."

Victoire shrugged happily, "Colton _was_ the one who said that he wanted to help me back on my broom."

"And I saw you talking with the Woods and Morton Scrivener after the game . . ."

Victoire nodded. Teddy looked confused, "Who's Morton Scrivener?"

Charlie answered, "He's a Quidditch scout for _Puddlemere United_; he tried to recruit me in my last year at Hogwarts too."

"Katie and Oliver brought him to watch Xavier. He did ask me whether I was interested in playing professional Quidditch, but I told him that that was more Xavier's forte than my own," Victoire explained.

Charlie nodded, "Yes, and you're looking into following Angelina's steps and being a Healer aren't you?"

Victoire fidgeted, "I wouldn't really be following in Aunt Angelina's footsteps; she's in charge of the Magical Bugs and Spell Damage Wards. I want to go into the newer Dark Arts Reversal ward. There's only actually a hand full of people who are qualified to work in that section and Aunt Angelina has _no _influence there, unlike at the rest of St. Mungo's."

Charlie heard the defensive tone in Victoire's words, "Sorry, Vic. I didn't mean to insinuate that you were doing that because Angelina could get you in. I was just saying that I'm glad it's Angelina's career path you're moving towards and not George's. Or Percy's for that matter. Knowing you, you would cause an international incident." He smiled at her.

Victoire put on a fake-affronted air, "You're just jealous that I'm not planning on following you out to Romania."

Charlie grinned at his eldest (and favourite) niece, "Yes, I daresay I am. Although I'm sure I'll get over it after I remember all of your horrible attempts at befriending creatures whether magical or not."

Victoire frowned as she catalogued several memories in her mind of her terrible experiences with creatures. Many of them were similar to the time when she was in Romania with her Uncle Charlie, and was almost scorched by the fire-breathing Arabian Pegasus. She stopped thinking about her experiences after remembering a, rather explicit, memory of when her cousin Lucy's new cat 'Mittens' tried to bite at her ankles when she walked down the stairs. Victoire ended up kicking the cat down the stairs, accidentally, but that was only after the feline had wrapped around her ankles (purposely, in Victoire's mind) and tripped her down the stairs; ensuing in a broken ankle. She had to concede to her Uncle Charlie's words about her being ghastly with creatures.

"I'd be rather dreadful at your job, wouldn't I?" Victoire said smiling.

Charlie nodded.

"And speaking about your job, how ever did you get two days off in a row again?" Victoire asked still suspicious about why he was in England when he would normally be in Romania with his dragons.

Charlie looked away from her and sighed as he looked down at his shoes, "My supervisors are surprisingly lenient with giving days off for a Tri-Wizard Tournament when you just so happen to be related to one of the champions."

"So . . . will you be coming to all of the tasks then?"

The direction of Charlie's face moved from his feet to give his niece a teasing smile, "That depends . . . are you going to put on a show worth watching?"

Victoire elbowed her uncle in the stomach for his jibe.

"Anyway," Charlie said laughingly as he moved away from Victoire, "I need to get going now. I wouldn't put it past McGonagall to give me detention for loitering around the school at night."

He nodded his head as he said his goodbyes to Victoire and Teddy and left. They two stayed were they were in the hall and stared at each other in silence.

Teddy was the one who broke it; his voice sounded odd as it reached her ears, "I should get you back to your Common Room. Charlie was right, it's late."

Victoire nodded and followed him silently as they walked through the corridors and up stairs. They had been walking quietly for a few minutes when Victoire moved her gaze to look sideways at Teddy. His expression was unreadable and his gaze focused on the corridor ahead of him. She felt an odd sense of foreboding at the look on his face; she could feel a peculiar tensed energy emanating from him. She looked at his face for another minute before stopping where she was, and folding her arms across her chest. Teddy walked ahead a few more paces before realizing that she wasn't with him. He stopped, turned around and copied her posture.

They stared at each other for a minute before she spoke, "It was an accident."

Teddy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "What if it happens again? We shouldn't-"

Victoire exhaled noisily through her nose, "You're blowing this out of proportion Teddy. Besides it was just Uncle Charlie . . ."

He stiffened, "Yes. This time it was just Uncle Charlie walking up on us snogging in the hall. But what if it was someone else? A teacher or-or a prefect or Head? What if it was Professor Linkwell, or Pennington, or Knott? We'd be in huge trouble, and you know I'd be out of the Castle by dawn tomorrow."

She frowned, "Teddy don't-"

"I'm not being melodramatic. Kingsley told us that if we weren't discreet and if we got caught I'd be gone."

"For the love of Godric Gryffindor! It was just Charlie! If you're really worried about something like this happening again, we just have to be more careful and make sure that it doesn't happen. Be more secretive."

Teddy pinched the bridge of his nose before looking sadly at Victoire, "I _hate_ being secretive. It feels like we're doing something wrong."

Victoire ran a hand through her hair, "But we're not doing something wrong!"

"Then why do we have to keep it a secret?" He didn't use a harsh voice. The question was asked quietly. He had to make sure Victoire understood the other side of this, of how it would look from a different perspective. Usually, she was only concerned with her own.

Victoire shook her head; not sure of what else to say. She began to pace the width of the corridor. Walking back and forth. After she had completed the circuit a few times, he stopped her. He grabbed her by the waist as she walked by him and pulled her close.

He spoke into her hair, "We have to be careful Vic. So, so careful. I don't want to lose you."

Victoire hugged him back, "Maybe . . . maybe it would be better for you if we didn't- if we didn't do this . . ."

Teddy felt a sharp pain in his chest as he contemplated her words, "Trust me Victoire; it wouldn't be better for me. Not at all. The exact opposite actually."

Victoire looked up into his face, her worried expression was mirrored in his, "I don't want to lose you either. But I don't want your job to suffer because of me."

He moved back a bit so he could see her face better, "It won't . . . but only if we be more careful . . ."

Victoire nodded soberly. She had never really realized how hard this was for Teddy before. She saw the horrified look on his face when Kingsley had mentioned how he knew that they were dating. But that expression had been nothing, compared to the look that had come upon his face when Charlie had caught them in the corridor just a few minutes ago. In the minute before they had realized who it was, when they had just thought that they'd been caught by a random person, the fear that had been in both of their faces had been extreme and almost painful looking.

"I guess we'll just have to let fate run its course and hope that we don't get caught again . . . or at least if we do that it's by someone who would keep it a secret for us . . ." Victoire mused, her head still laying on his chest.

"Yeah, well we could be going over 'what if's' the entire night, but you need your sleep for the task tomorrow," Teddy said taking a step back from her.

They walked the rest of the way up to her dorm and stopped a few feet from the entrance, they were around the corner so that they could make sure that The Fat Lady wouldn't see them. She was a notorious gossip. Especially when she'd had a bit of wine.

Teddy pulled Victoire to him one last time, he lifter her chin up with his finger, and kissed her sweetly. Her hands grabbed the muscles on his forearms and squeezed him tightly. Teddy pulled away after a minute and kissed the skin of her forehead lightly as he whispered 'goodnight'. Victoire stroked his cheek with the back of her hand and whispered back to him. She gave him a sweet smile before stepping away and going into the Common Room.

Inside it seemed as though the party was starting to slow down. There were no students under the age of fifteen present, and Victoire briefly wondered how Xavier was able to convince Fred and James to go to bed seeing, as they were a large part of the win that afternoon. But all of her trivial questions about how he had wrangled the two hellions flew out of her head and was replaced with several more pressing ones as she surveyed the scene in front of her. Scattered about the room on couches and chairs were students ranging from seventh to fifth year, most of them were talking with friends and eating or drinking things, but that wasn't what caught her attention. What caught her attention was the group of about six people sitting in a circle on the carpet near the fireplace. She recognized Chris sitting next to Sandra and Kyle, but what had shocked her was the fact that sitting next to Kyle was a red-faced Xavier Wood with a presently redder faced Ally Weasley sitting in his lap.

Victoire grinned wickedly, she had promised Teddy that she'd go straight to bed to get some rest for tomorrow, but this new development was too much for her nosey Weasley qualities to pass up.

"Hiya guys!" She exclaimed happily as she bounced over to them and squeezed into the almost non-existence space between Kyle and Xavier and Ally.

Xavier jumped at the sound of her suspiciously happy voice, causing Ally to grab a hold of his neck and shoulders with her arms to stop herself from toppling over.

Victoire felt that that was a good way to break the ice, so she raised an eyebrow at the two as she spoke, "So what's going on here?"

Xavier and Ally's faces turned redder than Teddy's hair when Louis walked in on them kissing for the first time in the summer. Victoire rolled her eyes at them and turned her gaze to Sandra and Kyle.

Kyle smirked mercilessly at his best friend, "We were playing truth or dare."

Victoire nodded understandingly, "And this was Ally's dare?"

Sandra's smirk matched her boyfriend's, "No. It was the option Xavier picked instead of the first dare Kyle had given him."

"What was the first dare?" Victoire asked interestedly.

Kyle grinned and opened his mouth. Xavier quickly cut in, "We promised not to speak of it. End of story."

Normally, Victoire would have pursued the topic, but the sheepish expressions on Xavier and Ally's faces, combined, with her bone-tiredness stopped her. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "Whatever."

Once the words were out of her mouth, her friends all eyed her suspiciously. Ally and Xavier eyed each other worriedly before Xavier spoke, "So Vic . . . what'd you do when we left?"

A brief smile came across her face before disappearing with a roll of her ocean-blue eyes, "Nothing, I did run into a very interesting person though-"

"I bet you did," Kyle cut-in smiling impishly.

Victoire rolled her eyes again but faced Ally, "Did you know that Uncle Charlie's here?"

Ally's brown eyes looked confused, "Uncle Charlie? Shouldn't he be in Romania?"

"That's what I asked him. Apparently you can get some good time off to see the Tri-Wizard Tournament when you're related to one of the champions."

Ally nodded, "Makes sense . . . it was nice that he was here for our game too."

"Yeah. Oh, and speaking of our game, what did you and your parents talk about when we left Xavier?" Victoire asked.

Xavier's face turned faintly red; he spoke a little too quickly, "Nothing."

Victoire raised an eyebrow at him but was too tried to try to suss out his odd reaction. Instead, she stood up, yawned extremely loudly, and pronounced that she was off to bed. Her friends said their 'good-nights' as she disappeared up the staircase and into her dorm room.

* * *

Yes, well there that was. I hope you enjoy it!

**I deeply apologize for not updating**. **Things have been crazy at school**. I've mentioned before that I'm in my final year before University, and that I've just been piled with things. This time my rant will include lots of English Assignments (Which is why I haven't been doing my writing, even though I have been on my computer a LOT), and then we started three weeks ago in History working on the school Rememberance Day assembly for last Friday (Rememberance Day). And that is a huge event. We do skits, and videos and we have to do costumes, set up and clean up, put out all the chairs, call classes down, props, Veteran video, invite Veterans, include _Last Post_ and _Oh Canada_ around eleven o'clock and of course incorperate _In Flander's Field, _along with mentioning about WWI, WWII, Peacekeeping and Afganistan . . . yeah, lots to do. It was also worth **15%** of our final mark, so yeah . . . Good news? It turned out fantastic, the school and especially the Veterans loved it, which is why we do it in the first place.

**(If any of you Canadians felt that Rememberance Day slipped by you this year without really touching you, I highly suggest you look up the song, _Highway of Heros_ by the Trews, it is absolutley perfect to get you in a thankful mood to everyone who has fought in the past, or are still fighting.)**

Anyway, enough with my excuses. This chapter is the last one I had stockpiled up, so you might not actually get one until another few weeks (again I'm sorry), but I will post the next one as soon as I get it written. And YES, the First Task will be the next one . . . If I don't get sidetracked again . . .

More good/bad news: Christmas break will be in a month, so I should have time to write over then, and next sememster I do have a spare! So when I'm not working on something for Chemistry, Biology, or Exercise Science, I will have more time to write!

Thanks again to everyone who has:

- Favourited (Story or Author or both)

- Subscribed (Story or Athor or both)

- Reviewed (anonomys or not)

- And people who just overall enjoy reading my story.

It means a lot to me, especially if you've sticked with me after all this time :)

I usually abhorr 'text talk', but this really does come from my heart, ILY ALL! 3!


	34. Of Nerves, Wands, and Quidditch Pitches

**A/N: Hey, so um . . . I'm going to save all of my groveling for forgiveness for the A/N at the end of the chapter because I know you've all been waiting over a month for an update *looks down at my feet in shame*. Anyway, here it is . . .**

**Disclaimer: It's not mine . . . none of it. It's all JKR's with a little tweaking from my overactive imagination :)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Nerves, Wands, and Quidditch Pitches

Unlike the day before, Victoire woke up the next morning on her own; without any shoes flying around the room, and without a Quidditch obsessed Head Boy poking her in the face. She lay in bed looking at the white of the ceiling as it all came crashing down on her. It was Saturday. It was November 3rd. She had played, and won, her first game of Quidditch in the House cup league yesterday after classes. And most importantly, she was about to participate in the First Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. She stayed in bed looking up at the ceiling as she mused.

_How am I going to do this? I haven't even practiced . . . well, yes I have . . . I guess. I did defence and things with Kingsley, and Xavier, Ally, Sandra, and Kyle have helped me over the past few weeks memorizing different spells and enchantments, but I don't have a strategy. Mamma and Uncle Harry told me they both had strategies for their first task . . . then again they both sorta cheated by figuring out what they had to do in the first task, but they still had plans-_

Victoire shot up in bed into a sitting position, _Oh my Merlin! What if everybody else has figured out what was going to happen in this task and I didn't?_

"They haven't."

Victoire's head whipped around to see a tired looking Sandra Collins sitting up in her bed near Victoire. Victoire looked oddly at her best friend before realizing that she must have spoken her last thought aloud, and awoken her friend.

"How do you know?" She asked Sandra. Victoire was so preoccupied with the Tournament that she didn't even bother to greet her best friend good-morning.

Sandra smiled wanly, moved out of her bed, and got into bed with her best friend. "I know because if Konstantin had figured it out, he would have told you. And even if he didn't, if Viktor had figured it out, he would have told your Mum or Harry," she answered softly hugging her part-Veela best friend reassuringly.

Victoire closed her eyes tightly, "But what if Noëlle figured it out? There's no way she'd tell me if she did."

Sandra moved her hand up to tenderly brush Victoire's silvery-blonde out of her face, "No. But if Noëlle figured, it out she would have found some way to tell you that she figured it out and would be rubbing it in your face. So since she hasn't done that yet, it's safe to say she's as in the dark about everything you'll have to do as you are."

Victoire smiled at her best friend. At times like this, she was grateful that her friends were so sweet and understanding with her.

"C'mon, lest get dressed and go down for breakfast before everyone decides to come into the Great Hall and pester you about today."

Victoire again smiled gratefully at Sandra before following her actions of getting out of bed. She took a quick shower and was surprised at what she found on her bed when she came out of the bathroom.

"Sandy, what-"

Sandra shrugged and cut her off before she could finish asking, "I'm not sure. An owl delivered it while you were in the bathroom. I think it's what you're supposed to wear today."

Victoire nodded her head as she looked down at the black, crimson, and gold tracksuit on the bed. She put it on and frowned a little. The black material was very clingy and tight fitting; it wasn't an uncomfortable type of tight, but it clung to every part of her body, definitely not leaving much to the imagination. There was a red and gold stripe of colour along the side of each leg, and the pants clung to her legs until they began to flare out slightly at her calf. The top was a tight black long-sleeved turtleneck with red caps at the shoulders of her sleeves. There was a band of gold and red at the bottom hem of her shirt, and the gold Hogwarts crest was on the left breast of her shirt. The clothes didn't really give Victoire any hints on what she was going to be doing, but she decided to pull her long blonde hair back into a ponytail to keep it out of her face. The outfit also came with shoes; a sleek looking pair of black trainers. Victoire frowned when she saw these. If anything, they meant that she needed to be wearing something comfy because she'd be on her feet for a while. Even though Victoire wasn't a big jewellery person, she took the gold oval shaped locket Teddy had given her in the summer and put in on. She looked at the intricate flowers carved into the face before sliding it underneath her shirt. She didn't want to wear it because it was ornamental, she wanted to wear it because it always reminder her of him. Something she might need before this day was over.

When both Victoire and Sandra were dressed, they exited their dorm room, and walked down the staircase. As soon as Victoire's feet were both firmly planted on the hardwood floor of the Common Room, she was tackled by a fast black, red, and gold coloured blur.

"HiVichow''tneedtoworryI'msureyou'llbebrilliant!"

Victoire giggled at the excited sounding chirps coming from her cousin.

"Godric Ally, give Victoire a bit of space to breathe," Xavier said, smiling indulgently at the sixth year who had just tackled, and proceeded to talk the ear of off of, her eldest cousin.

Ally pouted at him but accepted his hand to help her up anyway, "I just wanted a chance to talk to her before she had to leave."

Xavier's face turned red as he watched the brunette pout very attractively. He averted his eyes and held out his hand to also help Victoire off the floor.

"Thanks Xavier. And it's okay Ally, I just wasn't expecting you to jump me is all."

"Really Vic? Even after all that training Kingsley put you through, you couldn't stop an a hundred and thirty pound girl from jumping you?" Kyle smirked after giving his girlfriend a good morning kiss.

Victoire rolled her eyes at her best friend's boyfriend, "Kingsley's was more worried about making sure that I could handle myself against some large hulking guy than my little sixteen-year-old cousin."

"Hey, I resent that! I'm turning seventeen at the end of the month!" Ally said indigently.

Victoire smiled at hugged her cousin tightly, "Yes you are, but the fact remains the same. All Kingsley was worried about was if I could handle myself against big brawny men."

"Hmm," Xavier mused, "Do you think Kingsley being worried about you being able to physically handle yourself against a man had anything to do with the fact that he knew you were dating Ted?"

Victoire rolled her ocean-blue eyes, "No I don't. I think it stemmed from Kingsley just being way to over protective. But even if it did, I practiced with Ted so Kingsley definitely knows that I can handle myself."

"She's got a point," Sandra said linking arms with her best friend and with Kyle and pulling the both of them towards the portrait hole.

"Yes, but thankfully her hair covers it."

Ally looked at Xavier quizzically as she grabbed his arm and walked behinds their friends, "Her hair covers what?"

Xavier sighed, "Never mind Ally, never mind."

Even though she was in front of them and they couldn't see her, Victoire rolled her eyes at Xavier's lame attempt at humour. She knew that in just a few hours time she'd be participating in the First Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but for now she was happy that her friends could chat so normally and make her feel so calm and ordinary.

"How busy do you think the Great Hall will be?" Kyle asked Victoire as they walked out of the portrait hole and into the corridor.

"There aren't many people there, but she won't be going."

Victoire whirled around at the sound of the voice and silently thanked Merlin for the Veela blood that stopped her from blushing a bright Weasley red at the sight of Teddy leaning effortlessly against the wall of the corridor.

"Hey," Victoire said shyly.

"Hi," he answered back easily, his dark sapphire blue eyes sparkling with warmth and feeling.

"Again you two astound me with your extensive vocabulary," Xavier interrupted drolly.

Victoire's intense glare stopped all her other friends from laughing along with Xavier. Teddy rolled his eyes at her actions but couldn't help but smile indulgently at her. He stepped closer to Victoire and placed his hand at the small of her back.

"C'mon, Flannery needs to meet with all the champions before the Task," he said as he began to motion her away from her friends.

Victoire hesitated for a minute, she had no qualms about going with Teddy, but she wanted her friends to be with her up until she had to physically leave for the task, "But-"

Teddy didn't let her get the words out of her mouth, "Vic, they'll be able to come see you later, there're some things that need to be taken care of before you're ready to go."

Victoire's blue eyes were wide and diffident. He spoke as he read her facial expressions, "Don't worry. I promise they will be allowed to come and wish you luck before the task."

Victoire nodded her head and said a quick good-bye to her friends before letting Teddy escort her away. They travelled through some corridors and out one of the side doors of the Castle. It took Victoire a minute to figure out what direction they were walking towards.

"Teddy, why are we going towards the Quidditch pitch?"

Teddy smirked at her, "Because that's where they're holding the first challenge, where else are they going to find a place big enough for the entire Castle to sit and watch?"

Victoire nodded, still slightly confused, "But there's nothing out there besides the Quidditch pitch."

Teddy smiled, his sapphire blue eyes twinkling excitedly. "Are you sure about that?" He asked as they came to a stop on a hill overlooking the pitch.

Victoire gasped aloud as her eyes took in the sight. There were extra bleachers and seating added around and above the pitch to give more room for the thousands of spectators they must have been expecting. Directly across from the middle section of the pitch was a slightly raised platform with a large wooden table and five plush looking chairs. The chairs and the table were covered from above by a large gold canopy, that seemed to be there to either keep the sun or the rain off of the no doubt important politicians whom Victoire guessed would be sitting there. But what surprised her the most was not the fact that she just realized exactly _how_ many people were expected to be there to watch the task, but the absolutely _huge_ grouping of black screens that were floating a few feet off the ground.

"What _are_ those?" Victoire asked Teddy baffled.

He snorted quietly, "What do you think they are Vic?"

She squinted as the sun broke through a bundle of white clouds and tried to see through the bright glare, "Well . . . they look a lot like those Muggle television things . . . like those huge screens at that place Aunt Hermione took us that one time when we were younger . . . a theatre."

"Yes. That's exactly what they are. They are huge television screens. But they're enchanted."

"Why?" Victoire asked. Identifying the objects didn't help her confusion.

"Well, it seems that you champions will have to take a _portkey_ to your first task. Because you will be away from here, they had to come up with some way for the judges and audience to see you in action. There will be these small video-camera-things (you remember what those are like right? Uncle Harry showed us one . . .) following you around and catching your every move. They will send back all of the images to these screens here so we can see what you're doing. It's like watching you live, but from the screens."

It only took Victoire a few minutes to realize what Teddy was talking about. Until a few years ago, they had both been obsessed with Muggle technology. They had been at St. Mungo's one day, waiting for Dom to get patched up after she fell of her broom when a bunch of them were playing Quidditch at the Burrow, when they saw a woman come in who was covered head to toe in an odd black film, and whose hair was still slightly smoking. Their Aunt Angelina, who had been patching Dominique up, explained to them that the woman had been fiddling around with Muggle technology and electricity and had been dense enough to try to fix the problems with magic. The woman didn't know what she was doing and ended up almost blowing up her flat. Ever since then Victoire and Teddy had been infatuated with how Muggle technology worked, and how they could safely charm it to work more efficiently.

After thinking through Teddy's words, it took the part-Veela even less amount of time to figure out what this set-up would mean for her.

"You mean that everyone will be able to see everything that I do. Every move, every mistake?"

Teddy's easy-going smile faded. He easily recognized the fear she was trying so hard to hide in her voice. "Vic, everything's going to be okay. You will be brilliant and then you'll be glad the cameras were around and that everybody was able to watch your fantastic moves and magic."

She could barely hear his words as her heart began to beat faster with fright, "But Teddy-"

"Listen Sweetheart, everything's going to be fine."

Not even the endearment registered through the panic that had coldly gripped her. Her mind and mouth were on repeat, "But Teddy-"

He sighed, took a step closer to her, and swept her up into the comfort of his arms. He tucked her head into his chest and moved his lips to her ear, "Calm down Love, everything is going to be all right. You're going to go out there and blow everybody's socks off, and show the Wizarding World that Victoire Weasley is not someone that is to be messed with. I know you don't like being the centre of attention, but you can't really help that know. For now all you can do is do your best."

Victoire had closed her eyes and was working on taking deep breaths as Teddy spoke encouragingly to her. He was right, it wouldn't do to start hyperventilating or to faint; two things that she was rather close to at the moment.

"Are you sure I can do this?" She asked timidly, her words muffled by the fabric of this Auror robes.

He lifted her chin up so he could stare determinedly into her ocean-blue eyes, "Of course I do. I would _never_ lie to you."

She frowned remembering earlier in the year when he wouldn't tell her about the Tournament coming to Hogwarts, "No you just withheld the truth."

He sighed, "I never lied to you. I told you that I couldn't tell you the truth, but I never lied about it. I mean really Vic, have _I ever really lied_ to you?"

She shook her head; no, he had never purposely lied to her.

He smiled brightly, "See, so you should know that I'm telling the truth when I say that I know that you can do this . . . whatever this is."

Victoire stared into his eyes and blurted out the only thing she could think of to say, "I love you." It was a thank-you for his trust and belief, an apology for doubting him, and a promise to believe him in the future.

"I love you too," he answered back; understanding and matching every sentiment that the three words she told him meant.

She matched his small smile before placing her arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. His lips were soft, tender, sweet, and brief.

Very brief.

Too brief.

Victoire felt her lips turn down into an automatic pout when he pulled away.

Teddy smirked at her, "Vic, Charlie _caught_ us last night. I told you we need to be more careful."

She sighed, "I know. But a girl can dream."

Teddy was still smirking at her statement as he guided her into a large gold and silver canopy tent, which was situated at the bottom of the hill, before they could get to the Quidditch pitch. It was the place where the Champions would wait for their task to start.

A silent sigh of relief escaped Victoire when she walked into the tent and saw her fellow champions. They were dressed similarly to her, which was a good thing in her mind because she didn't want to be the only one wearing such a tight outfit. Noëlle in the exact same outfit as Victoire, but with silver and power blue accents instead of gold and red, and the Beauxbatons crest on her crest instead of Hogwarts'. Like Victoire's, it was also extremely form fitting. Konstantin was wearing a similarly styled shirt with burgundy and grey accents and the Durmstrang crest, and black track pants with a burgundy stripe down the side. The clingy shirt fabric clung to his chest and arms, showing off muscles Victoire didn't even know he had, whereas his black pants were much looser than either Victoire or Noëlle's.

_Okay, _Victoire thought as she surveyed her fellow champions, _these outfits must have some sort of sexist connotations to them, really, how come Konstantin's the only one who doesn't have to wear tight pants?_

She shook her head at her thoughts and studied the rest of the tent. It was large and had three railings attached to the top that held thick curtains that could divide the room into smaller quadrants. Presently, all the curtains were drawn back to the wall, keeping the room large and open. Besides Konstantin, Noëlle, herself and Teddy, Victoire noticed Headmaster Jaroslov, Headmistress Maxine, and Professeur La Croix. In a corner of the room, she also recognized Aurors Jilly Donaldson and Richard Lassoder, standing closer to Jilly than Lassoder was Professor Cooke. As soon as everyone else acknowledged Victoire's entrance with slight nods to the head, or a tight, nervous-looking smile in Konstantin's case, Professor Cooke walked across the room to stand next to Victoire.

"How are you feeling Miss Weasley?" he asked, his blue eyes showed his genuine concern for her.

"I'm fine Professor Cooke."

"Did you get a chance to eat anything yet this morning?"

Victoire shook her head, "No, but I wouldn't be able to eat anything anyway. It would most likely make reappearance even if I was able to get it down."

Professor Cooke cracked a smile at her attempt at humour along with Teddy, Jilly, and Konstantin. Noëlle on the other hand, gave Victoire a disgusted look for her thinly veiled and gross humour. In return, Victoire only abstained from childishly sticking her tongue out at Noëlle, by the light and unobtrusive pressure of Teddy's hand on her wrist. When he saw that Victoire wasn't going to act on her whim, he dropped her hand.

A stress and strained silence fell after, until the next arrivals walked through the tent.

"Is it impossible to ask people to be on time!" Flannery was complaining to Professor McGonagall as he walked into the tent, following a few steps behind him, with drawn faces, was Viktor Krum and Fleur. Victoire caught her mother's eye as she entered. Her mother looked as though she was about to break into tears. To stop that from happening, Fleur gave Victoire a quick nod of the head, and then looked down at her feet. Victoire felt her own eyes start to water, _is Mamma that worried about something happening to me?_ She quickly shook her head to dispel the thought; her Mamma knows what she's capable of.

"Whom are we still waiting for?" Professor Cooke asked as he scanned the people already in the tent.

"Shacklebolt and Potter," Flannery almost spat. Victoire rolled her eyes at his childishness as she felt her hand twitch into a fist. She was very little surprised when she felt Teddy's soft yet restraining touch above her clenched fist. He wasn't trying to be controlling, he was just warning her to behave. Something she appreciated.

"We have almost two hours until the Task actually starts Minister," McGonagall reprimanded firmly. A few muttered giggles escaped some of the on-lookers, Victoire, Konstantin, Teddy, Kurt, and even Noëlle, in particular.

"Yes, but if they aren't here soon-" The assembled group was unable to hear what Flannery was about to threaten, because Harry and Kingsley picked that moment to make their entrance.

"Waiting for us?" Harry asked cheekily as he entered the room and as two others followed in his wake.

"Mr. Ollivander?" Victoire asked confusedly, as she glanced at the tall and thin, middle-aged man who entered behind Kingsley.

Blair Ollivander is the nephew of the original Mr. Ollivander whom all of Victoire's uncles and aunts had gotten their wands from when they all were accepted to Hogwarts at the age eleven. After the final war, the older Mr. Ollivander had decided to retire, and his nephew Blair, who was around twenty at the time, took over the wand shop in Diagon Alley for the elder Mr. Ollivander. Blair Ollivander had taken charge of the shop in his uncle's stead, and had catered to the masses of children going to Hogwarts since the end of the Last War. He had been the one to sell Victoire, Teddy, and all of her cousins their wands once they turned eleven. And since the 'new Ollivander's' wands were good enough for the Weasley-Potters, they became good enough for the majority of the magical youth in Britain.

Blair Ollivander winked in greeting at Victoire from his spot beside Kingsley, and then turned to Flannery.

"Hello Minister, to what do I owe this honour?"

Flannery put on his best 'politician smile', "Well Mr. Ollivander, I'm sorry that my people contacted you on such short notice, but we weren't informed of the complete procedure today until early this morning."

Mr. Ollivander gave Flannery an odd look, but didn't say anything. He didn't need to, because Victoire took that opportunity to speak, "What does all that mean?"

Flannery turned to her and glared lightly, while Professor Cooke broke in, "What he means Miss Weasley is that the committee in charge of the procedure for the Tri-Wizard Tournament forgot one little traditional detail, and that we'll need to complete it now, before the first Task starts."

Victoire nodded at her Professor and then looked back to the Minister, and Mr. Ollivander. "The Weighing of the Wands Ceremony," she said as it popped into her head.

Mr. Ollivander nodded and winked at her again, "Good job Victoire, but because this is on such short notice, I'm sorry to say that the press wasn't able to get in to cover the Ceremony."

She didn't even try to hide her grin; at least this was one less thing she would end up in _The Daily Prophet _for.

"_Ahem_."

Victoire turned her attention away from Mr. Ollivander to glance at Flannery with a raised eyebrow.

"Are we ready to get started?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Victoire rolled her eyes at him; _I wonder what crawled into his cereal this morning . . . _

"Yes, well I'm sure we should work with guests first, so, Miss Varens . . .?" Mr. Ollivander asked holding out his hand for her wand. Noëlle glanced down at it for a minute before relinquishing it to him.

He brought it up to his eye level and twirled it around slowly, "Hawthorne and Kelpie hair. Good for Transfiguration, surprisingly protective. Ten inches."

He took one end in each hand and bent it slightly, "Springy. Its skills and talent will surprise you." He waved Noëlle's wand and muttered a few words, a minute later he had conjured three small yellow canary birds. He waved the wand once more and the birds disappeared, he held the wand back out to Noëlle. She reached for it and locked eyes with him as he handed it over, "Antoine D'aramtz's work, right?"

Noëlle's eyes widened as the wand came back into her grasp, "Oui . . . but 'ow deed you know? 'E iz not a vairy well known wandmaker."

Mr. Ollivander smiled lightly, "No, but I would know his wands from anywhere. He's the only one I've ever met who's been able to stabilize Kelpie hair. It isn't hard to get, but it's amazing for Transfiguration. When he first told me told me about his plan I thought he was crazy, as a good friend though, I went with him diving into every lake that we could find until we came across the right kind of Kelpie to get the hair from." Mr. Ollivander looked back at the wand fondly, "It's a very good wand, very good quality, I'm sure it will meet all of your purposes perfectly."

Noëlle actually cracked a sincere smile as she pointed her wand at her black track pants and conjured a pocket for her to place her wand in.

Mr. Ollivander then turned to Konstantin, "Your wand please Mr. Krum?"

Konstantin handed it over to him. Mr. Ollivander held the wand up close to his eye level again and turned it a couple times, "Ivy, deceptively strong. Dragon heartstring, good for hexes, and defensive magic. Thirteen inches."

Once again, he placed each end of the wand in either hand and bent it, "Sturdy. Dependable. Useful, and helpful." He waved it and conjured a small flock of blood red miniature ravens. He waved it once more in silence and they disappeared.

He went to hand it back to Konstantin and asked, "Cyrielle Becskei?"

Konstantin nodded, "Ves, not maneey people vill uve her becuvse she's a voman, but her vork and quvality is amaving."

Mr. Ollivander smiled again, "Yes, she is very good. She's also very innovate, some of the most unique wands I've ever seen. She's also one of the only wandmakers who doesn't underestimate the power of different woods; you're Ivy wand being one of them."

Konstantin nodded and smiled as he took his wand back.

Mr. Ollivander turned to Victoire, "One left now. Wand please Miss Weasley." Unlike all the others, when Mr. Ollivander spoke to Victoire it was more of a demand than a question. Victoire handed over her wand easily, knowing that Mr. Ollivander would not do anything to her wand.

He held it in his hand and inspected it as he did with the other Champions' wands. He quirked a smile in Victoire's direction before starting like with the others.

"Yes, Miss Victoire Weasley's wand. Willow with a unicorn mane and phoenix tail feather mix. Eleven and a half inches. The unicorn hair makes it good for charms, and amazing healing properties. The odd mix of phoenix tail feather makes it good for defence and it's a very deceivingly powerful wand."

He held one end of the wand in each hand. As he applied pressure, a giant knowing grin spread across his face, "Rigid. It's impossible to bend to your will. It will stand strong and proud no matter what's thrown at it." He waved the wand and a blast of startlingly bright blue fire shot out of the tip, did a circuit around the room, and then disappeared. Everybody in the room took a step back from the fire, except for Victoire, Harry, Kingsley, and Teddy. They had all been there the first time Victoire had obtained her wand. The first thing her wand did was shoot out a string of blue flames like those that her wand just did again.

Another smirk and wink thrown in Victoire's direction as he said, "It's a very interesting wand choice for a young woman who's so newly of age."

Victoire shrugged her shoulders, remembering the astonished look on everyone's face the day that her wand picked her. After it had chosen her, Mr. Ollivander had tried to convince her to take another wand, (a willow with a crushed faerie wings core, that was much more pliable and would have been easier for an eleven year old to use), which she had tried before the phoenix/unicorn wand, but she wouldn't bend. She was determined to take the rigid wand, and no other. She told him and her parents that it picked _her_, and that she wasn't going to ignore it. Bill, Fleur, and even Kingsley had even tried to make a deal, that they'd get Victoire the mixed core wand when she was older and more able to master it, if she would just take the faerie wing core one first. Victoire still wouldn't bend. Teddy had been the one to realize that they would, most likely, end up spending their entire day in that one store and still not come to a decision. He ended up convincing the adults to let Victoire get what wand she wanted, and if they were worried about the power it held, they could install one of the new 'child safety features' and lock away some of the power until they felt she was able to control it. They had taken Teddy's advice, and had Mr. Ollivander install the safety procedures, much to Victoire's disappointment. They had only taken the entirety of the 'child safety features' when Victoire turned sixteen.

Mr. Ollivander moved to give the wand back to Victoire, "And of course, it's an original Ollivander wand. One of my uncle's best that was waiting on the shelf for the right person to walk into the store; then again, it was a very big surprise when the person it chose turned out to be a little eleven year old girl."

The smirk was back in place as Victoire took possession of her wand. She rolled her eyes at him, causing him to continue with his reminiscing, "Who knew that behind those big blue eyes and long blonde hair laid a very devilish and stubborn personality."

She shook her head and waved her wand at her pants, causing a small black leather holster to appear on the side of her thigh, so she could place her wand in it. Once it was safely strapped to her person, she looked back up and saw Teddy watching her movements' acutely. Mostly to the leather holster attached to her upper thigh. When Victoire drew his attention back to her face she smirked at him, her face asking him a silent question. Teddy frowned at her and rolled his eyes. She giggled at him and then turned her attention back to the conversation Flannery and Mr. Ollivander had started.

"So all of their wands are okay to be used. They're nothing . . . wrong with them?" Flannery asked.

Ollivander nodded his head. "They're all fine; Victoire's did have a new nick in it near the mouth of the tip though . . ." everyone's head turned to Victoire's direction.

She looked down at her shoes self-consciously, "I had a bit of a run-in with a Griffin last summer . . ."

"Again?" Ollivander asked surprised.

Victoire nodded, "It wasn't my fault this time though," she said stubbornly as she tried her hardest not to glance Teddy's way. He was just as much to blame for the nick in her wand as she was.

Ollivander seemed to catch on to where Victoire was leading and smirked again at her before facing Flannery again, "Anyway, her wand should be fine. A little nick shouldn't be a big deal with her wand. And all the others are good too." He glanced at Kinsley, "Nothing that you were worried about."

Kingsley sighed and put his face in his hand at Ollivander's non-surreptitious action, "Thanks Blair . . ."

"Worried about what?" Victoire asked as she crossed her arms across her chest and glanced at her godfather.

Kingsley muttered an expletive under his breath but didn't answer.

Konstantin had caught on though, "Vou alvso chevked our vands becuvse vou vere vorried about somvun tamperving vit vem?"

Kingsley sighed and Harry broke in and answered, "It's just a safety precaution, I thought while Mr. Ollivander was doing the Wand Weighing Ceremony, he could make sure that there was nothing wrong with your wands, and make sure that they haven't been tampered with."

Victoire rolled her eyes but understood Kingsley and Harry's attempts at trying to protect her from everything they could.

* * *

**A/N:** **Okay, so you know how most people's New Year's resolution is to get more exercise, or to eat healthier . . . well mine is definitely going to be to put more time aside to write.**

Now, you'll just have to bear with me, because I have more to say, I just have to get through this first, _ahem_, I'm soooooooo sorry(times X to the power of infinity).

**Good, now that that's covered, I was actually attempting to shoot for an update near the end of Novemeber on my Birthday (obviously, that didn't happen. And again, I'm going to blame school). My next dream attempt was to update around before Christmas (near Hunakkah) or just a few days after Christmas, (that didn't happen either, again I'm blaming school, school clubs, helping out the little kidies at my church for Christmas Eve Mass, and just the shorter hours of daylight in the day). I was then deteremined to update New Year's Eve, I was about 1,000 words away, and my friend called to invite myself and my brother to an impromptu party, (so it didn't get done).**

But on the plus side, I do have one more chapter done, and saved and ready to upload, I wanted to do it right after this one (because you guys have been so amazingly patient) but I'm not sure if you guys would rather I wait a week to spread them out because my life is only going to get busier until the end of my high school semester in early February.

**When you review let me know if you'd like me to wait a week, or update in a few days.**

**_Coming up . . ._ This chapter was actually supposed to be the first task, but then, well, all the character's took over. The next finished chapter was then slated to be the Task, but again, all the loud personalities got in the way, but I promise, the next chapter after that, even if it has to be 10,000 words+ will be the First Task. (And the chances of it being large seem pretty good right now . . .)**

_Reviewers and Readers: Thank-you sooo sooo much if you've stayed with this story, I know I haven't made it easy, but I'm really going to try to rectify it. Just to make it clear I have in no way, decided to abandon my story. Quite the opposite actually. I may not have gotten things written down, my my characters were never far from my mind, so I just have things planned out even more . . . and trust me, we still have a lot to go :)_

**I know I don't deserve it because you've all been amazing and I've been horrid, but I would absolutely love it to hear your thoughts on this chapter, my story in general, or anything else you feel needs to be said to me, and I hope you all had wonderful holidays, and will have a wonderful New Year! :)**


	35. Visitors

**A/N:** Well look at me! I promised to update sooner if people wanted me to, and here it is :) Enjoy, and look at my A/N at the end so you can here about what will happen next! Oh, and I apologize for the grammer and spelling mistakes in this one, I haven't had much time to edit seeing as I wanted to update so soon, so please be patient with it :)

**Disclaimer:**Yeah . . . It's not mine . . . although I do wish I owned Xavier *_sigh_* ;)

* * *

**Visitors**

"_Tick Tock_."

"_Tick Tock_."

"_Tick Tock_."

Victoire gave the clock on the side of the wall a withering glare. It's ticking noise had filled the silence in the tent since Flannery had left with Ollivander, McGonagall, Madame Maxine, Jaroslov, Kingsley, Harry, and Victoire's mum, and Konstantin's dad. Flannery had cited some issues to deal with before the task, and took everyone with him to get them done. Fleur, Harry, and Kingsley had all said a quick good luck to Victoire before they left, because they weren't sure if they would be able to see her again before the task started. Flannery, on the other hand, had promised to come back in an hour to finally let the champions know what the theme of the first task would be.

That was twenty minutes ago. "_Tick Tock_."

"_Tick Tock_."

"Bloody hell would someone please put a silencing charm on that damn clock!" Victoire burst out when she could no longer take the clock's obnoxious ticking noise. She'd rather be stuck with an awkward silence between her fellow champions than the annoying ticking noise that was bouncing around her head at the moment.

"Language Miss Weasley," Professor Cooke reprimanded lightly. His slight smile took all of the hardness away from his reproach, and left Victoire sharing a smile of her own as Professor Cooke stood up from his seat next to her and pointed his wand to the clock to silence it.

Victoire quietly thanked Professor Cooke as he sat back down in his seat next to hers. Victoire glanced around the now quiet room. Konstantin was sitting across from her, beside one of his Professor's and tapping his wand in a nervous routine against his knee. It took Victoire a minute to get his attention, and when she did, she smiled reassuringly at him. He stopped his movements and returned her smile. Victoire was about to get up and move closer to Konstantin to talk to him, when she noticed the glare his professor was giving her. _I guess Konstantin's professor is afraid of us getting _too_ friendly._

Victoire turned her gaze from Konstantin to look around the rest of the room. Across the room to the right of her were Noëlle and Professeur La Croix. Noëlle was glaring at Victoire, no doubt because she had been loud a moment ago when she'd snapped about the clock.

"It's a little too quiet now."

Victoire visibly jumped in her seat. She turned her head to the side and saw Professor Cooke smiling mischievously at her. His blue eyes were sparkling with archness when he saw how startled she was by his whisper.

"Godric Professor, make a bit more noise next time why don't you," Victoire said quietly.

"I don't think so Miss Weasley, it was very entertaining to see our normally calm and composed Head Girl caught off guard." Victoire tried not to smile at the teasing tone Professor Cooke was using in his voice.

"Well you won't have to wait long to see a double feature. I'm totally not ready for this task," Victoire said as she brought her hands up to her face.

"I really doubt that Miss Weasley. You'll be brilliant today, I'm sure you'll be more than ready for whatever will be thrown at you," Professor Cooke told her sincerely.

Victoire smiled at her teacher, "Really?"

He smiled back and was about to re-assure Victoire when he was interrupted by a high pitched squeal. Both Victoire and Professor Cooke whipped their heads around just in time to see a group of Beauxbatons girls enter the tent and make a beeline towards Noëlle. Victoire rolled her eyes but tried to crack a smile, "I guess it's visiting time."

Professor Cooke smiled, but then seemed distracted, "Yes, well, I think that may be my cue to leave."

Victoire looked at her Professor confusedly, "What?"

He smiled and gently turned Victoire around so she could see the brunette ball of energy that was about to tackle her.

"VICTOIRE!"

"Ugh, hi Ally," Victoire said to her cousin as she returned the hug she'd just been grabbed into. She squeezed Ally one more time before extricating herself, so that she could see everyone else who had come with her cousin. She had just finished taking inventory of all the bodies: Xavier, Kyle, Sandra, Chris, Dom, Louis, Cecilia, Baxter, Molly, Albus, and Rose.

"Hey Vic!" They all chorused together as they greeted her.

"Um, hi guys . . ." Victoire, said, at a loss for words and feeling slightly over whelmed.

"Well, it's getting a little cramped in here, so I think I'll leave you with your friends and wait outside," Professor Cooke said as he stepped away from Victoire.

"You can stay if you want Professor," Dom said breathily.

Victoire brought her hand up to her forehead and smacked herself from her younger sister's very non-subtle flirting. Thankfully, for her though, Professor Cooke decided to laugh it off.

"Thank-you Miss Weasley, but I think it would be more private for you all if I just waited outside." He smiled at Victoire and then moved to leave; stopping for a minute near the mouth of the tent to speak to Jilly, Teddy, and Kurt who were in a group with a few other Aurors watching the proceedings. The minute Professor Cooke was out the door, Victoire saw Teddy say a few words to his partners before starting to walk over to where Victoire was standing with her friends. Her eyes were glued to him as he slowly made his way over, trying his best not to stick out and draw attention from Noëlle and her friends, or from Konstantin and his friends who had just come in to wish him good luck. Victoire knew that she should stop staring at Teddy as he made his way over to where she was, and pay more attention to her friends who were chattering away beside her. But she couldn't, her gaze was stuck on his devilish smirk and striking sapphire blue eyes; that was until she felt a sharp pain in her arm.

"Ouch!" Victoire yelled startled. She turned to her left to glare at Xavier who had pinched her out of her 'Teddy-induced-stare'.

Xavier smirked and raised an eyebrow at her; his smirk fell once Victoire slapped his arm in retaliation.

Ally rolled her eyes at the two Heads. "Anyway Vic, have you learned what the theme of the task is going to be?" she asked practically jumping up and down; she was _way_ more excited about the first task than Victoire actually was.

"No I haven't, Flannery said he'd be back right before the task started to tell us about it," Victoire answered.

"Don't worry Vic," Rose said as she hugged her eldest cousin, "I'm sure you'll be fantastic!"

"Definitely!" Al said hugging Victoire's other side.

Victoire smiled as she hugged her younger cousins, "Thanks guys, that means a lot. But I do have one question . . . where's Fred and James?"

Louis sighed as he walked closer to his sister and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "They were going to come with us, but then they got some sort of brilliant idea and decided to run off and do that instead."

"Really?" Victoire asked worriedly.

"Yeah," Cecilia said, also coming over to give Victoire a good luck hug, "I was about to go postal on them, but the _gits _promised that whatever they were going to do wasn't going to embarrass _you_ personally, so we just let them go."

After Cecilia, it was Baxter's turn to embrace Victoire, "They didn't go into very much detail either, and we thought that was best. Besides, everyone's going to be there today, including Aunt Angelina, and I'm certain she'll be able to rein them in."

"Yes, we were also supposed to meet Lucy before we came to see you, but she claimed that she had better things to do than to wish you luck," Molly huffed irritated, as she pulled out of the hug she'd just given Victoire. Percy's daughters didn't really get along with each other; most of the family put it down to a secret Ravenclaw-vs.-Gryffindor-who's-the-best-daughter-rivalry between the two.

Dom skipped over to Victoire's side and flung an arm around her sister's shoulder, "Don't worry about that now Vic. Just focus on getting into the zone and kicking everyone else's arses!"

Victoire sighed as Dominique said the last part of her pep talk louder than she expected, Konstantin overhead and stopped talking to his friends in time to give Victoire a quick wink. Victoire smiled back and mimed rolling her eyes at her sister. Noëlle on the other hand, didn't enjoy Dominique's banter and stopped her stream of perfect French to turn and give Victoire an ice-cold glare with her emerald green eyes.

"Making friends everywhere you go, aren't you Dom?"

Victoire froze at the voice right behind her. She slowly turned around to see Teddy standing very close to her, his eyes focused for the moment on Dom and the rest of Victoire's visitors, but flicking every second or so to her face. Nobody else allowed Teddy's sudden appearance to deter them. They all broke out into a quick chorus of 'hello's' and in Rose and Al's case, hugs. Victoire closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then told herself to act normal around Teddy because they were currently in a room full of many people that they didn't know.

"Of course Teddy, it's the Veela blood and all, you know that," Dom replied quickly with a bright smile.

Teddy rolled his eyes but decided to take a step closer to Victoire, and place each of his hands, on one of her shoulders; trying to look completely platonic.

"Feeling a bit better now that you've gotten the chance to see everyone?"

Victoire nodded, "Yes, although I'm sure that feeling will disappear once I realize exactly how many people are going to be watching me."

"Sure," Xavier scoffed pulling Victoire out from under Teddy's hands and into a hug that quickly turned into a headlock, "the great Victoire Weasley, the woman who almost singlehandedly won our Quidditch game yesterday, is afraid of contracting stage fright."

Victoire snickered as she tried to manoeuvre out of Xavier's arms, "If you keep a hold of me for much longer Xavier, I'm going to be afraid of contracting something much more serious than stage fright."

Xavier gave a fake 'shocked gasp' and proceeded to give Victoire a noogie, messing up the perfect ponytail she'd put her hair into earlier that morning.

Everyone was laughing by the time Victoire was able to extricate herself from Xavier grasp, _damn lanky Keeper build. The boy's much stronger than he looks,_ she thought just before she was pulled into a much nicer and gentler hug by Chris.

"Careful Wood, you don't want to injure our Champion before the First Task even begins. She needs to bring Hogwarts home the Tri-Wizard Cup," Chris said playfully yet lightly enough not to drudge up any bad memories.

"Yeah," Kyle added stealing Victoire (who by this time was being passed around like a ragdoll and was very close to announcing that she's had _enough _of it), "We came here to give Victoire our support and well-wishes not to mess up her perfect blonde hair." Kyle ended his speech with a pat to Victoire's head and a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank-you Kyle," Victoire said as she looked pointedly at Xavier. She took her hair elastic out of her hair and ran her fingers through the practically non-existent bumps that he had created when he messed up her hair.

Xavier sighed, "If you wanted me to kiss you Vic, all you had to do was say so."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Xavier you-" She had no time to finish because Xavier quickly grabbed her and made a show of putting his hand on her head (messing up the hair she'd just flattened) and giving her a long kiss on the cheek.

"_Eww_! Xavier! Down boy. Stop drooling on me. No. Bad," Victoire said trying (and failing) not to laugh at Xavier's very playful mood. _Gosh, Xavier lots of fun when he's not the one being put on display for the entire Wizarding World to see._

Sandra sighed and walked over to her best friend to save her from her fellow Head, "Okay, well I think we've embarrassed Victoire enough for one day. We'll leave you alone now to get collected for the Task. 'Kay Mate?"

Victoire nodded and gave her best friend a hug, "Thanks Sandy. And thanks for coming everyone else. But you'd better all get to your seats. The shows going to start in about twenty minutes."

Everyone said their final goodbyes and well wishes to Victoire before leaving the tent. Noëlle's friends had left a few minutes prior to Victoire's, and Konstantin's left a few minutes after. As they walked away, she spotted Konstantin's brother Valentin and gave him a quick wave. He blushed profusely and ducked his head after briefly returning the wave.

Konstantin was chuckling quietly as he came over closer to Victoire, "Sorrvy abvout vat. He's a vervy shy persun."

Victoire shrugged, "It's okay. I kinda put him on the spot there."

Konstantin smiled, "Good. He neevds to get over it."

Victoire smiled back, and then looked towards the opening of the tent to watch as more people walked in. She rolled her eyes at Flannery, but her smile brightened when she saw her parents, Konstantin's parents, Kingsley, Harry, and the headmaster and mistresses. Bill and Kingsley made a beeline towards Victoire, but Fleur stayed back. Flannery motioned for everyone to move closer together before he started his spiel.

"Alright, the First Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament will start in about ten minutes, but first, I need to explain the rules to our Champions. This first tack will be a solo task. You will each go out separately, and one by one, to the pitch. There will be a _portkey_ in the middle of the pitch. The portkey will take you to the venue of your task. You will have to go through several small trials based on the theme, and then one large one before the task will be complete. Once the task is complete, you will be able _Apparate_ away from the venue and onto the podium stage back at the Quidditch pitch.

"As you should have seen when you walked to this tent, there are several large screens floating around the pitch where the spectators will be seated. Because you will all be completing your tasks at a different venue far away, the screens will be how the spectators, and the judges, see your progress. There will be several small, flying, and invisible, camera-like-things following around and relaying your progress to the large screens on the pitch. As you all know, there will be a row of judges who will be evaluating your progress. Before the Champions were picked, I had planned on asking each of the former Champions to judge the Tournament, but seeing who's been picked as champions, I've had to re-think that plan," Flannery said glancing at Victoire and Konstantin like it was their fault the Goblet of Fire picked them.

He continued, "The judges for this task, and for the rest of the Tournament will be the Headmaster, and Headmistresses of each school, the minister in-charge or Magical Games and Sports department of the ministry. Our last judge was going to be the minister of International Co-operation, but seeing as Miss Weasley would have an advantage with that because it would be her uncle, it's been decided that _I_, will be the final judge for the Tournament."

"Fan-_bloody_-tastic," Victoire mumbled to herself. The quiet chuckles close behind her told her that not only had Teddy over-heard her, but also that he must have moved much closer to her since Flannery started his speech.

"Now, you will all be judged on a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest, and ten being the highest. As a twist, each Champion will be getting two scores for each task in the Tournament. One for the original task; and the other one for the extra duty in each task. Each score for the first two tasks will decide the champions' standings for the last task. The scores for the other duties will be added differently, so each champion will have to average scores when entering the last task. The extra duty for the task today will be for you each to find part of a map while completing the task. Retrieving the map will give you an extra score, that although it won't increase your original score, it will be something else that the judges will consider when deciding on the winner."

The three students nodded as Flannery continued, "Now that you know how the Tournament will be run, it's time to get to the fun part, finding out what the theme is!"

Victoire rolled her eyes, she was more inpatient than excited, _I just want this over with!_

"And the theme for today is . . . Fire!" Flannery announced excitedly.

There was silence. "So what exactly does that mean?" Victoire asked. She wasn't the only one who was confused; both Konstantin and Noëlle were giving Flannery looks that said that they didn't understand what he'd just announced.

Flannery frowned at Victoire, upset that he'd just put a stop to the atmosphere he was trying to instil.

He spoke through his teeth next, "Well _Miss_ Weasley, this information would mean that the venue you are going to would most likely have things like lava pits or volcanic mountains, and you will probably run into creatures that work with fire; for example: fire slugs, fire crabs, Blast-ended Skrewerts, dragons, etcetera."

Victoire automatically started to do an inventory of terrains and creatures that breathed fire or had to do with fire. It wasn't going well, she could think of all lot of things, many of them worse than the next.

Flannery continued to talk, "You will all complete your task one after another. You will draw straws to see what order you go in. Short goes first, longest goes last." He conjured up three white sticks into his hand and held it out for the champions to pick. Each grabbed a stick.

"On the count of three. One. Two. Three."

Flannery let go and each person pulled his or her stick. Victoire glanced at her's, then Konstantin's, and Noëlle's. _Merlin! I have the longest straw._

Flannery voiced Victoire's observation, "It seems as though Miss Weasley drew the longest straw so she will go last. Miss Varens has the shortest so she will go first. Mr. Krum, you will go in between them."

"Well, at least it worked out well. Girl, then boy, then girl again," McGonagall commented with slight sarcasm.

Flannery rolled his eyes at her. "It's time for everyone to get into place. Harry, Fleur, Viktor, you have two minutes to wish your family good luck before taking your seats at the front of the pitch," he said as he swept out of the room.

Everyone converged on Victoire in one pack. Professor McGonagall got there first, "I have to leave right away, but good luck Miss Weasley. I'm sure you'll be brilliant, maybe even more than your uncle and your mother," she added with a wink.

Victoire smiled back as McGonagall left. Her Uncle Harry was next.

He locked eyes with his niece. Emerald green with ocean-blue, "Just take a deep breath and go into this with a calm, cool head. I know you can do this. I trust in your abilities, now it's your turn."

Victoire nodded as she tried to stop the tears from forming in her eyes. To distract herself she pulled Harry into a hug.

When she released him he gave her one more smile, "Half of the Aurors are going to be leaving the tent to take their places at the pitch, but Professor Cooke will be staying with you, along with the rest of the Aurors until it's time for you to go. Be careful, and make sure nothing happens to you before the task, okay?"

Victoire nodded. Harry left, with Kingsley quickly taking his place. The first thing he did was pull her into a strong, comforting hug, "You can do this Princess. I know I haven't been the most supportive about this whole Tournament, but I believe that you have what it takes to not only make it through this intact, but that you can also win. You're smart, talented, and resourceful, just remember where your strengths lie, and use them to your advantage."

A few more whispered words of luck and Kingsley's strong dark arms turned into Fleur's pale slender ones.

"Good luck, Chérié. I know you can do zis. McGonagall eez right, you are much more prepared zen eizer 'Arry or myzelf waz, you weell be eemazing."

Victoire smiled and took a deep breath as her mother gently kissed her forehead. Breathing in her mother's familiar perfume helped calm her nerves. Fleur gave Victoire one last longing glance before hurriedly exiting the tent. Victoire looked around to see that she was left with her father beside her, and of course, Teddy close behind her.

Bill smiled at his daughter and pulled her into a non-hurried hug. Bill stepped back but kept an arm across her shoulder, he shifted their bodies slightly so he could include Teddy in their conversation. Victoire saw what her father was trying to do, and quickly complied once she scanned the room and saw that no one else was paying them attention.

Bill looked down at his daughter, and squeezed her into him, "You can do this Vic. We all believe in you. You'll be fantastic, just remember to keep your head, and to _think _ahead. You may not know what exactly will be going down, but there will always be time for some sort of plan."

She smiled, "Is that covered under the Curse-breakers' manual?"

Bill chuckled deeply, "Yes sweetheart it is. And it has also saved my hide in many a situation, so make sure to always have some sort of a plan; you can only get so far on improvising."

"'Kay Dad, I promise to think through my actions before I do them."

"Yeah, and if it works in this task, maybe she'll start doing it in real life," Teddy added smirking at Victoire.

Victoire rolled her eyes and playfully poked him in the stomach. Bill laughed as he watched their antics before stepping away from his daughter. He looked at Teddy, "Ready to go?"

Teddy opened his mouth to speak, but Victoire beat him to it, "Go where? Isn't Teddy supposed to stay here and do his job until the First Task is over?"

Teddy looked down at his feet for a minute, took a deep breath, and then lifted his sapphire blue eyes to look into Victoire's sparkling ocean-blue ones, "I'm actually not supposed to be working Today Vic. Harry and Kingsley gave me the day off because they knew that I'd want to see you compete in the Tournament. They let me be here and with you until the task starts, but then I need to go to my seat."

"He's sitting with the family today, we left him a seat right in-between me and Uncle Charlie," Bill added smiling mischievously at Teddy.

Victoire giggled at the look that came across her boyfriend's face, "Hmm, well know that I've heard what you have to deal with, whatever they throw at me in this task will pale in comparison to what you'll have to endure today."

Bill laughed unabashedly as Teddy's face slowly turned white. It took all of his energy not to let his hair change along with his skin.

"Yes, well the sooner it gets started, the sooner it will be over. So . . . I guess I'll say goodbye, and good luck."

Victoire nodded silently as her face turned uncharacteristically red. Bill saw his daughter's reaction, and the fact that Teddy's face was also turning red and rolled his eyes. He took his wand out and pointed it toward the opening of the tent. Victoire gave her father a questioning look, but he just winked at her. A second later, a loud boom erupted from outside of the tent, and everyone still in the tent rushed over to the opening to see what was going on. As soon as everyone was distracted, Bill quickly turned his back. Victoire was still confused until she felt a strong tug on the front of her shirt as Teddy pulled her close to him. She was able to catch a glimpse of his handsome face before his lips crashed down on hers. Victoire's eyes snapped shut as she returned the kiss with fervour. She sighed quietly as she felt Teddy's hands on her; one cupping her face, and the other placed firmly at the small of her back, pressing her tightly to him. He reciprocated with a small moan of his own as she thrust her hands into his hair, and held his mouth to hers.

"Ahem."

Victoire and Teddy hurriedly broke apart, looking everywhere but at Bill, who was standing directly in front of them. By the time Victoire got the courage to lift her eyes up from the floor, she noticed that everyone was coming back in from outside the tent. She could tell by their low mumblings that they had just chalked up the sudden noise to someone setting off some sort of firecracker. Teddy's face had gone back to its normal pale colour, but his hair was stubbornly staying a bright red, the exact same shade Victoire's face had been a moment ago. The exact same shade of red every Weasley's face turned when they were embarrassed.

Bill ended up laughing it off good-naturedly, but there was a slight look in his eyes, that had Teddy all of a sudden dreading their impending day together as they watched the task.

Victoire gave her father one more good-bye hug before he left with Teddy at his heels. After they were gone, Victoire looked around and sat down on the chair she'd been sitting in before her visitors arrived. Everyone had left the tent except for the three champions, Konstantin's Professor, Noëlle's teacher; Professeur La Croix, Professor Cooke, and Aurors Jilly Donaldson and Kurt Williamson. All of the Champions were spaced out, and Professor Cooke was half-way across the room speaking quietly to Auror Donaldson. At the moment, Victoire couldn't bring herself to feel saddened or lonely. On the contrary, she was glad to have the moment to herself, and she briefly wondered if Professor Cooke anticipated that she'd need some time to herself, and decided not to hover. If he did, than she was very thankful.

As Victoire sat in her chair, she noticed something red tucked into the black leather holster she'd created for her wand on her upper thigh. She pulled it out and saw that it was a piece of torn red parchment paper. Written on it in Teddy's familiar handwriting were the words, _Remember: Don't go flying off the broom handle._

* * *

**A/N:** So I hope you liked it, I know it's not really action packed, but trust me, the next chapter will make up for it because (drumroll please) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The next chapter will definitely be the First Tri-Wizard Task! And like I mentioned in the A/N last chapter, it's going to be long, I could break it up into two, but I don't think you should have to wait even so much for your computer to take you to the next chapter :) I'm at about just over 7,000 now, and it's still going to grow a bit.

I'm close to being done, so I'll try to update as soon as possible (which, idealy would be within the next week) Maybe sooner if it's done and if I hear that you guys want it ;)

Thanks to my reviewers from last chapter, I know it's only been up for a day, but I hope that by posting this early it will give you a lot to talk about when you review for this chapter!

**An especially big thanks to:**

**confusednikki24-7**: I hope this is soon enough ;) Thanks for the awesome reviews you always give!

**xLauraElizabeth**: I'm glad you like it. And here it is :)

**imsuchanut**: Thanks! You'll see ;)

**brilliant incandescence**: I'm glad you liked that. I kinda base all of the overprotective men on my family memebers. They'll tease me to no end, but if there was something going on, I know they'd be there for me in a heart beat :)

**Yellowtomato**: I don't want you to go into cardiac arrest, but here it is! Thank-you, and I'm glad you like my characters and think there's so much depth to them, ebcause it would be kinda weird if I was the only one who had started to realize that these characters really have a mind of their own ;)

**Rachel**: Here's the next one! :)

**potterhead1997**: Well here it is, I hope you enjoyed it!

**LOSTcharlie-clairLOST**: I'm so glad you're enjoying my story! I'm sorry if Konstantin's accent bugs you, it bugs me too, but I just don't have any basis at all to write it. I've never met a Bulgarian or heard the accent. I live in a small town in Ontario Canada, the only accents I've ever heard were: Britsh, Austrailian, South African, Japanese, Gaelic, and of course, French. (And even though I've taken French classes since JKindergaden through to Gr.9, I still can't write it that well) So I apologize for the horrible accents that are in this story, and that I will (sadly) continue to write, again I'm sorry.


	36. The First Task

A/N: Hey, so here's the update I promised, and the Chapter you're been waiting for, the First Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament! I was going to update yeasterday, but then I found out I got accepted to my first choice program at one of my first choice universities, and my parents wanted to go out to celebrate. But here it is, enjoy!

There is a bit of swearing in this chapter (it's one word and it's in French but still). Also, I fidled with POV in this chapter -kinda-. I write in Third-person point of view, but it's usually third-person limited, I only show one person's inner thoughts per chapter, and in this one I switch between Teddy and Vic, because I thought it'd be good to see what each person was thinking. Plus, they're both in two different places, there's page-breaks between each POV, so I hope I didn't make it too confusing.

The beginning's a little slow, but everyone just keeps begging me to let them speak, and they gang up on me until I let them so here it is . . .

Disclaimer:If it sounds like JKR it's not mine and I do not take ownership of it . . . although I will take the blame for Cecilia and any and all damage she does ;)

* * *

The First Task

Teddy walked a little faster to catch up with Bill Weasley, now that he was outside the Champions' tent; he finally saw the huge mass amounts of people wandering through the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch looking for their seats. As they climbed a few staircases, Teddy wondered how all of the people he saw were going to fit in the school stadium. As if to answer his question, he saw a group of wizards in bright yellow jackets directing the traffic flow of people, many of them had their wands out and were conjuring up new whole sections of benches and bleachers for the overflow of people to sit in. _Wow, it's like the entire Wizarding World is here today_, Teddy thought, as he finally understood Victoire's aversion earlier this morning to the Task.

He was startled out of his wandering thoughts when he felt a heavy arm lay across his shoulders. Bill knew that he had momentarily surprised Teddy, but he started talking anyway, "She's going to be great Ted. Don't worry so much."

Teddy looked up at Bill stunned. "How did you know . . ." he trailed off, not really wanting to finish the sentence he was just about to say to his girlfriend's father.

"That you were thinking about Victoire?" Bill chuckled, "C'mon Ted I have been there before. When you're at your age, fifty-percent of the time your mind will be on the special girl in your life. Add in the fact that she's about to start the first of many tasks in a dangerous magical Tournament that many people have perished in . . . well, it's easy to see that your mind would be on her."

Teddy shook his head lightly, "I never really thought that it would be possible to think of her more than I did when we were just best friends. She proved me wrong though."

Bill laughed again, "Yes, that is one thing my daughter's good at, proving that she's right and everyone else in wrong. That's why I know she'll be fine today in the Tournament. I'm not going to lie, I'm worried too, but I just have to have faith in how I raised my daughter."

Teddy smiled at Bill, "Trust me, you did an amazing job, she's perfect."

Bill smiled but didn't say anything because they'd just reached their destination. There was another man in a yellow jacket standing at the entrance to the bleachers, holding his hand out for people's tickets, and then directing them to their seats. When Bill and Teddy made it to the front of the short queue that had been ahead of them, Bill handed the man two crimson red tickets. The man nodded and then directed Bill to where their seats would be.

Bill gave Teddy one of the tickets after the man in the yellow jacket let them pass, "Make sure you don't lose that, you'll need it to get back in if you have to leave for some reason."

Teddy nodded and took the ticket, a shocked expression coming across his face when he looked at it, "Is that . . .?"

Bill laughed as he noticed Teddy's inspection, "Yes, that's her."

Teddy was still looking at the ticket confusedly. Printed onto the crimson coloured paper, along with the seat and section number, was a picture of Victoire. It wasn't one of the moving one's from Wizard photos, it was one of the two dimensional non-moving ones from Muggle photography.

"Why is she on my ticket?" _Better question,_ Teddy thought, _is she on half of the _other_ people's tickets too?_

Bill seemed to be able to read Teddy's mind today though, "They thought it would be a good promotion. And no, she's not on everyone else's tickets either. They thought it would be fun to customize tickets, and sections, for which champion you were going to cheer for, if you have a particular one. Safer too, that way you wouldn't have loud-mouthed people insulting the views of others, because no matter how upset rational people are with this Tournament, to many it's just a fun game."

Teddy nodded, "So all of Hogwarts has her on their ticket?"

Bill chuckled, "No, I'm sure most of the Slytherins would absolutely loath that. Most of Gryffindor does, and then her friends and family that are sitting in _her _section. The outsiders have normal tickets, unless they're family of the Champions, or unless they're higher up in Wizarding society and are allowed to sit near us."

"Sit near us?" Teddy asked confused.

Bill nodded, but instead of elaborating, he just waved his hand in front of them gesturing to the area they had arrived to. Teddy's first response was to gasp loudly. The second was to roll his eyes at his foolishness for thinking that the Weasleys' would have any worse seats for the Tournament today. Their section was absolutely amazing. It was halfway between the ground and the top level, giving them a spectacular view of giant screens where they would be watching the action today. They were at a good level to see the middle of the pitch where the Champions would walk to. And they were directly next to the raised platform where the judges would sit to watch the task. Also sitting with the judges was Percy Weasley, Kingsley, Harry, Fleur, and Viktor Krum.

Teddy followed Bill up a few more steps and past a few seats until they got to their own seats.

"There you are Bill! Oh, hey Ted!" Teddy tried not to sigh, Bill hadn't been joking when he said that Teddy would be sitting between him and Charlie for the day.

"Hi Charlie," Teddy said politely shaking the hand that Charlie had stuck out for him.

After he dropped his hand and took his seat, he was bombarded with a chorus of hellos from several other people: the adults of the Weasley family including Audrey, Hermione and Ron, Ginny, Angelina and George, and Molly and Arthur Weasley who were sitting with Teddy's grandmother Andromeda. Little Lily Potter and Hugo Weasley had to step over some of their families' feet to get to Teddy so they could hug him before going back to sitting with their mothers. The Weasley's that attended Hogwarts were also sitting in the same section Teddy was, just not with their parents (with an exception of Lucy who was sitting next to Audrey and was looking like she'd rather be in the library studying then watching her eldest cousin). Rose and Albus were sitting a few rows in front of Teddy with one or two of their first year friends, and trying not to react to Fred and James who were sitting in the row directly behind them and throwing popcorn at them until it became stuck in Rose's bushy hair, or fell down the back of Al's shirt. Molly and Dom were sitting a few rows behind Teddy, chatting amiably with some of their girlfriends. Teddy smiled when he saw that they were each wearing a dark red long-sleeve tee that flashed through the words 'Go-Victoire-Go!'. As Teddy glanced around the section, he realized what Bill meant about 'high-class wizards' in their section. He noticed many bigwigs from the Ministry, along with many of Harry's friends who were very high up in Wizarding society. He also saw Viktor Krum's wife Julia and his other son Valentin along with a grouping of other people whom he took to be friends or family of Konstantin, and he recognized a group of foreign looking people who he vaguely remembered from the Halloween party, and guessed was Noëlle's family and friends. The people Teddy couldn't see from where he was sitting was Louis, Ally, and Victoire's other friends who had come into the tent earlier to wish her luck.

"Bill, where's Louis and Ally?" he asked still looking around in case he just missed them. They were really cutting it close time-wise; the task was scheduled to start any minute now.

Bill frowned, "I'm not sure . . . they were here earlier . . ."

Teddy didn't have time to question Bill further because Ally and Louis decided to make their debut. Ally came up the stairs first, she was laughing with a dark haired women while Xavier trailed behind frowning slightly. Teddy cracked a smile as he recognized the look on Xavier's face. He was nervous. _Not without reason either_, Teddy thought as the three came to a in the row directly in front of where the Weasley's were sitting.

"Katie-bear!" George yelled from his seat next to Charlie. He stood up to pull the dark haired woman in-between Xavier and Ally into an embrace.

Katie Bell laughed as she extricated herself from George's grasp to receive her hug from Angelina, "Hi George. Hi Angie!"

"Hi Kates, you don't mind my daughter sitting with you do you, the rest of us have sorta already taken up this row," Angelina responded apologetically.

Katie smiled and threw her arm around Ally shoulders, "Of course I don't mind. I love getting a chance to talk with the girls. Xavier never actually does tell what's going on in his life; I always have to hear it from a second source."

Xavier groaned as he moved to his seat on the other side of Ally, he could just tell that this was going to be a long day. Shortly after Katie, Ally, and Xavier were seated, Louis and Cecilia made their way to their seats, with Oliver attached by the hand to Cecilia.

"I told you this was where our seats where," Cecilia called in a singsong voice.

Not only did Louis and Oliver end up rolling their eyes at the exact same time, they answered at the same time too, "Yeah, we know."

Katie, Xavier, Ally, and Bill started laughing. Oliver sighed as he stepped over a few people's feet to sit next to his wife. Cecilia followed her father down the aisle, dragging a reluctant Louis behind her.

"Where are we going Cecilia? I can see Baxter and Danielle down a few rows," Louis said as he, unsuccessfully, tried to shake Cecilia's grip off of him.

Cecilia stopped where she was and placed her hands on her hips, it was a rather intimidating pose for the thirteen-year-old, "Merlin Louis, are you really that oblivious?"

Louis looked at her confusedly, as he proved her point, "Oblivious to what?"

Cecilia palmed her forehead. "Just sit down before they see us," she said somewhat demandingly as she gently pushed Louis down into the closest empty seat.

"To late," Ally said amused. She pointed to the redhead two rows ahead, a few seats down from Fred and James, who was turned around beckoning to Louis and Cecilia. Louis gave a wimp wave back so he could avoid the look of anger on Cecilia's face. Cecilia growled quietly, grabbed Louis wrist again, and pulled him away while mumbling under her breath about how 'slow-stupid-chivalrous-Gryffindor-boys-were'.

Ally looked quizzically at Xavier, "She does know Baxter's in Hufflepuff right?"

Katie answered, "I think she was talking more about Louis in that circumstance when she was talking about oblivious Gryffindor boys, Sweetie."

"Well . . . she's not wrong," Angelina said as she shared a specific look with Katie.

"Hey!" Oliver, Xavier, George, Ron, Charlie, and Bill said offended. The females giggled at the men's response. Bill turned to Teddy and raised an eyebrow questioningly when he didn't seem affronted.

Teddy shrugged, "Victoire's been saying that about me since before I got into Gryffindor."

Bill chuckled, "Yeah, I guess you'd be used to hearing that by now . . . and I guess she wouldn't be wrong either."

"Is she ever?" Teddy questioned.

"Nope, besides she's a Weasley, if she was wrong she'd never admit it," Charlie said jumping into the conversation, "Stubborn as a Hungarian Horntail that one is."

"I'm going to tell her you compared her to a Hungarian Horntail, Uncle Charlie," Ally said from her seat in front of Bill.

Charlie actually had the decorum to look scared at Ally's playful comment-turned threat. Teddy looked at the seats around him before turning to Ally, "Where's the rest of your friends?"

Ally shrugged but Xavier answered, "Chris had to go find someone else he promised to sit with . . . and Sandra and Kyle were going to go grab his parents before finding their seats up here."

Katie jumped into the conversation, "Were Marshall and Genevieve able to get seats in this section? The last time we talked to them they were having a hard time finding some so close."

Xavier nodded, "Kyle said something about them having to sell their souls but they were able to get seats . . . I'm not sure, I just really hope he was joking about the selling their souls part."

"Doesn't look like it," Katie said bitterly looking to the staircase closest to her. Coming up the staircase holding hands and with apprehensive looks on their faces were Sandra and Kyle. Behind them looking like they were trying their hardest to keep a polite facade were Mr. and Mrs. Line. Directly behind Kyle's parents (and Teddy guessed was the reason why Kyle's parents were wearing courteous masks) were Mr. and Mrs. Knott, with their son Colton trailing behind them with a glum expression.

Oliver sighed and placed his hand on his wife's knee, "Play nice."

Katie crossed her arms over her chest with a dejected expression, "They never did." He gave her a look that further demonstrated his earlier words and she exhale noisily before plastering a too-wide smile on her face. In reciprocation, she gave her husband a look that asked 'are-you-happy-?' before saying loudly, "Gen, Marsh!"

Kyle and Sandra squeezed down the aisle and into seats on the other side of Xavier. Mr. and Mrs. Line stopped to greet Oliver and Katie. After a few polite words in greeting, Oliver finally asked the question that was on everyone's mind. Only slightly more polite than how his wife would have put it, "So, where did you guys end up getting seats?"

Mr. Line opened his mouth to speak, but Mr. Knott answered first, "They were actually sitting in one of the lower levels, but we ran into them before we went to our seats, and offered them two extra seats in our section."

"We wouldn't have minded sitting in a lower level. The important part is that we got seats to begin with," Mrs. Line said having a feeling that this might turn into an argument.

"Yes, we're just lucky that our seats are in better company," Mrs. Knott said giving Katie a scathing look. They had some history. Some rather bad history.

"The company doesn't really matter in this case though does it? We're all supporting the same person after all; I mean, what Hogwarts alumni wouldn't want their school to win the Tournament?" Katie shot back raising an eyebrow daringly.

Mr. Knott glanced at the Woods and the Weasleys, "It's a little premature to figure out allegiances, this early in the Tournament isn't it? The Champions haven't really shown what they're capable of yet. But if I was going to go by what the press has been saying about each Champion, I'm certain that Hogwarts would not be the school I'd be supporting."

Bill, Charlie, Ginny, Ron, George, Angelina, Katie, Ally, and Xavier all opened their mouths at the same time to angrily retort, but they were hampered by what occurred next. Mr. Knott, smiling smugly because he was about to get the reaction he was hoping for, was hit by a small spherical shaped orb, which exploded with a splattering of red and gold coloured paint as it slammed in the side of his face.

Everyone looked a few rows in front of them to where the orb had come from. Ginny and Angelina, though they were both impressed, played their roles as mothers as they yelled in synch.

"James Sirius!"

"Fred Alastor!"

"That wasn't us!" James yelled indigently as he turned around to face his mother.

"Yeah! We don't have that good of aim!" Fred answered, snickering as he watched Mr. Knott try, and fail, to vanish the paint that had slid down his face and onto his black blazer jacket and white dress shirt.

"Well then who was it?" Bill asked, "Louis doesn't have any aim either."

Katie burst out into uncontrolled laugher as she put two-and-two-together. It took her husband only a second later to come to the same conclusion.

"Cecilia Kathryn!" Oliver scolded playing the role of the good parent because everyone knew that Katie would support wholeheartedly what her daughter did.

Cecilia turned around in her seat and smiled brightly, "Yes Daddy?"

Oliver's resolve (which was rather shaky at best seeing as he felt that Knott got what he deserved) broke at the innocent look his baby girl was giving him, "What do you say?"

Cecilia put on a completely contrite face, "I'm sorry I was aiming for Xav, I guess I missed."

"Hey-" Xavier started to say but was cut-off by Ally clamping her hand over his mouth. Both of them knew that Cecilia didn't actually miss her intended target.

Mr. Knott shot Cecilia a scathing look before turning to give Oliver and Katie a look of disdain, "What a charming child, although I would expect no less coming from one of your offspring. You do make it easy though; your children are a perfect example of how children turn out when their parents don't have the time or just don't care enough about them to teach them how to behave properly to their superiors."

Katie, who was about to stand up and do only Godric Gryffindor knows what, only stayed seated because Oliver was holding her hand so tightly she knew he was giving her a warning to behave. Oliver regarded Mr. Knott coolly with his hazel coloured eyes, "_Our_ children know how to treat their superiors, but I don't see how that has anything to do with how my daughter treated you."

Mr. Knott frowned and opened his mouth to speak. Thankfully, Mr. Line broke in, "Well would you look at the time, the Task should have started five minutes ago, they must be waiting for everyone to take their seats. We should probably help them with that."

"Yes Marshall's right, shall we?" Mrs. Line asked as she gestured for the Knotts to continue moving up the stairs to where their seats were. Teddy was amazed at Mr. and Mrs. Line's virtually perfect manners and mediating abilities.

Mr. Line patted Mr. Knott (still coated in red and gold paint and hadn't figured out how to get it off yet) and moved him along up the steps. Mrs. Line was the last of the group to leave, when she saw that the Knotts were far enough away she winked in Bill's direction, "Don't worry, we're still going to cheer for Vic from where we'll be sitting, even if the uptight bigwigs get upset."

Bill smiled at her words and she left soon after.

Katie was still fuming after Mr. Knott insulted her parenting skills, "How dare _he_ claim that we haven't been a part of our children's lives! All purebloods know about parenting is how to had a crying child off to the nanny . . . no offence," Katie added after remembering that many of the Weasleys _were _technically purebloods.

"Don't worry about it Mum," Xavier said soothingly, "They don't know what they're talking about. Personally, I feel as though you have _too_ much influence in my life as it is." Ally's resulting smack at Xavier's chest furthered to instil the joking atmosphere he had been trying to return to.

Katie smiled fondly at her son, "Thanks Xav."

"Hey I think it's about to start!" Kyle exclaimed excitedly as he looked up at the screen closest to him. Everyone else followed his lead. Teddy felt his stomach clench tightly as he saw Minister Flannery step up to the podium and magical microphone. After a (boring in Teddy's mind) speech and a polite applause, the entire stadium went quiet. Teddy hadn't realized that he was bobbing up and down in his seat until he felt Bill's hand pressing down his shoulder. He blushed and looked apologetically at Bill while he chuckled.

"You know better than anyone that she's going to go last," Bill whispered as a loud rumbling of applause started. Teddy guessed that Noëlle had stepped foot on the Pitch, but he wasn't able to see her yet.

"Yeah, but I think the waiting might kill me," Teddy groaned. It had only been about fifteen minutes since he saw Victoire, but he was aching to see her again.

Bill chuckled, "I just hope that nothing will happen to make me regret letting her compete today."

Teddy could now see that Noëlle was about three metres away from the silver box in the middle of the Pitch, which he assumed was the _portkey_.

"You wouldn't have been able to stop her even if you wanted to. She's a force to be reckoned with," Teddy said smiling just a little.

Bill laughed again, "Why do you think I let you date her so easily, because she can handle herself, and because you've got your work cut out for you."

Teddy grinned back, but didn't answer because Noëlle had just entered the middle of the Pitch. She stood there for a minute to acknowledge the applause before bending down to touch the _portkey_.

_And now it starts_ Teddy thought.

* * *

_Dear God, Merlin, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, heck, I'll even call out to Salazar Slytherin in he'll help_, Victoire thought, _just please, don't let me go out there and make a fool of myself!_

"Miss Weasley?" Professor Cooke asked, breaking Victoire out of her inner desperate pleading.

Victoire opened her eyes and saw Professor Cooke kneeling in front of the chair she was sitting in. His bright blue eyes and young face was twinged with worry.

"Yeah, you look like you're going to blow some chunks," Kurt Williamson added cocking his head to the side as he inspected Victoire.

Jilly slapped Kurt across the chest, "First, that's disgusting. Second, I don't see how in anyway stating that would be helpful to the situation if she were actually to get sick. And third, if she does get sick or if something happens to her in anyway, Shacklebolt, Potter, Weasley, _and_ Ted are going to murder you."

Victoire's nerves calmed down with the mere mention of Teddy's name. She took a deep breath and then stood up from her chair, "First, I'm fine, and second, I didn't actually eat anything this morning, so there would be nothing to regurgitate."

Professor Cooke tried to smile reassuringly, "Mr. Krum has been gone for almost an hour. Miss Varens before him was gone for about an hour and a half herself. I popped out of the tent a minute ago to look at the screens, and it looked like Mr. Krum is very close to being finished, you'll be up soon."

Victoire nodded, and then started to hyperventilate, "Oh Godric what have I gotten myself into, I can't do this."

"Calm down Victoire," she noticed Professor Cooke's slip-up when he called her by her given name but ignored it as he moved on, "you can do this. If you couldn't, your parents and you uncle would never have let you enter the Tournament. C'mon Victoire, you know more about the last Tri-Wizard Tournament then even I do, and I'm the History of Magic teacher. You are the most ready Champion for this Tournament. You'll be brilliant, just remember everything you've learned, and that sometimes a simple spell is better and more effective than a poorly executed higher-level spell."

Victoire nodded, appreciative that he gave her some last minute advice. She closed her eyes and took one more deep breath as she collected herself, she could feel that she'd have to leave soon.

"Ahem, Miss Weasley?"

Victoire's eyes popped wide open and her head snapped to the mouth of the tent. Professor Longbottom was standing there, looking at her expectantly. He had been the one to come and collect both Noëlle and Konstantin when it was time for them to go. She took the first few steps toward him slowly, before giving up and running full tilt to Professor Longbottom. She closed her eyes as she threw her arms around him in a quick hug. He stood stock still for a moment as surprise at her embrace flooded through him. He stood there for a minute before hugging her back gently, and very quickly.

When Victoire stepped back he was smiling slightly at her, "You're going to be fantastic Victoire, we all trust in you, so now you just need to trust in yourself."

She smiled and nodded for him to lead the way. They walked out of the tent and several paces out until they got to the beginning of where the floor level seating was. Victoire's breathing had begun to pick up again. Professor Longbottom stopped for a minute and turned to face her, "I'm going to be leading you until you get to the edge of the field, to part the crowd, after that you're by yourself. Walk straight out to the centre of the Pitch wait two minutes until they announce your name one more time, then touch the _portkey_, good luck."

Victoire nodded, and followed Neville. He quickly parted the way, and the quiet stadium began to get louder as people began to cheer. When they got to the edge of the field, Neville moved to the side to allow Victoire to walk forward. She steeled herself for a minute before stepping onto the Pitch.

Victoire had been playing Quidditch on this pitch since she was a fifth-year, and as a rule, she told herself that it's okay to be nervous before she stepped on the pitch, but to never be afraid of it. Now, she might be terrified of failing the Task, she might be nervous as hell that she'll embarrass her family name, but there was one thing she was not, she was not afraid to step onto that pitch, and consequently, give this Task her all. The minute her foot touched the grass the cheering of the stadium turned deafening. Never, in all her regular season or championship Quidditch games, had she ever heard a crowd cheer for her as loudly as they did as she walked to the pitch; not even when she helped win the House Cup last year her first time as Captain.

She quickly paced towards the centre of the pitch. Once she was there, she stood with her head held high as she faced the raised platform where the judges and her mother were sitting. Minister Flannery was behind the podium, his mouth to the magical microphone, "And last, Hogwarts' Tri-Wizard Champion . . . Victoire Weasley!"

The answering cheers from the crowd was deafening, Victoire looked forward for a minute as Professor Longbottom had told her to. After she reached sixty in her silent count in her head, she looked down at her feet. She let herself smirk for a second before she placed her calm and cool demeanour back in place. Her _portkey_ was an old jumbo box of a collection of _Weasley's Wizard Wheezes_. She reached down, with her knees bent, and touched the box. After a minute, it started to blow blue. Another minute later and she felt a familiar tug near her navel. Ten seconds later, she closed her eyes and was gone.

* * *

"Ughf!" Victoire exclaimed as she landed on her backside. _Hard_. On the very rocky ground. As soon as the feeling came back into her body (she had decided after the feeling returned that she'd rather it stayed numb, the ground was _really hard_), she stood up and surveyed the terrain.

The two kilometres of land in front of her seemed to be very flat, before it seemed to start to take a dip down into what she guessed was a valley. The area behind her and to her distant right and left was also very flat and clear, but she could see much farther forward in those directions because they seemed to stay flat. Dotting the dusty brown land around her were large trees with thick trunks; many of them had bare limbs, but there were a few here and there that had rich green foliage. Also dotting the land were large grey boulders (sans-moss, which added to Victoire's theory that the place she was in didn't get much rain), and several puckered looking holes strewn around the ground ranging in size from one foot to about three metres wide. The one thing that kept drawing Victoire's attention back though, was the abso-bloodly-loutely humongous river of red liquid that started two metres ahead of her and ran from what seemed like one end of the entire terrain to the other.

Victoire moved forward to the edge of the river and kicked a chunk of rock into the bubbling red liquid. It sizzled and melted instantly as it touched the red liquid.

"Yup," Victoire said aloud, if her every move was going to be broadcasted back to practically the entire Wizarding World, she might as well make it entertaining, "that is definitely lava."

She took a few steps back and inspected the river. There was nothing telling her that she _had_ to go forward, of course common sense dictated that the hardest route (meaning that in front of her) would most likely be the right route. So she had to figure out how she wanted to cross the five-metre long river of lava. Normally she would just think of grabbing her broom, but they were specifically not allowed to just fly through the task, ever since her Uncle Harry did that back in his first task.

"Levitation spell it is," she mumbled as she pulled her wand out of the holster in her thigh. She pointed it to a large boulder directly to her right as she first cast a feather-light spell. The next thing she did was cast an extra strength _Wingardium Leviosa_, and jumped onto it as it came flying towards her. She directed her wand carefully like Professor Flitwick with his conductor's baton when he directs the school's choir.

As soon as she was sure that she'd cleared the river, she jumped down off the rock and flicked her wrist, causing the rock to fly off to the side. She took a deep breath and looked at the flat ground ahead of her.

"Thank Godric for Xavier Wood and his insane Quidditch drills or this might have become difficult," she said to herself and her audience before she took off in a steady jog.

She'd been running for what felt like half an hour (and had _only_ stared cursing Xavier five minutes ago for not forcing her to get more into shape for Quidditch this season) when she became faced with one of those puckered holes in the ground. It was large, probably about three metres wide, nothing she couldn't go around or use another rock and levitation spell to fly over, but she still felt herself instinctively slow down and stop with a metre of space between her and it. Once she had stilled, she heard, besides the sound of her own beating heart and heavy breathing, a slight hissing sound. It was quickly getting louder, and taking on a more whistling edge. She stood still for a minute before her blue eyes went wide with realization.

"Bloody Hell!"

She turned and ran towards the boulder that was about five metres away and curved over a bit at the top. She picked it because it was the closest one that looked big enough to shield her body. She was only two metres away from her safe haven when she felt the ground shake in preparation for the explosion. She dove as soon as she felt the heat begin to surge. She landed in a crouched position on her knees and ended up somersaulting until she was safely behind the boulder. She lay down with her back to the ground, and the top of the boulder acting as a canopy above her head. She stayed crouched under the rock until the sound of gushing liquid was over. After it became quiet, she waited for another minute before getting up from the ground and walking back to the geyser. The ground around it was black and scorched looking, even though there was no residual lava around the geyser. However, the hole was still emitting a thick cloud of black smoke.

Victoire looked down at her feet. She realized that the temperature of the ground should still be warm enough to scorch through her shoes. She kicked a foot up behind her so she could look at the bottom of her trainers; it was still hard and leathery.

"Nice fire-resistant charm. Okay, so if my shoes are up to it, I can just run around these geysers. Sounds good." She followed her spoken plan and jogged around the geysers for another ten minutes or so. Dodging a few more geysers as she went. She was close to the edge of the valley when she started to slow down because she was getting suspicious, yes, there was the river of lava, and several geysers of magma, but she hadn't run into any creatures yet. _This isn't good. This must mean that my big task is going to have something to do with a dangerous fire creature of some sort._

When she got to the edge of the valley, she took a deep breath to collect herself before she looked down to what was about to come next.

"Well Merlin's fricking pants!"

* * *

Teddy let out a collective gasp with what seemed like the rest of the audience as he kept his eyes glued to the closest viewing screen. Victoire had been doing so well, as she conquered the fiery terrain. He was worried when she'd had a run in with her first geyser and had to make a dive for it behind a boulder, but after that, he was able to breathe rather easily as he watched her in the task.

But now, well now she definitely had her work cut out for her. The screen gave them a split screen view of Victoire's face, and of the absolutely _gigantic _dragon that seemed to be nesting down in the very centre of the valley.

Teddy's eyes (and everyone else's for that matter) were glued onto Victoire's expression. Her beautiful ocean-blue eyes popped open wide for exactly twenty-three seconds before she sighed and her expression turned into one of chagrin.

"'Can't a guy come and watch his favourite niece compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament', my arse Uncle Charlie," Victoire said clearly annoyed. But whether it was with Charlie for bringing a dragon with him for the task, or for her not thinking of it sooner, they wouldn't hear. Because as soon as Victoire established that she should have seen this coming, she was gone, jogging carefully down the side of the valley to get closer the fire-breathing giant that seemed to be nesting in the middle of the valley.

On either side of Teddy, Bill and Charlie started to chuckle. Bill looked at his brother, "You just can't take a vacation without bringing your work with you, can you?"

Charlie shrugged, "It was a last minute thing. I already had the time for the first task booked off, and then the Ministry of Magical Games and Sports decided to add a dragon last minute. It's a busy season, and the only way they would allow me to have the time off would be if I brought the dragon here and back. I had no idea that she'd actually be the one to face it. I mean, she had a one-in-three chance, and she's the one who has to face it."

Bill frowned, "Yeah, well she's one in a million, so it's not surprising to me that she had to end up facing the dragon."

"Shh!" Ally whispered from in front of them, "She's closer to it now."

As always, Ally was correct. Victoire was at the bottom of the valley now, and about a half a football field's distance from the dragon. She was completely shielded from the dragon behind one of the larger trees that actually had foliage. She was squinting in concentration as she studied the dragon. The screens were split in two again, one giving them a view of her face, the other a view of the dragon. A second later, Victoire's voice filled the stadium.

"Okay, let's see: black scales, bronze horns, black ridges on the back, long and round snout," she flicked her wand and a branch of a tree closer to the dragon flew away and into the dragon's path. With a powerful snarl, the dragon swiped its claws around in a complete one-eighty, reducing the three feet thick branch to a pile of toothpicks.

Victoire nodded once more, "And uncommonly vicious, yup. That's a female Norwegian Ridgeback."

Charlie looked like he was about to burst with pride as he watched the screen, "Aw, that's my girl. You see Ally," he started to address his other niece, "listening to me drone on and on about dragons _can_ actually be beneficial to real-world issues."

Ally looked concerned as she continued to watch Victoire on the screen, "Yes, but knowing about the dragon isn't going to help her if she doesn't come up with a plan soon."

Everyone looked back at the screen to see Victoire still analyzing the situation.

Her blue eyes were squinted in concentration once more, "Female . . . and it's the beginning of November. Perfect, right in the middle of its nesting season. So that would mean that _that_ is it's 'nest'."

_That; _was a large semi-circle wall of, what looked to be, large broken tree trunks and boulders. It had to be half a kilometre high, so at least half as tall as the dragon itself. As Victoire scouted out the outside of the dragon's lair, she could see no opening except for the one that the dragon was guarding. _Well, if I doubted before that I was on the right track, I know for sure now that I am. I just hope that that stupid map is in that lair because there was no other place that it could be._

"So the only way in, is the entrance that the dragon is guarding. 'Kay sounds good, but how do I get past the dragon?"

Beside Teddy, he heard Charlie have a quick intake of breath. _It seems that someone figured it out,_ Teddy thought.

Back on the screen, Victoire was still talking to herself.

"So, what do I know about Norwegian Ridgebacks? Hmm, their claws can grow to be a metre long, and their fangs are venomous . . . yeah, good to know, but not very helpful in this predicament. What else . . . they originate from Norway . . . duh, and they're lactose intolerant . . . wow, how did I even know that?"

She shook her head; Teddy guessed that she was thinking to herself something along the lines of 'I-should-probably-spend-less-time-with-Charlie-in-the-future'.

"C'mon, what else?" Victoire asked herself. She stood there for another minute before she huffed in annoyance, and palmed her forehead, "Well, what I do know is that I need to spend more time with Uncle Charlie at the next family reunion."

The Weasleys' and Potters' ended up chuckling at that.

"'Kay, back to the basics," Victoire mumbled as she looked back to the dragon. She took a deep breath and began her analysis again, "You can tell a Norwegian Ridgeback because of their black triangular shaped ridges on the back, their uncommon bronze coloured horns, and their bright yellow underbellies. They're native to the mountains of Norway, and their nests are usually abnormally tall for dragons, leaving the only entrance point being the front which the dragon guards . . ."

Victoire looked stumped, everything she'd recited she'd been able to tell just by looking at the dragon. She glanced at it again, wondering if she'd missed anything, when again, she felt her eyes drawn to the nest, "Abnormally tall nest walls . . . why are they abnormally tall . . .?"

Charlie was vibrating with excitement in his seat next to Teddy. "She's _so_ close!" He cried.

As if Victoire was able to hear Charlie, the minute the words left his mouth, her eyes widened in understanding. She quickly flicked her wand, and caused a small rock to fly towards the dragon. She kept it low to the ground, because the point of her experimentation was not destruction. When the dragon heard the impact of the rock slightly to its left, it blew out a long stream of fire in a complete one-eighty line, from one entrance of the cave, to another, even though it knew that the sound came only from its left.

Once the dragon was done and had returned to its original place at the very middle of the entrance, a breathtaking smile lit up Victoire's face, "They don't have peripheral vision! The walls of their nests are high so they don't have to worry about invaders. Invaders will only come from the front now. And because of their lack of peripheral vision they turn their body in a complete one-eighty when they sense a danger, to destroy the one they sense, and another one that could sneak by, by breathing fire over the entire entry point!"

"Yes!" Charlie yelled in excitement.

Ally and Xavier instantly began to whisper back and forth, their comments becoming louder as they argued.

"But what good does this do her; she knows that the dragon will breathe a trail of fire across the entire entry point," Xavier said.

"But once the dragon has breathed fire on the right side, it turns its back so it can attack the left side too. There would be an open space once the dragon had moved its attention!" Ally exclaimed.

"It completes its circuit too fast. Even if she did divert the dragon's attention, she wouldn't be able to get to the weak spot fast enough. And there is no cover any nearer to the dragon that would be close enough for her to run there," Xavier answered back.

"Xavier's right," Katie added in a whisper, "The only way she'd be able to get in a weak spot would be if she stood there while the dragon breathed fire, and then ran in once the dragon had shifted its attention. But she wouldn't be able to do that; she'd be completely scorched."

Teddy was still processing Katie's assessment when he heard both Bill and Ally near him swear loudly.

"She wouldn't," Bill said becoming pale.

"She can't," Ally moaned, also turning white.

"But it looks like she is," Teddy said as he closely watched Victoire's face. She had taken another minute to study the dragon before her blue-eyes began to sparkle mischievously. She had definitely come up with a plan. And sadly, Teddy could tell just by the look in her eyes that he wouldn't like it. She had the same look when she convinced him to leave their camp in Romania just before they ran into the fire-breathing pegasus, _and _when she convinced him to help her with a little project that summer that ended up with them face-to-face with the Griffin. That look was never a good sign.

As Teddy predicted Victoire broke into action, she ran down to stand to the very right of the entrance to the dragon's lair. She didn't even wait a minute once she got into position, her wand emitting a surge of bright red sparks. The dragon looked shocked and inhaled deeply before letting out a long strand of fire. It started from the very right of the entrance and moved its head and body until it was facing toward the left, with its back to the right.

Teddy's eyes, along with everyone else's, were strained on the screen. As soon as the dragon moved, he squinted through the smoke to see if he could find Victoire. It took him a minute to see through the smoke, and then he saw her, kneeling with one knee on the ground. Teddy wasn't even able to blink until he saw her form begin to move. She had just gotten to her feet when Teddy finally exhaled.

"Are her hands . . .?" Sandra asked uneasily as if she didn't believe what she was seeing.

"Yup there on fire . . . looks like blue flames too . . ." Xavier answered.

They all turned to look at Bill, "Yeah that's her Veela powers, but I still don't understand how she's still standing there without a scratch on her. Fire concentrated that much should still have burnt her to a crisp."

He looked towards Hermione and Angelina, "Right?"

Hermione looked thoughtful, "Yes, but I don't think she just stood there and let the dragon breathe fire on her. You know who she can create fire with her hands, well I think she might have just done that, but with her entire body."

"That would be the only explanation why she's still standing," Ginny added.

"NO!"

Everybody who had been distracted by trying to figure out how Victoire could still be alive, attentions was dragged back to the viewing screen. In the back of Teddy's mind, he recognized the yell as Louis', but that only made him worry more. Louis had an adventurous streak like Victoire, if he thought what she was doing was crazy; then it really was. And when Teddy paid more attention, he saw that his assessment was right.

Victoire had only been onto her feet for about a minute before she made her next move, wand in hand, she jumped up and _onto_ the dragon's tail as it came swishing in her direction with its movement.

"She's lost her mind!" Ally exclaimed as she watched her cousin attach herself to the dragons black scales.

"I wonder who gave her the idea to jump onto a mad dragon's back," Bill said sarcastically glaring at Charlie, Ron, and Hermione.

Back on the screen, the dragon had seemed to realize that there was something going on (whether he could feel the one-hundred-and-thirty pound girl who had climbed onto her back or not). He started to swish rapidly back and forth, to dislodge her.

Victoire yelled, "_Confringo_!" A large boulder a good distance in front of the dragon blew up with a loud crash. The dragon charged foreword, noticing the larger threat.

The dragon's sudden charge foreword caused Victoire to lose her balance and slide off the back of the dragon. She tumbled down its back and tail, and a minute before she fell into the entrance of the nest; they witnessed her wand flying out of her grip.

* * *

Victoire landed on her back with a thud. She lay there for a minute noticing that there was a dull pain on her lower right calf. But she was too busy trying to catch her breath than to care. She jumped up a minute later.

"_Accio_ wand," she said as looked out the entrance, hoping to get her wand and then find the map so she could _apparate_ out of the lair before the dragon came back. Nothing came. Victoire looked at the entrance oddly.

"_Accio_ twig." The twig sitting three feet in front of the entrance to the lair jumped up and came soaring into the mouth of the entrance. Before it reached her, it ended up rebounding and flying off in the opposite direction. Victoire looked at the light red force field that just became visible at the mouth of the lair. She recognized what type of field it was by the colour and ripple like pattern from the impact of the twig. _It's an intruder prevention force field. It stops things from coming in. That way I won't have to worry about the dragon while I look for the map. But I _will_ have to exit the lair to get my wand back to _apparate_ back to Hogwarts._

With her plan in mind, basically to find the map as soon as possible and then go get her wand back, she began to look around the lair. _Hmm, well this definitely looks like the Room of Requirement when you're looking for a place to hide something._ All around her there was a mass of random items and bits of things that was probably mostly trash; she looked to the closest pile of papers and began to rifle through it. She'd been searching for about five minutes, and not coming up with anything helpful when she took a step back to re-assess the situation.

"Godric am I an idiot. Just because I'm wandless doesn't mean I can't use magic. _Accio_ map!"

The next things happened simultaneously; Victoire felt her feet fly out from under her as she landed, once again on her back, on the hard floor. As soon as she was flat on the ground above her, she saw several streams of flames shoot out around the room, criss-crossing each other. The highest being a foot from the roof, and the lowest being an inch above her nose.

"Okay then, no magic in this room it is," Victoire mumbled quietly. She sat up slowly, her back was really feeling painful right now, and noticed a ratty old Slytherin House banner under one of her feet, and half buried under a pile of miscellaneous things. _Of course,_ she thought, _a Slytherin banner tripped me up. Well, on the bright side, being hit with those flames, while it wouldn't kill me, would probably not be good for the condition my back is, no doubt, in right now._

She got to her feet again and started to rifle through the any and every old piece of paper she could find. The fact that she didn't actually know exactly what she was looking for didn't really help her situation.

"Grrrr!"

Victoire jolted. She quickly turned around to face the entrance of the lair, and saw the dragon coming back to its nest. She swore loudly and then went back to looking through the piles, much faster than she had before. The constant thumping of the dragon's claws and tail against the force field was the background noise to Victoire's searching.

"_Thump. Thump. Thump. Riiip_." Victoire froze.

"Merde," she swore in French. The dragon's claw had sliced through the force field. _No. No. No. NO! This should not be happening the dragon shouldn't be able to break through the force field!_

But it was, slowly, but surely, its claws began to find purchase against the red magical barrier. She may have been able to survive being hit by its' fiery breath, but those claws and venomous teeth would finish her real soon, especially since she'd made it angry with all of her teasing.

_Stay calm Vic. Just find that map, get your wand, and _apparate_ out of here._

She ran to the last pile she hadn't searched yet, looking over her shoulder to make sure she saw when the dragon broke through.

"_RIIIIP_!"

Victoire jumped, there was only about half of the force field left. She looked back at the pile of papers, and finally, something caught her eye. Just above the stupid old Slytherin banner that tripped her, was an old yellowed piece of parchment paper. What drew her attention were the words _Forbidden Forest_, she shuffled some other papers away until she uncovered the picture of the forests' bounds drawn around the words.

"_ROAR!_"

The dragon had broken through the force field. Victoire looked back at the old piece of parchment on top of the Slytherin banner; she grabbed the map. She tucked it away into her _empty _wand holster, and faced the dragon. Her eyes flickered around the entrance to find a weak point that she'd be able to sneak through. She couldn't see one.

She looked back to the dragon and felt sick; it was inhaling a deep breath. It was about to blow. She didn't have time to get out. Victoire quickly but confidently turned around in a circle. She saw the flames leave the mouth of the dragon just as she _disapperated_ with a loud _crack!_

* * *

Back at the Hogwarts Quidditch stadium, everyone was on their feet. Teddy and the Weasleys' were no different.

"She did not just _apparate_ without a wand," Ally asked in shock.

"But I think she just did," Teddy said robotically still looking at the screen where the dragon was trying to figure where Victoire had disappeared to.

A minute later a loud _crack_, echoed around the stadium, and everyone looked towards the platform. Victoire appeared in the red circle where Noëlle and Konstantin had appeared before when they finished their tasks.

Victoire's form stumbled a bit as she materialized. She was standing for exactly five point eight seconds before her form crumbled to the ground.

She hadn't even hit the ground before Bill, Teddy, Charlie, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Angelina jumped out of their seats and started running toward the platform. In the back of Teddy's mind, he finally realized why Bill had chosen seats so close to the platform, when seat higher up would have given a better view of the task. It was so he could get to the platform fast in case of an emergency, in hindsight; Teddy wondered if Bill had anticipated an emergency like this.

The stadium had become loud with everybody yelling, talking, and just buzzing around. Teddy saw some of the Aurors already in the crowds trying to control them and telling everyone to take a seat. But he didn't have time to do that. He and Bill were the first of the group to reach Victoire's form, but Fleur and Harry had gotten there first because they'd been sitting on the platform as they watched the tasks. Fleur was near Victoire's head, whereas Harry was near her feet and legs.

Teddy stopped where he was when he took a closer look at Harry.

He had Victoire's legs in his lap.

And they were covered in blood.

* * *

'Kay so I hoped you liked it. I'm sorry that it's a bit of a cliffie, but it just ended there so flawlessly and I couldn't help myself . . . Good news, I have the next chap almost complete, and I will update next week, I promise (if I hear some nice things about this one that is)

**Important A/N: Um, so like I meantioned earlier, I've got the next one pretty much done, and ideas for the next one after that. But again, school's starting up again, it's our exam month, and I just found out that a very close friend of mine, her boyfriend, her sister, and her father were in a car accident. My friend and her boyfriend had minor injuries, but her father and her sister weren't so lucky. Her sister got the worst of it, (because she was in the front when the airbag deployed, and the person swerved into her part of the lane) and she's got many injuries and is in CHEO right now having an 8hr, opperation. We hope that she'll pull through, but because of this, and of what my friend might need from me, I might not have much time to write and update this week, or the next few weeks to come. So all I ask is that you guys be patient (not that I'd expect anything less because all of you are extremely amazing) and that even if I'm gone for two months (that's a hyperbole, I don't expect to be gone for that long) that I'm not giving up, putting on hiatus, or discontinuing this story.**

Thank-you all again, I hope you enjoyed, please _review_ if you have something to say, and thank-you to everyone that has reviewed, you really do bring me inspiration.

An especially big thank-you to **redwolf12**, for the always amazing and lovely reviews, you always make me want to do my best, thanks for the support. I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations.


	37. Scores

A/N: Snow days in here mean very, very good things for all of you, I had some time to write this week, and now I can update a day sooner than planned! Here's the next one! Enjoy, and please look at my A/N at the end :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is all property of the amazing JKR

* * *

**Scores**

"I em going to keel 'er w'en she wakez up."

"You might have to get in line there honey."

"If she can hear you now, she's probably wishing that either the dragon or the _apparation _without a wand got her first."

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"That was for you being _stupid_ Louis! Your sister is lying there injured and you're making jokes!"

"You know her Cecilia! You know she'd rather be dead than have to face our parents' wrath."

Victoire was jolted awake by the argument that then ensued. At first, she thought the sounds she heard were just from her dream. Then she questioned herself why in the world she'd be dreaming about her mother and father wanting to kill her, or Louis having an argument with Cecilia Wood. That, coupled with the realization that Teddy's voice was nowhere near her (and he was always in her dreams, one way or another) she comprehended that she wasn't actually asleep anymore, and that the throbbing pain she felt in her back and lower right calf, were actually real.

She opened her eyes and saw that, although there was a crowd of people around her bed, none of them seemed to be paying attention to her, "Merlin you guys, you're fighting doesn't help the _pounding _headache I have."

"Victoire!" A loud voice screeched.

"Ally, I'm happy to see you too, but do you think you could use your indoor voice . . . wait, are we even inside?" Victoire asked as she quickly sat up (and regretted it the moment it happened because she felt a blistering trickle of pain travel down her spine) and took in her surroundings. She seemed to be in a tent like the one she waited in earlier before the task began. She also noticed that she was lying on some sort of hospital bed.

"So . . . what's wrong with me?" Victoire asked tentatively, she could see all of her friends and almost all of her family around her bed.

"We were actually hoping you could tell us Miss Weasley," Madame Pomfrey said as she squeezed in between Victoire's father and her Uncle Charlie to get closer to her patient. Her Aunt Angelina was close behind her.

"Well, my back is killing me," she looked down at her body to see if there was any glaring problem. She hadn't found one yet.

"Oh, what happened here? Did I splinch myself?" Victoire asked worriedly when she spotted a big splotch of red blood on the back of the black fabric covering her right calf.

"No," Madame Pomfrey said, her lips twitching.

"Then what was it?" Victoire asked.

Madame Pomfrey said nothing, and then looked away from Victoire's gaze. Causing Victoire's stare to change to Angelina. Her Aunt also wouldn't meet her eyes, but she did move her chin in the direction of Victoire's mother and father.

Victoire sighed. She was hoping to hold this conversation off until a little latter, "Okay, okay. Daddy, Mamma, I'm sorry all right. I didn't want to _apparate_ without a wand, but it was the only choice! If I didn't I would probably be either a pile of ashes, a dead body filled with enough dragon venom to kill a giant, or, be a heap of severed limbs."

Fleur's eyes started to tear up. "Oh, Mamma I didn't mean-" she was cut-off by Fleur's sudden, bone-crushing, hug.

"I em juzt glad zat you're een one peece," Fleur said, still not relinquishing her hold on her eldest daughter. It took both Bill and Charlie's combined persuasion and strength to peel Fleur off Victoire.

After removing her wife, Bill gave his daughter a gentle hug, "The blood on your pants is from a slash you got from the dragon."

Victoire pulled up her pant leg to see a pale pink scar, about two and a half inches long, along her calf. The scar was healed and looked like it could be years old.

Madame Pomfrey noticed her inspection, "We're not sure if you got it from the scales of the dragon, or from one of the spikes on the tail . . . but it's fully healed."

"Yes, fully healed, from when you _jumped onto a dragon's back_," Bill said through his teeth.

Victoire nodded sheepishly, _one parent's mad because I _apparated _without a wand and the other is angry because I jumped on a dragon's back; I guess I can't make _anyone_ happy._

Bill noticed Victoire contrite expression and added, "I don't fully blame you though, I've already had a discussion with Harry, Ron, and, Hermione and about what stories they tell you kids."

Victoire rolled her eyes, but then went back to examining her leg. She poked the scar. It wasn't a good idea.

"Ouch!"

Madame Pomfrey looked remorseful, "We didn't know how much pain you'd be in, so we didn't give you a very strong pain-killing-potion. We needed to make sure that you would wake up, and giving you a stronger dose would have knocked you out for a while."

"Speaking of time restraints," Percy said apologetically as he glanced down at his watch, "Victoire needs to get out there as soon as possible."

Victoire's eyes widened, "Is everyone still out there?"

There was a collective nod throughout her audience. "You've only been out for about fifteen minute's honey. And they wanted to wait for you so everyone could get their scores together," her Aunt Ginny said as she reached foreword to brush some of Victoire's hair off her face.

Victoire sighed. "I guess I'd better get going then," she said as she jumped up out of the bed.

"Ugh! Godric Gryffindor that wasn't a good idea," Victoire moaned as she hunched over onto her bed and waited out the spasm of pain that shot through her back again.

Angelina smirked a little, "We were waiting for you to wake up so we could see if there was anything else wrong with you."

Victoire nodded, "Thanks Auntie Ange, it's my back."

Angelina came by and lifted Victoire's shirt up at the back, "Hmm," she mused as she poked her back gently. Victoire ended up wincing a grand total of twenty-six times before Angelina finished.

"I think you bruised your spine. You did fall onto your back a lot."

"Which part of my spine?" Victoire asked.

"All of it."

"Oh."

Angelina smiled before pulling out her wand and muttering a healing spell. Within seconds, the fiery pain gave way to a cooling numbness. Victoire straightened up and sighed happily when she was able to move without pain.

"Thank-you."

"No problem Vic. At least this won't leave a mark," Angelina answered quietly.

Victoire nodded her head. Angelina was referring to the pink scar on her calf. Because of the Veela magic in her blood, the scar wouldn't be able to disappear completely, as the normal healing spell for it would do. Victoire figured as much when she saw that Madame Pomfrey had fixed it, but hadn't vanished the mark completely.

"Don't worry Vic," Uncle Charlie said coming around to throw his arm around her shoulders, "you still have a long way to go if you want to beat my record for number of scars."

Victoire smiled, "Thanks Uncle Charlie."

Harry and Ron began to usher everybody out so that Victoire could make her big début. As people began to trickle out of her room, Victoire noticed what was off.

"Where's Kingsley?" she asked as she scanned the room for his presence, Kingsley was _always_ there to wait by her bed when she was injured (not that it happened _a lot_ of the time . . .).

Ron snickered, "He's out probably scaring the crap out of half of the department of Magical Sports and Games."

Victoire gave her Uncle Ron a confused look. Harry sighed and elaborated, "They were in charge of putting the force field up between you and the dragon, and as you can remember, it didn't end up working that well."

"They're lucky that they're not in my department, or all of those idiots would be fired."

Victoire looked to the door to see the man that she's just been thinking about.

"Kingsley!"

"Hi Princess," Kingsley chuckled as he caught Victoire. She'd shot herself at him for a hug as soon as he'd walked into the tent.

"Are you okay? Is everything patched up?" Kingsley asked worriedly when she moved out of his arms.

"I'm fine. Madame Pomfrey fixed a tiny scratch I had on my leg, and Aunt Angelina healed a little pain I had in my back," Victoire answered flippantly.

Kingsley narrowed his eyes at her, "So you've got a scar and had to have one mess of a pain-killing charm didn't you?" Victoire nodded, not even surprised that Kingsley read through her little white lies.

More people had left the tent until it was just Harry, Kingsley, and Victoire left.

Victoire knew that this was about to become awkward, but she was too interested in the answer to care. "Where's Teddy?" she asked Harry quietly, she was becoming worried because she'd seen _absolutely everyone_ but him so far (she would have even gladly traded seeing _Xavier_ when she woke up, for instance, to even catch a glimpse of Teddy's face).

Harry smiled softly, "He went with some of the other Aurors when they went to check out what went wrong with the force field and scope out the area."

"Oh, I thought he was off today . . ."

"I am, but _somebody _keeps losing her things and needs me to pick up after her," the currently blue-haired Auror said as he strutted into tent, a smirk a mile wide on his face.

"Teddy!" Victoire exclaimed as she ran to him.

"Hey Vic," he answered as he caught her in a hug. Her arms went around his neck and her legs around his waist as she embraced him. Both of Teddy's arms went around her back and waist as he squeezed her to him. He twirled them around in a circle for a minute; like he used to do when they were kids. Victoire giggled quietly, but stopped suddenly when she felt his hand on her upper thigh.

When Teddy stopped spinning them, she swiftly climbed off him. Victoire looked at him oddly; she could still feel his hand on her thigh, "Um Teddy . . . what are you doing?"

He smirked at her quickly heating cheeks, her Veela blood seemed to be betraying her today, "Just look down already Victoire."

Her faced turned as red as her sister's hair before she finally looked down to where Teddy's hand was; touching the handle of her wand that was in the holster on her thigh.

"My wand!" Victoire squealed, in an uncharacteristically girly voice, "But-how-it fell out of my hand during the task."

"Yes, and I went back to get it when everyone else was canvassing the area to see who and what went wrong, I handled the _real _problem. The fact that you were without a wand," Teddy said as he watched the joy on Victoire's face.

She grinned widely, "You knew that the biggest thing I would be worried about when I regained consciousness was that I didn't have my wand."

"Well, when you remembered that you didn't have it on you, yes."

Victoire hugged him again. "Thank-you so much," she whispered into his neck. She would have felt very awkward and, well naked, when she realized that she didn't have her wand on her.

She felt his sweet breath stir up the flyaway's that had escaped her ponytail as he chuckled into her ear. "No problem," he sighed before moving to give her a sweet kiss on her forehead.

"A-hem," Harry cleared his throat awkwardly from behind them. They broke apart and Victoire had to hold in her giggle when she saw both Harry and Kingsley looking everywhere around the room, except for at the couple.

"Victoire," her uncle continued when he realized that it was okay to watch them again, "you really need to get out there and get your scores."

"Okay," Victoire said to Harry. "Thanks again," she said turning to Teddy and giving him a, somewhat, chaste kiss on the cheek.

When she moved to go past him, she felt his arms grab her by the waist, he leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Go get your scores, but don't even _think_ that I've said all that I need to say."

Victoire left the tent as fast as she could after that. _Crap. I knew he was going to take Dad and Mamma's side of _this _issue._

"Viktoree!" She sighed and tried to collect herself before turning around. She was really starting to feel tired. When she did turn around, she saw Konstantin hastily walking up to her.

"How do you fveel?" he asked his dark green eyes scanning her anxiously.

"I'm fine. All patched up now," Victoire answered, touched that he seemed so worried about her.

"Alvright, let's go gyet our scorvs then," Konstantin said with a smile gesturing for her to lead.

Victoire smiled at him and then took a about six steps forward before she felt the toe of her trainer come into contact with a patch of uneven ground. She was falling forward when she felt Konstantin grab her around the waist and pull her towards him. Because he'd been walking a few steps to her side, Victoire ended up in his arms, facing him, and with her own hands gripped to his biceps.

"Thank you," Victoire said as she pulled away from him, and rapidly moved her head from side to side to see if there was anyone around to the classic damsel in distress position she'd just been in with Konstantin. She didn't see anyone. She sighed in relief before they continued to make their way to the judges' platform. Victoire; paying close attention to where her feet were going this time.

It only took them a few minutes before they reached the platform. When they stepped onto it, there was a deafening applause. They quickly walked over to where Noëlle was standing by herself, in front of the row of judges.

Once they were in place, Flannery moved to the magical microphone again, "Well, here we are, back after a quick break. Now wasn't that an absolutely entertaining first task for a Tri-Wizard Tournament?"

There was a loud smattering of applause, "Okay now without further ado, we'll start with the scores. If Miss Varens would please step forward into the red ring . . ."

Noëlle did, not without looking down at the ring with disgust first and then shooting Victoire a scowl. Victoire looked closer at the ring and saw speckles of red near it, for some reason she didn't think that it was the same paint that was used to make the ring. _No wonder everyone was so worried about me; that looks like a lot of blood loss right there. . ._

"Now, if every judge would please hold up their score card, and then clearly say what score they are giving Miss Varens. We will start with the host of our Tournament, Headmistress McGonagall from Hogwarts."

McGonagall looked almost bored as she held up her card and read out the score, "Six."

Next to her was Headmaster Jaroslov, "Five."

Beside him was Madame Maxine, "Eight."

"Seven," Mr. Granville, the head of the department of Magical Sports and Games from the Ministry of Magic, announced.

"And lastly," Flannery said, "a seven from me. Which makes Miss Varens' score -the champion from Beauxbatons Academy- thirty-three for the First Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament?"

Minister Flannery waited for the applause for Noëlle to die down before continuing, "Now if Mr. Krum would step into the circle . . ."

Noëlle and Konstantin changed places with one another and the scoring began again.

"Seven," McGonagall announced.

"Nine!" Jaroslov cried.

"Five," Madame Maxine said.

"Eight," Mr. Grenville declared.

"And it's an eight from me," Flannery stated, "All together Mr. Krum -champion from Durmstrang Institute- has a score of thirty-seven!"

Konstantin's face had started to turn red before the applause came down. "And now for Miss Weasley," Flannery said trying his hardest _not_ to sound like he'd just eaten a particularly bad tasting _Puking Pastille_.

Victoire and Konstantin traded spots with nothing more than a nod of the head, and now it was time for what Victoire was dreading. The time when it would just be her in the spotlight. She kinda wished that she could just go back to the dragon's lair; she'd rather battle it again without a wand, than stand here in front of what seemed to be the entire population of the Wizarding World, while five people gave her scores on her (even though she'll deny it anytime her family asked) very near death experience.

Victoire looked to McGonagall, knowing that she was about to start the scoring. She gave Victoire a sly wink, "Eight."

Headmaster Jaroslov was next. He scrutinized Victoire minutely before saying grudgingly, "Seven."

Victoire's heart started to beat faster; she looked to the next judge. Madame Maxine was looking at her longingly for a minute before answering, "Eight."

She whipped her head to look at Mr. Granville, her scores were sounding pretty, well, not bad so far.

"Eight," he proclaimed.

Victoire looked to Minister Flannery; his score could either put her in the lead, or leave her behind.

Flannery smiled pompously at Victoire before lifting his microphone to his face, "And it's a four from me."

She froze; _he did not just say he was giving me a _four_! _She shook her head and looked back to Flannery he was frowning at something off to the side. It took Victoire a minute to realize that it was because more than half of the audience was _booing_ him, and yelling some rather interesting things . . .

"ARE YOU NUTS!"

"WERE YOU WATCHING THE SAME TASK WE WERE WATCHING?"

After several more _interesting-sounding_ things were yelled, Flannery asked everyone to be quiet, "Miss Weasley, while she may have exhibited one or two _mediocre_ charms and spells, ended up breaking one of the cardinal rules of Wizarding magic. She attempted _apparation_ without a wand. And whether she came out of it in one piece or not, it shows a gross oversight, and horrible planning on her part."

"Minister Flannery, Miss Weasley only _apparated_ without a wand because hers was out of her possession and because she was in a life or death situation. If anything, her ability to make it through her apparation in one piece should be an example of how skilled she is with wandless magic," Professor McGonagall said trying to calm the tense atmosphere that had transpired.

"The situation Miss Weasley was in, and a small investigation will take place to see that nothing was tampered with, while sad, was nothing more than what she signed up for, or what her fellow champions had to work through. Heck, if she'd found her map faster, she wouldn't have still been there when the dragon came back."

Victoire had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from yelling something that would definitely cost her more points from Flannery.

Flannery smiled oily when the crowd had become quiet, "Now Miss Weasley's entire score is thirty-five. Next I would like the other champions to come up and join Miss Weasley, so we can see how they did with their additional task and give them their second scores."

Noëlle scowled at Victoire as she came to stand to the right of her. Konstantin, on the other hand, was much nicer and winked at her as he came to stand to her left.

Flannery came closer to them and stood next to Noëlle, "Were you able to get your map Miss Varens?"

Noëlle smiled widely and nodded as she pulled a many times folded over, yellowed piece of paper. She unfolded it and held it up for all to see.

Flannery nodded approvingly, "Very nice Miss Varens. Now for this part of the task, each of you will just get one score out of ten, and your points will be added up for a separate score. Each champion will have to show their map before we give each of you a score seeing as your scores will be decided in conjunction with another.

"Mr. Krum, you were the next champion to go, it's your turn. Did you retrieve your map?"

Konstantin nodded and unfolded a yellowed map that looked similar to Noëlle's.

"Good Mr. Krum," Flannery said, "Now for Miss Weasley."

Victoire grinned and reached down to her wand holster where she'd stashed her map before she _disapperated_ earlier. She unfolded it and held it up proudly.

"Wat eez zat?" Noëlle asked haughtily as she looked at what Victoire was holding with an eyebrow cocked.

"Is not vat a Sleeverin Hovse bannver?" Konstantin asked confused as he looked at the ratty green and silver coloured piece of fabric Victoire was clutching.

"Yes, it's an old Slytherin banner, but it's also my map," Victoire answered confidently.

Noëlle laughed haughtily, "I zink zat you muzt 'ave 'it you 'ead dureeng your tazk. Zat eez not a map."

"It's more of a map than yours," Victoire shot back.

Noëlle bristled, "Reelly? And why would you zay zat?"

Victoire turned to Noëlle and pointed to the map she was holding, "That is not a map of Hogwarts. Yes, there's a lake and yes, there's a forest, but we don't have a garden of _Mimbulus mimbletonia_. And if you remember from fourth-year _Herbology_, the only place _Mimbulus mimbletonia _will grow naturally outside is it's native home of Assyria. So I don't know what this map is for, but unless there is a school in Assyria that has a _Forbidden Forest_, a _Black Lake_, and a garden of _Mimbulus Mimbletonia_, this map won't be very useful."

Noëlle's face turned red with either anger or embarrassment (Victoire couldn't tell) as she brought her map closer to her face for inspection. Her green eyes narrowed venomously at the paper, as if it was its fault that it was false.

"But 'ow deed you know zat ziz map waz wrong before you eeven looked at eet?" Noëlle asked once she took her eyes away from her map.

Victoire shot the yellowed paper a calm look, "Because it looks too much like a map. There's no way they'd make that part of the task that easy. Plus, it did move when I said _accio_ map in the dragon's lair."

"But Konstanteen's map looks juzt like mine," Noëlle said, only slightly less venom in her voice.

Victoire looked at Konstantin and held out her hand. He nodded his head and handed it over to her. Both of her other champions came closer to her so they could see what she was seeing in the map.

"Hmm, this one's harder, the shape is very similar to the grounds at Hogwarts, but there are some mistakes that just won't work."

"Leek vat?" Konstantin asked intrigued. He hadn't noticed anything wrong when he grabbed it. Then again, he just did a cursorily glance.

Victoire pointed to the top right corner of the page, "The compass rose is off. The lake should be North-North-East of the Castle, as opposed to West-North-West. And that means everything else is wrong, including the fact that the orientation of the cliff to the Castle is completely inaccurate too. Plus some of these words are incorrect."

"Are vey not reweens?" Konstantin asked.

Victoire squinted at the writing before shaking her head slowly, "No, some of them are words written in Ancient runes, but a lot of these are either not real words or some of them are completely made up runes. Either way, it wouldn't be very helpful to direct you if it even showed you what you were looking for in the first place."

"Hmm, vell vat's not good," Konstantin mused.

Noëlle looked like she was about to scream, "Weell I highly doubt your choice waz aneey better. Zere ez no writeeng on your _map_ at all."

Victoire rolled her eyes, looked at the old Slytherin banner, and waved her wand over it, "_Revelio_."

Konstantin's eyes widened and Noëlle's narrowed as the words appeared on the banner.

"Nice try Blondie, but how about you use the magic words next," Victoire read off from the banner.

Noëlle broke out into giggles, "Yez, zat ez abzolutely a mageecal map."

Konstantin shrugged his shoulder sympathetically, "It's okeey, neiver Noëlle or my maps vorked."

Victoire smirked, "Oh, I'm not done yet."

"Zen wat do you zink ze mageec wordz are?" Noëlle mocked.

"Hmm, well it is a Slytherin banner. And since it seems that I haven't been put through enough torture today, I'm guessing that the magic words are: Salazar Slytherin is the most talented and cunning Wizard in the entirety of Wizarding history," Victoire said confidently, even though she secretly wanted to throw up in her mouth for saying those traitorous words.

The banner glowed with bright white light before the green and silver fabric gave way to beige paper and black ink. Victoire scanned the paper greedily and was intrigued at what she saw. It seemed to be a half finished map of the entire boundaries of Hogwarts school grounds, _only, it looks like it's from the underneath_, Victoire thought as she noticed what looked like a drawing of roots and the underground tunnel near the words _Whomping Willow_, instead of a sketch of the tree like in a regular map. _Hmm, interesting. I can't see exactly where it's going to lead, though, because it's not finished, but maybe after the next task . . ._

"A-hem."

All three champions looked up to see Flannery glaring at them, or more specifically, Victoire. _I guess he doesn't like it that the champions are getting along._

"Are you three finished?" Flannery asked, looking like his patience was about to run out.

They nodded mutely.

Flannery opened his mouth to speak, but Professor McGonagall stepped up and spoke out first, "Now that the champions have figured out who has a map and who doesn't, the scores for this part of the task seem pretty straight forward." McGonagall gave Flannery a specific look before gesturing to Mr. Grenville to announce the scores.

"It's a rather unanimous decision; Miss Varens will get four points for obtaining a map of similar appearance to that of the Hogwarts grounds. Mr. Krum will be given five points for finding a map of similar qualities to that of one of Hogwarts grounds. And Miss Weasley will be given a total of eight points, for finding, a correct map of Hogwarts grounds," Mr. Grenville broadcasted.

Noëlle, Konstantin, and Victoire stood as their audience applauded. When it started to die down Flannery called for everyone's attention, "And that concludes the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The regular standings are as follows, Kr. Krum from Durmstrang Institute is in the lead with a thirty-seven, Miss Weasley from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is in second with thirty-five, and Miss Varens from Beauxbatons Academy is in last with thirty-three points. The standings for the special scores are as follows; Miss Weasley is in first with an eight, Mr. Krum in second with a six, and Miss Varens close behind him with a five."

* * *

Well there it is! I hoped you liked it!

A/N:

1.) Thank-you to everyone for their understanding, prayers, and good wishes for my friend and her family. They have gotten out of surgery and, well, they've got a lot of broken bones, but they're alive, and they will be able to recover from all the physical problems, so thanks again for the support. They aren't out of the woods yet, but they're much better than they were.

2.) This is the end of the First Task, but there's still a lot to go, the action will definitely be picking up from here on ;)

3.) I know the scoring system can sound a little confusing, but as you here more of it, you'll be able to get it, and undersatnd why I used it.

4.) Bad news: Exams are about to start in two weeks for me, which means I might not be able to update as soon as you'd like.

5.) Good news: After exams, the new symester starts, which means I've got a spare class, and I'll (hopefully) have more time to write, and get some chapters done ahead of time so I can update regularily.

6.) Next week, there's a littl less action, but some very invetive insults, and a lot of Teddy/Victoire fluff. Plus, some answers to some questions you guys might have had ;)

**Reviewers!** Thank-you so so so so much for reviewing it means a lot. And thnaks to everyone who's read, subscribed/favourited, or just enjoyed reading. I'd love to hear absolutely anything from all of you. Feedback helps me know what I'm doing right, and what I'm doing wrong ;)

**An especially big thanks to:**

**Amara**,** mykk47**, **confusednikki24-7**, and **Just passing by**.

**xLauraElizabeth**: Thanks so much. I'm sorry about the cliffhanger, but know you know what happened!

**brilliant** **incandescence**: I hope you liked it, I updated sooner than either of us thoguht! And wow, you said my writting's amazing, but after reading you're review it sounds more like I'm becoming predictable ;)

**redwolf12**: I'm glad that you liked how it mirrored Harry and Fleur's task, I was worried people would think that it was unoriginal, but I like giving JKR her props. Yes, Cecilia is a very interesting little girl, and she will become more interesting as time goes by . . . I love all the questions you asked, that's exactly what I wanted, and I hope I answered them to your satisfaction. Thank you, for your prayers, and don't worry, I am religious (a practicing Roman Catholic to be percise), but even if I wasn't I don't think showing that someone who is in need is in your thoughts is an insult. Even when the tricky topic of religion in concerned, saying that you'll pray to, whatever you choose to, shows that you fully support that person, in whatever way you can. I hope this chapter and the next continue to live up to (and maybe pass) your expectations :)

**Yellowtomato**: Wow, I'm so glad that you like my story. It's not Ron's scar . . . but Charlie has some cool ones too. ;)

**SaphireRose17**: I'm always glad to aid in the addiction of someone to literature in any form. 12 hours, wow, you're good, and again, wow, the best Teddy ever . . . well know I'm blushing, and probably going to get a big head, but thank-you for the ego-boost ;) And if you liked Teddy here, well just wait until the next chapter.


	38. Talentless Trolls

A/N: Well look at this . . . A new chapter just on time :)

I hope you enjoy! This chapter has some nice insults, some good ol' Vic/Teddy fluff, and a pair of embarrassed Slytherins!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or anything pertaining to it.

* * *

Talentless Trolls

"How're you feeling Vic?" Ally asked as she jumped on her cousin's bed, waiting for her to finish with her hair.

Victoire rolled her eyes as she glanced at Ally's form in the mirror in front of her. She loves her cousin dearly, but if one more person asked her those exact words, in that exact order, she was going to scream, "For the last time Ally, I'm fine. I'm a little tired, but that's to be expected, I mean, I did just _apparate_ without a wand."

"Yes, but how are you _really_ feeling Victoire?" Xavier Wood asked as he grinned from his seat on the floor near the foot of Victoire's bed.

Victoire turned around and threw her hairbrush at her fellow Head, knowing that he was only asking her again because he _knew_ that it would get on her nerves.

"Xavier if you don't stop being a pain in the arse, I'm going to have Professor Longbottom revoke your privileges to be able to get into the girls' dormitory," she threatened as she glanced into the mirror once more before deciding to pull her hair back in a messy bun.

Xavier rolled his eyes at her baseless threat. Victoire moved across the room to grab her chapstick from the table beside her bed, and was about to say that they could 'go now', when a knock on the door interrupted her. The knock was followed by the opening of the door Sandra entering the room, dragging Kyle by the hand behind her.

"Are you guys ready for the party yet?" Sandra asked hurriedly.

"I don't even know why we're having a party. It's not like I won today," Victoire grumbled as she sat down next to Ally on the bed. She was so dejected with her scores (mostly Flannery's) that she didn't even bother to question Sandra on how she was able to get Kyle _into _their dormitory.

Sandra came and sat on the other said of Victoire, "Hey, at least you're alive and in one piece Sweetie."

"Yeah, but I also have an ugly scar on my leg, and what do I have to show for it? Second place!"

Xavier sighed, "It was the First Task Victoire! Get over it; you can't win everything. You're in great standings for the rest of the Tournament, and you're in the lead for special scores, plus you're the only one who picked the right map!"

Victoire stood up and matched Xavier's glare. They stood toe-to-toe, glaring at each, other for an uncomfortable five minutes while, their friends sat by and watched from an awkwardly close distance. Ally was just about to ask them to 'please-stop-trying-to-kill-each-other-with-your-eyes', when they suddenly broke their gazes and Xavier pulled Victoire into a hug.

"Thanks Xav, I'm just so exhausted, I didn't mean to snap," Victoire apologized into his chest.

He chuckled as he pulled lightly on a loose strand of hair that she'd missed putting into her bun, "It's okay Vic; anytime you need me smack some sense into you, I'll be there."

They broke apart and then turned to look at their friends. "Ready to go to this stupid party?" Victoire asked.

Kyle and Sandra nodded; their mouths still open wide, while Ally burst out into a fit of giggles. "I forgot that you guys used to do that a lot," Ally reminisced as she thought back to many circumstances over the years when, either one of them was being an idiot; the only one able to snap them back into shape was each other.

"Yup," Kyle said answering Victoire's question from earlier when he and Sandra remembered how to close their mouths, "If there's one thing Gryffindors' know how to do, it's party!"

Victoire rolled her eyes, but had no evidence to the contrary, mostly because he was right; every Gryffindor she knew definitely did know how to party. They all got up and walked down to the party in the common room in silence. Victoire wasn't exactly sure what to say to her friends just yet. She knew they were all dying to ask her about how she'd felt during the task (even though they already saw it all) and that they also wanted to talk to her about how Noëlle and Konstantin did with their tasks, because they knew she hadn't seen them. But none of them wanted to be the first person to broach the subject, and Victoire didn't want to talk about it until she had the chance to talk to Teddy first, and even though she knew exactly where he'd be right now, she knew she wasn't going to have the chance to talk to him anytime soon.

Victoire was the last to walk down the staircase, and at the bottom of them, she found herself standing in the middle of a round of applause. _Great, the centre of attention again, and I thought I had it up to my limit already today, but I guess I still need more._

Victoire ended up spending an hour talking to what seemed like the entirety of Gryffindor House, and many people from other houses, discussing her task. She thought that this part was going to be painful, but it wasn't that bad. The party had started a good half-hour before Victoire and her friends came down, and by then everyone who was planning on drinking alcohol was already slightly buzzed if not more so. Because of this, Victoire's conversations with her fellow Gryffindors' were filled with slightly slurred repetitions of the same lines: "Way to dodge the lava geysers", "I can't believe you actually jumped onto that dragon!", "I definitely thought you were going to be burnt into a crisp", "How did you not splinch yourself?", and "You looked great in those pants". The last phrase wasn't repeated an a lot, but enough to make Victoire feel very uncomfortable and want to leave her present companion as soon as possible, she couldn't do that though, because if she did she'd be giving that person an even better view of her as she walked away from them. After finishing a conversation with a group of fifth-year boys (who spent the majority of the time thinking that Victoire didn't notice them taking turns ogling her), she quickly squeezed through a small gap in the rowdy crowd, as she attempted to get to the other side of the Common Room, where she could see her friends sitting on couches and chairs.

"Good Godric it's official, I'd rather face a Norwegian Ridgeback without a wand, than be the centre of attention of the entire -drunk mind you- population of Gryffindor," Victoire groaned as she squeezed in between Xavier and Ally on the love seat; facing Kyle and Sandra who were wrapped around each other in a single armchair, _again_.

"And you would know Vic," Kyle said, snickering at her obvious dishevelment.

Victoire shot her best friend's boyfriend a scowl, "It's a good thing that you're cute and that you make Sandy happy, or I'd be pressuring her to dump you right now for being rude to her best mate."

Kyle gasped and placed his hand to his heart in faux-shock, "You wouldn't!"

Sandra giggled and kissed Kyle's cheek. Victoire rolled her eyes and grabbed the red plastic cup that Xavier had been holding.

"Hey!" he exclaimed half-heartedly.

Victoire narrowed her eyes at him before touching her lips to the rim of the cup and taking a sip. She swallowed and then scowled at Xavier while she gave him his cup back.

"We _are_ at a party Wood, and it is a Saturday night, you _can_ drink something other than soda."

Xavier rolled his eyes at her, "Just because I am old enough to legally drink, doesn't mean that I have to at every opportunity."

"Just admit it, you're still feeling the effects of the massive hangover you had at my birthday party in the summer," Victoire shot back smirking.

Xavier's ears turned red and he grumbled something that sounded like 'that's-the-last-time-I'm-ever-drinking-with-a-Weasley'.

Victoire laughed, "Well I hope you're not keeping that resolution, because it's someone's seventeenth birthday at the end of the month . . ."

Ally smiled sweetly from her spot beside her cousin, "Yes it is, but there is no way I'm going to let you get me completely drunk on my birthday Vic."

"Aww," Victoire complained, "C'mon Ally, it is tradition. Sandra did it, Kyle did it, I did it and Xavier . . . well, he didn't get drunk on his birthday, but I _did_ make him get drunk on mine."

"You know what; we're not going to come to an agreement on this Vic, so how about we table this discussion for some other time. For now, just enjoy your party," Ally answered, handing the blonde her half drank bottle of butter beer.

Victoire took the offering from her cousin and took a gulp before giving it back. After Victoire's thirst had been quenched, she and her friends settled into a conversation on one of their safe subjects, mainly they were gossiping about how weird some of their classmates got when they were exposed to alcohol. Victoire was just laughing about how a very drunk looking Pamela Mace was starting to follow Chris around, even though he kept asking her to leave him alone so that he could talk to Belle Wimbley of Ravenclaw, when Rose Weasley and Albus Potter seemed to pop up from nowhere.

Victoire glared at them as she accepted a hug from Rose, "What are you guys doing up?"

"You know that you're too young for this party," Ally added sternly.

"We know we know, we were just up with Fred and James when Rose decided that she wanted to come say goodnight before she went to bed, and she didn't want to come alone," Al explained.

"Well that's very sweet Rosie, but it's time for you to go to bed now. Go."

"Yes Victoire," the two said in unison before leaving to go to their separate dormitories.

"And since they're leaving, I guess it's time for me to go too," Victoire said as she glanced down at her watch.

"What? It's only nine-thirty Vic, you can't be that tired," Sandra complained.

Victoire gave her friend a cursory glance and seriously thought about asking her how much she'd had to drink already that night, before deciding against it, "I am, but I'm not going to bed, I have patrol duty tonight."

"What?" Xavier asked surprised.

"I have patrol duty with Austin Pennington tonight," Victoire repeated through her teeth.

"WHAT!" Ally almost screeched.

"Merlin kids get your hearing checked, I HAVE PATROL DUTY WITH AUSTIN PENNINGTON TONIGHT AND I'M SUPPOSED TO MEET HIM IN FIVE MINUTES OUTSIDE THE PORTRAIT HOLE!" Victoire said loudly but calmly.

"We heard you the first time Vic, what confuses me is why you've known about this for a few days, and you knew that it would be the night after the First Task, and why you didn't ask me to cover for you," Xavier explained sympathetically.

Victoire sighed, "I was going to Xavier, but Professor Linkwell told me specifically that there was no way I'd be allowed to change up the patrolling schedule again, he's still angry about the last time you switched with Austin so I wouldn't have to work with him."

Xavier nodded understandingly, and Victoire said her quick goodbyes to her friends before braving her way through the throng of people partying to make it to the portrait hole, and into the corridor. She only had to stand by herself outside the hole for a minute before she saw Pennington make his way down the corridor, and come to a stop near her side.

He looked bored as he checked her out, thinking that she didn't see him, "Ready to go Weasley?"

Victoire rolled her eyes and took off down the hall, without waiting to see if he was even following her or not.

* * *

"Hey Weasley . . ." Austin started as he walked beside Victoire. She had to close her eyes, take a deep breath, and count to ten before she was able to answer him without thinking that she really would punch him in the face. She was really tired, and sore (the pain-killing charm her Aunt Angelina had given her earlier during the day was starting to fade), and she was in no mood to deal with Austin's smart-arse comments or blatant ogling. They only had two hours, twenty-two minutes and eighteen seconds (not that Victoire was counting) left in their patrol, and she'd had hoped that if she ignored him, he would quickly get bored of trying to rile her up. Her plan had been going rather well for the past half-hour or so, but it seemed like Austin was intent on getting a response this time, he'd been saying her name repeatedly for the past five minutes and hadn't even taken a breath.

"Yes, Pennington," Victoire finally asked through her teeth. _Don't lose your temper, don't lose your temper, don't lose your temper_, she chanted to herself.

"I just thought I should tell you that I really enjoyed watching you in the First Task today."

Victoire eyed him suspiciously, "Really . . . well thank you, I guess."

Pennington smiled at her, "Yes. It was quite a change to see you so vulnerable like that, you know, people would probably like you more if you acted like that more often than the Ice Queen you usually portray."

Victoire stopped where she was. She'd definitely filled her 'talking-to-stupid-people' limit today, "Well thanks Pennington, and may I say that if you act like _your_ true charming self more often it wouldn't justbe _me_, turning you down left, right, and centre."

Pennington stopped walking and turned to face Victoire, "And do you know what my favourite part of the task today was?"

Victoire folded her arms across her chest, "And what was that?"

"Anytime the cameras were following you from behind. You're arse looked really great in those pants."

Victoire had to hold her fist back with her other hand to stop from punching him, "And that is exactly why I hope you had a good look at it today, because that's as close as you're going to get to it, or any other part of me. That's also why I know you're not in Gryffindor, because you're a sexist, chauvinistic pig!"

"And you're a frigid cow!"

"You're a pathetic pillock!"

"YOU'RE AN ATTENTION SEEKING TART!"

"AND YOU'RE A TALENTLESS TROLL!"

"YOU, WEASLEY ARE A HEARTLESS SLAG AND A-"

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!"

Victoire and Austin's heads whipped around to see Professor Linkwell coming toward them with the oddest assortment of people in his wake. Behind a very angry looking Linkwell was a tired looking Professor Longbottom, two confused looking Aurors: Ted Lupin and Kurt Williamson, and two peculiarly sheepish looking Slytherins: Colton Knott and Anastasia Greengrass. Before Victoire could wonder what those six were doing together, Professor Linkwell glared at Victoire and Pennington again before repeating himself.

"I asked, what is going on, and I expect you to tell me right now."

"Well we were patrolling the corridors together when all of a sudden Weasley just started to yell at me-" Austin spit out before Victoire broke in.

"_Oh Hades no_. You are not going to try to pin all this blame on me _Mr.-I-think-that-telling-a-girl-that-the-only-nice-thing-about-her-is-her-arse-and-that-it's-the-same-thing-as-giving-her-a-compliment_," Victoire snarled at Pennington. She may not care about what he thinks about her, but she was really past her quota of stupidness for the day, and Austin Pennington's special brand of stupid was _really_ concentrated, and _really_ getting on her nerves.

Pennington glared at her, "Listen little _Miss-always-the-centre-of-attention_, just because you're used to always getting your way doesn't mean that you can blame everything on me just when it looks like you're about to get in trouble."

"Actually, _this _little attention seeker can because _you _were the one who started it all," Victoire shot back, as she felt a series of pinpricks of pain stabbing her just above her left eye.

Pennington's face turned red, "You are such a-"

"Okay, okay, I can see that we're not getting anywhere," Professor Longbottom broke in. He really wasn't up to seeing Victoire try to attack one of her fellow Head Boys this late in the day. "So, what I got out of your conversation was that you two are patrolling the corridors together and you got into an argument."

Victoire nodded, still scowling at Pennington. "Okay, now I know I should be asking more pressing questions, but I need you to answer this one first, how in the world did you end up on the patrolling schedule for tonight Miss Weasley?"

Victoire moved her eyes in Linkwell's direction as an explanation. Professor Longbottom looked at Linkwell expectantly. He frowned and muttered out, "Just because she was in the Tri-Wizard Tournament doesn't mean she can shirk her responsibilities as a Head Girl."

Professor Longbottom looked like he was even about to yell at Linkwell, "Professor Linkwell, Miss Weasley almost died today, I think we could cut her some slack. And I definitely think that she should be going back to her dormitory right away to get some rest."

"But Mr Pennington can't be expected to patrol for the next two hours by himself," Professor Linkwell argued.

"He won't have to," Professor Longbottom said turning around suddenly to look at Colton Knott.

Colton could see where Professor Longbottom was going, and he didn't like it. There was no way he'd be stuck doing Victoire's patrol for the rest of the night, "But Professor we can't just change the schedule like-"

"And," Professor Longbottom said speaking over Colton's complaints, "If you'll be so kind as to agree to this schedule change, then I'd be willing to overlook the fact that _both_ you and Miss Greengrass should be receiving detentions for your previous indiscretion tonight."

Colton shared a look with Anastasia (which reminded Victoire that she really needed to find out what happened to make them look so embarrassed, especially since Professor Longbottom had just used the word _indiscretion_), and then nodded, "'Kay, I'll take Weasley's patrol, but she'll have to take one of mine later in the week."

"Fine," Victoire snapped, "Come find me when you figure out which one you want to ditch." She had a very strong feeling, that whatever time the patrol she got would be, she'd be patrolling with Shelly Alexander of Hufflepuff, because Godric forbid a Slytherin be forced to work with a Hufflepuff.

Colton raised an eyebrow at Victoire but didn't say anything. Professor Longbottom smiled when he saw that everyone seemed to agree, more or less, to the arrangement, "Very well, now Mr Pennington and Mr Knott will go and patrol, and I'll ask the Aurors to escort these ladies back to their Common Rooms."

_Crap. Teddy's here. And he just saw me snap at both Pennington and Knott,_ Victoire thought worriedly when she heard Neville mention Aurors. She'd completely forgotten that Teddy and his friend Kurt were standing there during the entire interaction.

Professor Linkwell looked like he wanted to argue, but about what, Victoire didn't know. Professor Longbottom continued, "Mr Lupin can escort Miss Weasley back to Gryffindor Tower, and Mr Williamson can escort Miss Greengrass back to the Slytherin dungeons."

Victoire had to concentrate very hard to stop a grin a kilometre wide from breaking across her face. Professor Longbottom seemed to sense Victoire's happiness and smirked at her before saying, "And you Miss Weasley will be going straight to bed once you get to your dormitory, and not to the party that is going on in the Common Room, that I know nothing about, understood?"

Victoire smiled at Professor Longbottom and nodded.

"Alright then, good night ladies."

Victoire turned around and walked back down the corridor she and Austin Pennington had just checked. She didn't look back, but she could tell that Teddy was following close behind her because she could hear his soft steps echoing off the stone floor. Victoire walked down several corridors before stopping in front of a bare stretch of wall. She finally turned around and looked at Teddy; she had one eyebrow raise questioningly. He understood right away and shot a look down both ends of the hallway before nodding. Victoire closed her eyes and thought of what she wanted, before opening them again and stepping through the door that had just appeared, and into the Room of Requirement.

Victoire made a beeline to the soft looking couch that was in the middle of the medium sized room, and sat on top of a cushion at one end, with her legs crossed underneath her. Teddy smiled slightly as he though back to the many conversations they'd had over the years, with the both of them sitting in the same position on either ends of a couch. It was a position they always assumed whenever they needed to talk about something important, and Teddy knew that there were several important things they needed to talk about. He crossed the room without hesitation and mirrored Victoire's position on the other end of the sofa. It was a small couch, their knees ended up being only a few inches apart from each other's.

They looked at each other wordlessly for a minute before Teddy spoke, "What happened with you and Pennington tonight?"

Victoire looked down at the hands she had folded in her lap, and wrung her fingers nervously, she knew that Teddy would never be upset with her for her actions (in fact he hated Austin even more than she did). But she still didn't want him knowing about how . . . mean she'd been in retaliation; which was weird, because before they were dating, she didn't care if she sounded _nice_ or not when she was around him. _Wow, dating Teddy seems to have turned me . . . _girly_._

"You first," Victoire countered, "How did you end up in the company of Neville, Linkwell, Colton and Anastasia?"

Teddy sighed, he knew she was going to insist that he answer first, "Kurt and I were patrolling when we came across Colton and Anastasia . . . well . . . _together_."

"Wait!" Victoire said, "Together as in . . . you caught them snogging?"

He pulled a face that looked like he'd eaten an especially sour lemon drop, "Yeah, I didn't know that Slytherin's had it in them for some good ol' fashioned PDA, but hey they seemed to know what they were doing."

"_Eww_, thanks for putting that image of Colton Knott in my mind Teddy, that's definitely something I'm going to see in my nightmares from now on," she protested jokingly.

"Hey! I'm the one who actually saw it; if anyone's going to have nightmares with Colton Knott in them, it's now going to be me. The only bright side was that Neville came along with Professor Linkwell almost as soon as Kurt and I got there, and we didn't have to do anything in the way of discipline, that would have just been even more awkward."

Victoire nodded, as she tried to imagine the look on Colton's face when he saw that he and Anastasia had been caught and by Teddy no less.

"Now," Teddy said locking eyes with Victoire; dark sapphire to bright ocean-blue, "What was going on with you and Pennington?"

Victoire sighed, "How much did you hear?"

"We came in at 'attention-seeking tart', but you quickly replied with 'talentless troll', nice alliteration by the way," he complimented.

"Thank-you. Well, Austin and I were patrolling, I was doing a good job at ignoring his idiot comments but the Git just kept 'em coming. I was trying not to crack, but then he told me that if I stopped acting like an emotionless Ice Queen everyone would like me better, and that his favourite part of the Tournament today was getting to see my arse in those stupidly tight track pants," she complained.

Teddy's mouth popped open rather comically, before he slid down the couch to Victoire's side, "You know he was just being an arse, right Love? Everything he said was totally wrong, except for the part of about your derrière looking good that is, I may hate Pennington, but he's definitely correct about you having a nice arse."

Victoire's Veela blood betrayed her once more today, and her face turned Weasley red as she blushed at Teddy's attempt at easing the tense atmosphere, "Really? Because some of what he said made sense, I can be very . . . mean and emotionless at times."

He placed his hand comfortingly on her cheek, "Yes, you can be mean sometimes, but everyone has their times, and sometimes people deserve it. Second, you are _never _emotionless; take this from someone who has known you since you were an _hour_ old. Pennington knows nothing about you, but I do. Trust me Vic, Pennington was the problem today, just as he always is when you get in fights."

"You can't blame him every time though, you were the first one to throw the punch when you got into that fight in seventh-year," Victoire reminded him.

Teddy grinned at the memory, "Yes I was the first to get physical, but he started it when he tried to slip you that love-potion."

She nodded in confirmation, "Fine, but I'm only backing down so easily because I'm so tired."

Teddy's jaw tightened at her words, his thumb still drawing comfortingly soft circles on her cheekbone, "Why?"

Victoire swallowed audibly. His one word question asking for so much more than she thought she was willing to share. She had to remind herself that this was Teddy though, and that no matter the changes they had made to their relationship, he was her best friend first.

"How about we start with something simpler? Nobody's told me yet what Noëlle and Konstantin had to go through today."

Teddy sighed but saw that Victoire wasn't ready to go into details yet. He spent about a half-hour minding to her whims as he summarized how Noëlle had to face an active volcano and some Blast-ended Skrewerts, or how Konstantin had to go up against a fire-breathing Chimera. As Victoire listened to his descriptions she realized, that they had all come very close to death today, and the fact that they were then judged on how they survived, was just ridiculous.

"So . . ." Teddy said as he finished regaling Victoire with Noëlle's and Konstantin's struggles and triumphs.

Victoire knew where he was going and looked down at the couch in between them to where their hands lay. While Teddy had talked to her, their hands had ended up migrating towards each other, until they were intertwined and resting on the plush upholstery.

"Before I went out, I felt so nervous. Your note helped a lot, but the waiting just ended up killing me . . . according to Kurt, I looked like I was about to toss my cookies."

Teddy rolled his eyes, knowing that it would just be so _Kurt_, to say something childish like that, and at such an inappropriate time.

Victoire smiled and continued, "You saw everything that happened after that . . ."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Why?" He asked again.

"It was the only thing I could think of. The only way to get past that dragon was to get through the gap he left after he scorched everything. And to get through, I had to stand there while he did it."

"We were debating and trying to figure out . . . but it just happened so fast . . . did you actually- was all of you alight with your Veela fire and powers?" Teddy stuttered out.

Victoire nodded self-consciously, she was trying to read his expression, but she didn't see anything past the concerned looking eyes framed by his messy, currently chocolate-brown, hair.

"I didn't know you could do that," he said quietly.

"Neither did I," she answered honestly; she had no idea if her plan would even work before she tried it.

Teddy's eyes turned fierce, "What? Are you saying you went and stood there while a dragon blew fire at you, and you weren't even sure if your plan to survive would work?"

Victoire closed her eyes tightly and shook her head. There was silence as she sat next to him, eyes still closed. She was afraid of what she'd see in his face when she opened them. The tone of his voice had definitely been angry.

She ended up opening her eyes though, opening them up wide with shock when she felt his lips suddenly pressing against hers. She closed them a second later as one of her hands moved to grab the back of his head so she could press her lips harder to his, and match the passion he was pouring into the kiss. She felt his hands move to the messy bun she'd placed her hair into earlier, easily slip the elastic out, and then run through her long hair. All the while, his lips were attacking hers with enthusiastic zeal. Regrettably, she had to pull away because she was unable to keep kissing him, and breathe at the same time. When they pulled away, Victoire was happy that she wasn't the only one breathing heavily. Teddy's hands moved from her hair to cup her face, both of his thumbs stroking her cheeks tenderly, as if she was something very delicate.

"I'm so glad that you're okay," he whispered. His voice was horse, but she couldn't tell if it was rough from the oxygen draining kisses they shared, or if he was just over-come with emotion.

"I'm sorry I worried you," she whispered back.

Teddy removed his hands from Victoire's face (she immediately missed the warmth his hands had created) to run through his hair, a stressful habit she knew he'd gained from her Uncle Harry.

"I didn't have much time to worry Love, as soon as we realized you were okay, you almost simultaneously jumped onto the back of a crazy dragon."

"I know, I know, it was irresponsible, I'm going back to my previous argument that it was the only choice I had. It's not like I'm going to ever do it again though, one permanent and ugly scar is enough for me thank-you." She grumbled the last part more to herself than to him.

He smiled at her self-consciousness and reached out gently with his hand to touch her legs. He uncrossed them from under her, grabbed her right one, and placed her foot on his left knee. He looked up at her, and waited for her to meet his eyes before he slowly pushed the leg of her trousers up to her knee. One of his hands went to her ankle to gently grip and then twist her leg, so he could have a better look at the back of her calf. Victoire's eyes were following his, and she visibly flinched when she saw the slightly raised yet smooth pink line marring her pale skin. The hand that wasn't gripping her ankle, moved to where her scar was. She audibly inhaled and snapped her eyes shut when she saw that he was about to touch her scar. She felt his finger gently touch the skin of her calf. It stayed in one spot and she slowly opened her eyes. His finger was on a rather large brown freckle near the pink line, instead of on her scar.

"May I?" he asked quietly, searching her face. She bit her lip and nodded hesitantly.

Teddy delicately trailed his index finger along the two-inch long scar. His touch made her shiver, and not just because her scar was still slightly tender to the touch. They locked eyes again ad Teddy continued to lazily trail his finger up and down the line on her calf, only to break apart when he dropped his eyes back to her skin. He moved his head down slowly to her leg and tenderly pressed his lips against the raised line.

He looked up at her seriously, "I love this scar."

"Why?" She didn't doubt his sincerity, more the reasons behind his choice.

"Because this shows that you're brave, and courageous, and impulsive . . . and that you made it through a face-to-face confrontation with a dragon in one-piece . . ."

Victoire felt her eyes starting to tear up. Teddy wasn't telling her this to make her feel guilty; he was just telling her how she felt.

"Your Dad and I were the first ones to get to you after you apparated into the stadium. Harry and Fleur were already there because they were on the platform, but we were there close afterwards, and before Angelina, or any of the emergency Medi-Witches," Teddy explained.

Victoire took in a deep breath; she'd lost consciousness after she left the dragon's lair. She didn't even remember arriving back onto the platform.

"Harry had your legs cradled in his lap when we got there," he continued, "I stopped where I was when I saw the blood. Your blood . . . I was so afraid that you'd splinched yourself. I'd never heard of anyone apparating without a wand before, and it looked like you'd lost so much blood . . ." he trailed off, a thick swallow stopping him from continuing.

Victoire's voice sounded husky when she spoke, "I didn't know if I'd be able to do it . . . but I had to get out of there, and my wand was . . . well you know where it was . . ."

Teddy nodded, "In hindsight, I should have known that if anyone could apparate without a wand it would be you. You've always been amazing with wandless magic, I just didn't think it would work the same way with magical travel . . . thank goodness it did though. I spoke to Hermione, she thinks the reason why you were able to live through the apparation, was the same reason why you're so good with wandless magic, you know those right?"

Victoire nodded, "Her theory on why I'm so proficient with wandless magic is because of the Veela blood. She thinks that I have such a close link to the magic in my blood and that because my Veela temperament brings it out so easily, that it's easier for me to tap into it without a wand, than others can. It's similar to why she hypothesises that you're so good at wandless magic too, because of the Metamorphmagus blood in you, that you're closer connected to your inner magic also."

"We're an interesting pair . . . aren't we?" Teddy asked smilingly.

Victoire grinned back, but it faltered as she saw the emotions that were still bubbling up in his eyes, "Again Teddy . . . I'm so sorry. This Tournament is just going to get more and more dangerous, but there's nothing else I can do. I'm not going to back out, and I can't promise that I won't get hurt again, because I'm definitely going to do my best to win . . ."

"Vic," Teddy said as he cupped her face again, "I'm not asking you to give up, or not to try. I'd not only be a horrible boyfriend to ask that of you, but also a horrible friend. I'm just asking you to think through your actions a bit more before jumping into the thick of things. To remember that myself and the rest of your family is going to be sitting there watching you, and that it would kill us if anything happened to you."

Victoire nodded, "It's hard to remember, when I'm out there by myself, that I'm not alone."

Teddy smiled and his hands moved from her face to the open v of her forest green tee shirt, he found the slim gold chain around her neck and lifted it until the oval locket came out from under her shirt. He held it tightly in his hand before grabbing Victoire's hand and placing it in hers.

"You're never alone Victoire, never. I'm with you everywhere you go, as you're with me everywhere I go. It's because we love each other, you're never alone when you know that you're loved, and there is someone waiting for you to get back."

Victoire smiled, tears starting to brim in her eyes, "I love you so much."

"I love you too Sweetheart," Teddy answered as he pulled her into his side, and pressed his lips against the top of her head.

* * *

Awwww! What a nice cute ending! I hope you liked it please review if you have nayhting to say!

A Big thank-you to eveyrone who has reviewed, favourited or subscribed!

An especially big thaks to:

**brilliant incandescence**, **Amara**, **XLauraElizabeth**, **LOSTcharlie-claireLOST**, **wheresthewolf**, **confusednikki24-7**, **trustxbelieve**, **avidficreader**, **redwolf12**, and, **madmonkey**.


	39. Interesting Interviews

**A/N:** Hello! I'm sorry I missed updating last weekend, but I'm currently in the middle of my exam week, and I had to study because I have an exam for each of my U/M courses. Four exams :(. Lucky for all of you though, this is the second snow day we've had in our exam week, but this time I have time to update, seeing as my exam for tommorrow is just world history, and all I need to study is the Renaissance, Refromation, Enlightenment, and the French Revolution (only about four hudrend years, not so bad).

This chapter is a little bit of continuation of fluff from the last one, but just more in Teddy's point of view. You get to 'pick his brains' and see how he really feels about a few topics. You'll also see a more mature side of Victoire. I really enjoyed writing this chapter because you get to see another level of their dynamic.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, everything you may recognize belongs to JKR.

* * *

Interesting Interviews

"Man I hate Monday mornings," Kurt Williamson complained as he walked next to Teddy down the corridor to the Aurors' break room.

Teddy rolled his eyes but was too tired to argue. Neither Teddy nor Kurt had gotten much sleep the past two nights because they'd both ended up being on the late night patrols (even if Teddy ended up ditching Kurt on Saturday night to talk with Victoire about the task). They entered the break room and walked over to where they saw Jilly sitting by herself at a table, her hands clutched around a mug of her favourite black coffee. Teddy grabbed himself a cup of tea, and Kurt grabbed a cup of coffee, before they went and sat down next to her.

"'Morning boys," Jilly said taking a sip of her coffee.

"Good morning." Teddy and Kurt answered back.

"Good morning."

The trio turned around to see Richard Lassoder coming up to the, table a smug look on his face.

"What do you want Lassoder?" Jilly snapped, obviously she was in no mood to deal with whatever Lassoder was about to divulge into.

"Tsk, tsk Jilly, maybe I should come back in a while. I know you're not much use until after you've had at least two cups of coffee in the morning," Lassoder smirked.

Jilly gave him a glare that was so cold; he really should have turned into ice. He knew she hated it when he referred to anything that had to do with the relationship they had a year ago. Jilly actually growled at him.

Teddy, also not in the best mood to deal with Lassoder, said, "How about you just say whatever you came over here to say."

Lassoder narrowed his eyes, but broke out into another grin. He tossed this morning's issue of _The Daily Prophet _onto the table between them.

Teddy picked it up and frowned as he inspected it, "What? It's just a continuation of the summaries from the First Task last Saturday."

Lassoder rolled his eyes, "Go to page seven."

Teddy flipped through the paper and groaned. There, taking up more than half the page were two pictures of Victoire. In one of them, Xavier Wood was kissing her cheek, with his hand in her hair, and in the other, she was in Konstantin Krum's arms, with her hands squeezing the muscles on his biceps. The large caption above it read: _'Professional-Quidditch-Player-on-the-Rise or Fellow Tri-Wizard Champion? Which hunky teenager has captured Victoire Weasley's heart?_'

Kurt let out a low whistle as he read over Teddy's shoulder, "She is _not_ going to be happy with this one."

"Nope," Teddy said, still staring at the picture. He knew that the pictures' were just being taken out of the actual context, but he also knew that Victoire would flip when she saw this.

Teddy had almost decided on whether he was going to rip up the paper manually, or vanish it with his wand, when he heard a loud knocking on the door to the break room. A first-year Auror-in-training went to open the door; he said a few words to whoever was at the door before being roughly pushed away from the entrance by a tall, blonde firecracker that absolutely _radiated_ anger. The blonde spotted Teddy sitting down at his table, and quickly walked over to him. Trailing behind the irate looking Victoire, was Ally; she was rolling her brown eyes at her favourite cousin's actions but was sticking close behind her nonetheless.

Victoire stopped in front of Teddy; he saw that she had a newspaper clutched in the hands she had crossed against her chest. He easily guessed that it today's copy of _The Daily Prophet_. She was still frowning when she asked, "Where's Kingsley?"

Teddy smirked at the obvious annoyance in her tight voice, "What? No 'hello' for your best friend?"

Victoire scowled at him. Her ocean-blue eyes were both menacing and beautiful at the same time. Teddy rolled his sapphire-blue eyes in return, "I'm not sure. If you would calm down for a minute I could see if anyone's seen him."

Victoire clenched her teeth but nodded, "'Kay."

Jilly jumped up from her seat, "I'll go see where he is." She could tell that Victoire was completely ticked off, and she really didn't want to be around her in case something else happened to make her explode.

Jilly had hardly left her seat, before Teddy went back to teasing Victoire.

"So what brings you here?"

She rolled her eyes at him, but there was a bit of a smile at the corner of her lips. _She's never been able to resist my charm,_ Teddy joked to himself.

"This," Victoire stated as she waved the newspaper angrily around. Teddy eyed the tense clutch of her hand around the paper with interest.

Ally rolled her eyes again, "Yeah, about that Vic, maybe you should give the paper back to me. I promised Professor Longbottom that he'd get it back in one piece." Victoire pouted but handed it over to her cousin, mumbling something about how 'I_ never actually_ _promised him_'.

Teddy raised an eyebrow interestedly, "Why do you have Professor Longbottom's paper?"

Ally smirked, "Because Victoire already burnt Sandra's copy to a crisp."

Teddy chuckled, and Victoire glowered. "It's not funny!" She complained.

Ally's calm facade cracked and she burst out into laughter along with Teddy, "Actually, the look on both your face and Xavier's was rather priceless."

Victoire went back to mumbling as Teddy tried to rein in his laughter. First, because he could practically feel the heated glare that Lassoder (even though Teddy didn't know why he was still there) was giving him, probably for his unbecoming behaviour. And second, because laughing _with_ Victoire was one thing, but laughing _at_ her, when she was clearly upset about what happened, was more than likely a death wish.

Jilly came back over to the table, "Shacklebolt's not here today."

"Perfect," Victoire grumbled, "Where's Uncle Harry then?"

Lassoder narrowed his eyes at her, "Auror Potter is in a very important meeting in the office right now, and has asked not to be bothered by absolutely anyone."

Victoire raised a perfect blonde brow at his surly attitude, told him, "I'm not just anyone," and then turned her back on everyone at the table to walk to the end of the room where she knew the office was; leaving Lassoder standing with his mouth hanging open.

Jilly smirked, "I do believe you just got told by a seventeen year old _Ricky_." Lassoder glared at her, she knew he hated being called _Ricky_.

Ally, who had started giggling at the gobsmacked look on Lassoder's face when Victoire talked back to him, and was just now collecting herself, turned to Teddy, "Want to come watch?"

"Is it going to be a good show?"

"You tell me. She's angrier than she was when Fred and James decided to dye her hair green because _'if she didn't have red hair, she should at least be a colour that compliments the rest of the family_'," Ally answered, laughing at the memory.

Teddy smirked, he remembered it too, she had been thirteen, and they had been eight. Victoire had shrieked so loud Ron had legitimately thought that there was a banshee in the house. That was before she realized that the hair dye, whether it was Muggle or magical, would only last two hours at most because of her Veela magic. Teddy considered this for a minute before getting up from his seat and following Ally to the office door, which Victoire was currently banging her fist against. Loudly. He saw that Kurt, Jilly, and Lassoder had followed them; Kurt and Jilly because they wanted to know the outcome and Lassoder because he wanted a chance to say 'I-told-you-so'.

Victoire stopped knocking and took a step back from the door. She shot Teddy a glance that said 'don't-you-dare-say-anything', before looking back to the door. It whipped open a moment later, and Harry's irate face came into view.

"What in the world-" He stopped short when he saw Victoire standing in front of him. The look on her face told him that not only was extremely livid, but that her anger far outweighed his at the moment.

"What is it Vic?" Harry asked worriedly.

Victoire handed the paper over to Harry. He took it with a raised eyebrow and read it quickly, his face twisted into one of disgust as he read the words, but he looked tired when he finally faced Victoire again.

"I'm sorry Vic, but I just don't know how she keeps doing this. I don't know how she's getting away with this."

Ally scoffed, "How does anybody get away with anything in this society? Loopholes. This article, while it doesn't claim to be stated on facts, has some. But it's just the bare minimum, after that it's all fiction, conjecture, and poorly timed photos . . ."

Victoire mumbled something under her breath about 'stupid paparazzi'. Ally gave her a look that said '_please-be-quiet_', and continued, "Skeeter can attach Victoire's name to this, and not have to let someone in the family check it over, because there are no direct quotations from Victoire, therefore, nothing for you to have to preview and make sure that it is placed in the correct context."

Harry sighed, "Well if she's using legal loopholes, I don't think there's anything we can do."

Victoire smirked, "Yes there is. I want an interview with her."

Teddy's mouth popped open along with Harry's, and Ally was speechless.

"What?" Harry asked when he could speak again.

"I want an interview with her. One where she can ask me all her questions, and I'll tell her all the answers and truths. She'll have to let someone, probably my Dad or Mamma, proofread it, and she won't be able to right any lies, or she'll be sued. This way there won't be any more lies and rumours going around about myself, Xavier or Konstantin," Victoire explained smilingly.

"But if Skeeter doesn't get something she'll want to hear, or can work with, she won't publish it at all," Harry commented.

Victoire shrugged, "That's fine, people might not get the truth, but it will stop any more rumours from being created."

Harry stilled looked worried, "Victoire, Rita Skeeter didn't become one of the Wizarding World's most published journalists by accident. As much as we may abhor her, Aunt Hermione especially, she has a way of making people say, or admit to things that she wants to hear."

"And?" Victoire asked.

Harry locked eyes with Victoire and nodded his head infinitesimally in Teddy's direction. Only she and Teddy saw his actions. "And she's good at weeding out any and all little secrets," he said specifically.

"But I don't have any secrets Uncle Harry," Victoire said looking at him innocently and giving him a hit little of her Veela charm.

Harry, noticing where Victoire was going, had to smile slightly, "Fine. But I still want someone there with you when you do your interview, to be a mediator or just another set of eyes and ears if needed."

Victoire sighed but nodded. Harry looked directly at Teddy beside him, "Do you think you can handle her?"

Teddy grinned, "Who? Victoire or Rita Skeeter?"

After Victoire punched Teddy -rather hard- in the arm, Harry smiled back, "Well . . . both."

"I'll try," Teddy responded in a brave voice. Victoire rolled her eyes at him while Harry nodded.

"When do you want the appointment for Vic? She'll probably only do it during school hours," Harry said.

"How about one-thirty this afternoon?"

"That depends," Harry said, "What class are you missing for it?"

Victoire grinned, "A History of Magic."

Harry raised an eyebrow at his niece, "And will you be missing anything important today?"

She snickered, "Today's the first day of 'Harry Potter' week."

Harry groaned, "Tell me that you're joking."

Victoire shook her head; she was being completely serious. Professor Cooke had informed them last week that they'd be doing the 'History of Harry' this week, from the prophecy before his birth to him right now. Victoire was planning to add in some smart comments later in the week when they got into the latter years to make class more interesting; she was certain Professor Cooke wouldn't mind.

Harry's face turned red, "One-thirty it is then." He turned to Teddy, "You'll go to her class and get her out at one-thirty, stay for the interview, and then walk her to wherever she needs to go afterwards. Got it?"

Teddy nodded. Harry smiled at him then turned to his two nieces, "Now you guys should get to your classes before I get a _howler_ from your mothers for aiding and abetting you into missing class."

Ally and Victoire giggled, said a quick goodbye to Harry and Teddy, and then left the office. Harry turned around and went back into his office to continue whatever meeting he was in that had just been interrupted as they planned how to take care of Victoire's P.R. problems. Teddy turned to look at Jilly and Kurt for the first time since Victoire had made her plan. Jilly was giving him an unreadable look, and Kurt was pouting.

"I can't believe that you just got out of your afternoon patrol to babysit _the girl_ again," Kurt grumbled as he crossed his arms.

"_Babysit _being the key word in that sentence," Lassoder said sneering at Teddy. He saw Victoire as nothing more than some immature teenager.

Teddy shrugged, there was no way he was going to let Lassoder see how excited he actually was to be able to spend even a little more time with Victoire today. "It's better than doing some mind-numbing patrol around the grounds and telling kids off because they were playing with fanged-Frisbees." Lassoder scowled and walked away from them.

Jilly looked down at her watch and then up at Teddy and Kurt, "You may have gotten out of your afternoon patrol Ted, but we still have to get to our morning ones." Teddy nodded as he, Jilly, and Kurt walked to the door and went their separate ways to the corridors they were supposed to patrol.

* * *

Teddy had taken to watching the hands on his watch. He had gotten it from Harry on his seventeenth birthday, and had really enjoyed it because it was so smart and tasteful. But right now, he hated it. It seemed like the hands were moving slower, and slower, the closer it came to being one-thirty. Teddy had been waiting anxiously for the time to come all day, he didn't care that Victoire and Skeeter might (will probably) get into a heated argument that he'll have to break up and pretend not to take sides with (even though he would most likely be agreeing with Victoire in every circumstance). All he was concerned with was the fact that he'd get to spend more time in Victoire's presence.

_Hmmm . . . it's official, I'm becoming pathetic. Even the promise of seeing Victoire is turning me into some pitiful pining Romeo from an overrated romance story._

Teddy couldn't completely berate himself for becoming so wrapped up in his relationship with Victoire, more than likely he'd be behaving the same way about getting the chance to see her even if their relationship was still at the 'best friends' level.

He looked down at his watch again and smiled widely, it was fifteen minutes to one-thirty. It would take him five minutes to get to Victoire's class to collect her, and then another ten for them to travel to the room in which they were going to do the interview in. If he went to get her now, they'd be there exactly on time. Teddy was always on time . . . Victoire on the other hand; well . . . at least she always ended up showing up before the appointment was over . . .

He quickly travelled down the corridor, up two staircases, and down another corridor until he found Professor Cooke's classroom. Before knocking on the door, Teddy looked in through the window. He saw Professor Cooke at his desk talking with a student, and everyone else seemed to be in their desks talking, or actually doing their seatwork. When he looked to the left side of the classroom, his breath caught in his throat.

It was amazing how one glance at her could do that to him. He'd known her all his life, he'd seen her grow from an adorable infant, to an equally adorable but devilish child, to a cute and bubbly pre-teen, and then almost overnight into a beautiful teenager, and now, in the past six months, into a stunning and completely amazing adult. He kept telling himself that one look at her shouldn't be doing this to him; he was older and wiser, and besides it was just _Victoire_. The same big blue eyes captivated him when Ginny brought him to see Fleur and Bill's new baby, and consequently his new 'cousin' and 'playmate'. The same silvery blonde hair that seemed to shine both outside in the bright sunlight, and inside during winter's darkest moments. It was the same woman and the same brilliant, playful, fierce, loyal, determined, and hard-working personality.

_Just because I wish that she wasn't in school anymore and was out in the real world with me doesn't mean that she's changed,_ Teddy tried to reason with himself. But he knew that he was partly right, she has changed, and she would continue to change. There is no way she'd be able to go through the experiences she will go through with the Tri-Wizard Tournament, without being changed in some way. He saw it two nights ago when they spoke in the Room of Requirement. The biggest thing that had changed with her so far was only physical, the addition of a scar on her calf, but he knew that she'd be changed emotionally by the time the tournament was over. He also knew that he'd stop at nothing to try to shield her from that, and that he'd fail; but he still wasn't going to stop trying. That's what he was doing today, Harry might have arranged it, but he knew that Teddy would want to be there for Victoire's interview. To protect her as best he could from Skeeter's horrible lies and rumours.

Teddy was about to open the door and collect Victoire when he saw her (his eyes had been trained on her the entire time) turn slightly and angle herself towards the door, she was speaking with the person who was sitting in front of Xavier (who was in his customary spot; the seat to Victoire's direct right). From what she could see, the person Victoire was talking to was broad-shouldered, and male. The latter characteristic being enough to fuel the jealousy Teddy always felt (but kept hidden until he felt that he was about to explode) when Victoire was in the company of a man that wasn't himself, someone in her family, or her friends Xavier, Kyle, or Chris. The former characteristic of the muscular looking man; coupled with his shiny blonde head, spiked Teddy's jealousy so high that he was actually starting to fantasize about walking into the classroom and declaring Victoire as his own so that all the boys who kept trying to flirt with her would know that she was taken. (And the boy was definitely trying to flirt with her, Teddy noted as he saw him smiling, and cracking jokes as he tried not to let her catch him at his routine ogling of her person.) There were only two things keeping Teddy from executing his day-dream: one; if it ever got out to the public that he and Victoire were dating he'd be out of the Castle faster than Xavier Wood could say Quidditch, and two; Victoire herself would probably scorch him for being so possessive and 'Neanderthal-like' about her. She hated when guys became possessive over her.

As it were, Teddy was still going to go in and get her (the first reason in his mind now was to get her away from the _boy's_ attention) when he saw her hand go to her neck and play with the gold chain around it. She slid the locket out from under her blouse, and gently stroked the surface as she continued to talk to the guy. Her hand seemed to be tightening around it, unconsciously, as her bright smile began to falter. Teddy had seen that look on her face many-a-time before, she had just realized that the guy she was talking to was trying to hit on her, and she was becoming more and more uncomfortable about it. She clutched her locket tighter and tighter as the guy became more obvious about his affections and intentions, and Teddy actually smiled.

She was clutching her locket. The one _he'd_ given her the summer before she had to go back to school. The one _he'd _filled with pictures _for_ her. The guy kept talking to Victoire and she was becoming so uncomfortable that she couldn't meet his eyes anymore. Instead, she looked down at the locket in her hands, she popped the catch open and a bright smile broke across her gorgeous face as her eyes quickly scanned the pictures. Teddy knew what she was smiling at, and it warmed him and quelled his jealousy in one go. That guy may been able to see her everyday and flirt with her without arousing suspicion, but she only smiled like that when she saw him.

_He was feeling nervous when he first gave her the locket, they'd only really been dating a month and a half, and presents like this seemed too . . . foreword for where they were supposed to be in their relationship. Then again, they'd been best friends for years before that, and he'd given her a present before she went back to school last year too. There were two sides of her locket to place a picture in, in the first one; on the door of the locket, was a miniature of Victoire, her parents, and Dom and Louis. Teddy thought it'd be a nice reminder of her more immediate family (even though Louis and Dom would be at Hogwarts with her). The second picture was one taken at her seventeenth birthday party with the family. As Teddy looked at it he wondered how he didn't realize before that she was in love with him, or that he loved her back. The picture was taken before they started dating, but the looks they shared were so blatant and obvious, apparently to everyone but Teddy himself at the time. The picture was a close up of Teddy, looking back over his shoulder at Victoire's giggling face. She was on his back, because Teddy had been giving her a piggyback ride. They'd gone for a walk while the family set up her surprise party, and Teddy had made her walk so far, that on the way back Victoire had claimed that she could walk no farther and forced Teddy to carry her back. The picture had been taken just as they emerged from the woods around the Burrow. It was before Victoire had been able to see what was awaiting her. They were smiling and laughing as they looked at each other._

Teddy sighed and retched himself away from the memory, if he didn't get Victoire soon, they were going to be late, and who knew what Rita Skeeter would be able to make of that. So he quietly walked into the classroom, went up to Professor Cooke desk, gave him the note to excuse Victoire from class, frowned confusedly as Professor Cooke gave him an odd considering look before nodding and calling Victoire up to the desk. Professor Cooke explained to her what chapter she'd need to read in the text for tomorrow, and quietly and quickly dismissed them without much fanfare. They escaped the room without too many stares and one oddly bright smile from Xavier Wood accompanied by a wink in Victoire's direction. She reciprocated with a glare and a threatening bar of her teeth.

Teddy opened his mouth to ask Victoire what that was about but she spoke first, "You don't want to know. Let's just get to the interview."

Teddy smirked at her; she had spoken sharply, but to someone trained in 'Reading-Victoire's-Emotions' of 'R.V.E.' as Ally, Louis, and Dom have joked in the past, he could hear the embarrassment that seemed to underling her words. They walked quietly to the empty classroom that they were supposed to do the interview in, trading shy glances at each other as they walked. Teddy could see Victoire's hand twitching in his direction every once-in-a-while, and knew that she was trying to stop herself from grabbing his hand. He smiled indulgently, he knew exactly what she was going through, he was having trouble with stopping himself from grabbing her and snogging her senseless too.

They made it to the room; Victoire stopped and took a deep breath to calm herself before walking into the room. Rita Skeeter was already sitting down at the table in the room, a floating notepad and _Quick-Quotes Quill_ just beside her perky (obviously charm-dyed) blonde curls. Her smile was wide, and slimy as her dull brown eyes lit up at Victoire's arrival. They narrowed slightly as she saw Teddy sit down in a chair next to Victoire.

Victoire noticed Rita's frown and decided to start with that once they were seated, "What's wrong?"

Rita looked chagrined for a minute before placing another wide and fake smile on her face, "Nothing Dear, I just didn't know that you were travelling around with your own personal bodyguard these days."

Victoire frowned; it seemed that Skeeter was starting early on in this interview then, "Not by my own stipulation of course. But my family seemed to think that it would be beneficial for this interview, especially my Aunt Hermione."

Rita blanched visibly, as Victoire had learned to expect with any mention of Hermione in Skeeter's presence. Victoire's words were also a reminder that what was about to take place would have to be proofread later by her parents or someone else in her family. Skeeter's attention moved from Victoire for a moment, to examine Teddy. He'd worn his hair 'Potter black' today to avoid any trouble with Skeeter, but it seemed he was still getting attention from her. The completely wrong attention too, seeing as Victoire began to fume at Skeeter's staring; she coughed loudly.

Rita jolted at the sound, then placed a coy smile on her face, "May I have your name Sir? Just as a formality?"

Teddy shared a quick look with Victoire before answering tersely, "Auror Ted Lupin."

Skeeter nodded and then turned to Victoire, "Well Miss Weasley, where should we begin?"

"Maybe with the lies you've been writing about me concerning my relationships."

Skeeter raised an eyebrow, "My sincerest apologies Miss Weasley, but now that we have a chance to have a little chat we can rectify all those mistakes, with the truth."

Victoire inclined her head, "Your first question?"

"How would you describe your relationship to Mr Xavier Wood?"

Victoire burst into laughter. Rita's confused look quickly turned into one of annoyance as Victoire continued to laugh. She didn't say anything because she didn't want to push Victoire, but she was really starting to get angry.

Victoire, seeing that Skeeter was about to lose her patience, collected herself before turning to smirk at Skeeter.

"You can't actually expect me to answer something like that can you? The whole reason we're in this mess in the first place is because you keep changing my words around, there is now way that I'm going to let you do that again, so I'll give you the details. Listen up, and listen well, because I am not going to repeat myself."

Rita Skeeter smirked and waved her wand to make sure that her quill and notebook were in order before Victoire continued.

"I have known Xavier Wood since I was about two years old. He is one of my best friends and like a brother to me. And that is all he is. There is nothing-romantic going on between us, and to believe that there is would surely show someone's stupidity. We're close friends, but we also fight like cats and dogs, how this rumour even got started in the first place is astonishing, but it is nothing more than that, an untrue rumour."

Skeeter was scowling, but her quill wrote down every one of Victoire's words, "And Mr Konstantin Krum?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, "I met Konstantin Krum this year because of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. There is no romance or secret love affairs going on between us, we're just friends. Isn't that supposed to be the point of the Tri-Wizard Tournament? For us to meet new people, make new friends. You know International Magical Co-operation and all."

"You're becoming a diplomat like your uncle Percy I see Miss Weasley," Rita said, her frown at not getting anything from Victoire becoming more and more pronounced as the time.

Victoire scowled, "Anything else?"

"Well yes there is Miss Weasley," Skeeter said grinning like she'd thought of something that was going to win her this battle, "I wasn't born yesterday you know."

Victoire sniggered, "That's obvious."

Rita's face went red, "You are the most coveted, desirable, and in-demand girl in Hogwarts Miss Weasley and you expect me to believe that you're not in a relationship with anyone right now?"

Victoire glared at Skeeter as Teddy watched her warily. He knew that she had had it up to her limit with Rita's digging and excavation for something she could use against her, and that she was about to explode.

"Listen here Miss Skeeter, no matter what you want to believe, I'm not the moronic heartless tart that you try to make me out as. Yes, I may have had some relationships in the past, who hasn't? But like everyone else, I've learned from my past relationships. I'm not the type of girl to go and parade around with the object of my affections in front of everyone else just for the Hell of it. In spite of what you and the rest of the press try to do with me, I'm a very private person, and I don't like having my personal life gracing the cover of the _Daily Prophet_, _Witch Weekly_, or any other gossip column for that matter. If I were in a relationship right now, you would most definitely be the last one to know."

Skeeter sneered at Victoire, "And I'm also sure that if you were in a relationship right now, your boyfriend would also be the last to know. You can't tell me that a seventeen-year-old like _you_ would be in a _monogamous _relationship."

Victoire glared at her and Teddy watched her hands warily in case her temper caused her Veela powers to emerge, "That, Miss Skeeter, is quite enough. And even though I'm sure that you'll still do whatever you want with what I've said, I'll give you something you can work with."

She gave Teddy a quick glance that said 'don't-worry-I-know-what-I'm-doing' before squaring her shoulders and looking Skeeter directly in her beetle-like eyes.

"When I promise myself to someone, when I'm in a relationship, I give my significant other everything I have and am. I'm loyal and faithful and I definitely don't _cheat_ on him. It takes a special person to catch my heart in the first place, and once I have him, I'm not going to let go. I start a relationship because I have deep feelings for a person, and because I trust them to feel as deeply for me as I do for them, and to treat me with the same respect and loyalty that I treat them. I trust them to put as much into our relationship as I do. With a recipe like that it's no surprise that when _I am_ in a real relationship, we won't be sitting here having this conversation. Because you would know for sure who I have feelings for, instead of making up gossip about myself and almost every one of my male friends just so you could see your own name in print."

With those bold statements Victoire stood up, glanced at Teddy, telling him with her eyes that she was going to leave, "Thank-you for your time Miss Skeeter, but I think that we're done here."

She turned her back to Rita and didn't even look back as she left through the door; Teddy smirked and followed her out. She was pacing quickly through the corridors, only to come to a stop in front of the bare stretch of wall that was the entrance to the Room of Requirement. A door materialized as soon as Teddy caught up with her, and she swept through it so fast, he wasn't sure that she'd even entered the room. He hurriedly followed her and was only slightly surprised when he saw her at the end of the room, throwing darts at a dartboard that had a black and white Wizarding photo of Rita Skeeter on it.

Each dart whizzed straight across a distance of five feet before landing square at Skeeter's face. Teddy walked to Victoire's side, crossed his arms, and watched her with an amused look on his face, "Did you conjure this, or the room?"

"Room gave me the picture. I conjured the dartboard," Victoire said in between deep huffs of breath. She was breathing heavier and heavier with each dart she threw at the board. Teddy smiled at her and stayed beside her as she continued to express her anger at Skeeter through the very harsh system of throwing darts at her picture. Her slew of darts quickly diminished, and soon she had none left. Victoire stared at the board for a minute, still breathing heavy, but her face was less red.

"Done yet?" Teddy asked acerbically.

"Not quite," Victoire snapped.

She turned around to face Teddy and pushed him against the closest wall. He opened his mouth to ask her, 'what-in-the-name-of-Merlin's-pants-is-going-on', but was interrupted by her mouth pressing against his insistently. Teddy didn't know what was going on, but what he did know was that there was no way he was going to pass up an opportunity like this. He _was _a man after all.

Victoire's lips were unrelenting, and rough with need. Her arms clamped down around his neck and her fingers grabbed forcefully at his hair. Teddy switched their positions, so he could press Victoire against the wall. One of his hands went to grab at her long hair, and the other went to the small of her back so he could press her harder against him. She pressed down on his mouth and caught his lower lip between both of hers. He moaned loudly when she pulled on it. He pressed his lips harder against hers and the hand that was in her hair moved to her neck and pulled her mouth even closer to his. Victoire sighed in satisfaction and opened her mouth wider; Teddy groaned again and kissed her for a few more moments before pulling away.

They were both breathing heavily as they looked at each other. Teddy wanted to grin when he saw how red Victoire's lips had become from their snogging. Victoire raised her hand back up to Teddy's head, to flatten his hair this time instead of dishevelling it like before.

When they had collected themselves, Teddy leaned his forehead against Victoire's before asking, "Feeling better now?"

She nodded, a light blush covering her pale cheeks, "I'm sorry, but that cow really irritates me."

Teddy chuckled warmly, and swept a strand of her silvery hair behind her ear, "No need to apologize to me, that was one of the best snogs we've had."

Victoire pink cheeks turned into a flaming red. She looked down at her feet, and bit down gently on her red lips. Teddy watched her intensely, trying not to allow himself to grab her face and take her red lips between his again. After a minute, she looked back up at him. The blush had faded from her cheeks, and she had a sweet look on her face, "You know everything I told her was the truth right?"

"About you, Xavier and Konstantin, yes, of course I do," Teddy answered confusedly.

Victoire shook her head, "No, about me and how when I'm in a relationship I'm devoted completely to that person."

"I already knew that Love," Teddy said, stroking her cheek lightly.

Victoire placed her hand over the one Teddy held to her face, "You know that I'd never cheat on you . . . right?"

"Of course I know that Vic. I knew that that was the case before you and I started dating, and I know it now," he answered calmly.

"Really?" she asked, still not convinced.

"Victoire, I love you and I know that you love me back. That's all that matters, whatever Skeeter says means nothing to me. I know that you'll be faithful to me, and you know that I'll be faithful back."

Victoire smiled and kissed him again on the lips. She was just starting to press harder when she felt him pull away, her expression quickly turned into a pout.

"I need to get you back to whatever class you should be having now."

Victoire rolled her eyes at his insistent morals, and sighed quietly before letting him escort her back to her next class.

* * *

**So, What did you think?**

**I hope you all enjoyed!**

Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to add this to the **disclaimer** at the top, but I thought that since I did mention Romeo I should state that I do not own that name, or anything that could be inflected from it, that belongs to Bill Shakespeare (and as much as I love _him_, I have to agree with Teddy. Romeo is a horrible character and role model, I was truly glad when him and Juliet died in the end of the play).

**Thanks** to everyone who **reviewed / subscribed / favourited**. I love to get feedback and to see that there are people out there who enjoy my story.

I'm also glad that, everyone who did review, that they seemed to enjoy my hypothesis about wandless magic. Even though them may seem like it, especially in the beginning of the story, I don't like all my charcaters to seem perfect. Turst me, as this progresses you will see lots of character development, and unearth some interesting things from the characters' pasts. I know it was slow goings, but in real life you don't usually know the 'real' person until you get really into it, so I think it's okay that my story is the same way.

An espeacially big thanks too: **brillianty incandescence**, **Er-my-nee Weasley**, **LOSTcharlie-claire-LOST**,

**MuggleCreator**: I know I might have confused others with this, so I'll clear it up. Colton Knott's father, is not the same Nott from Harry's year. I understand that the spelling is different, and I meant it to be that way. I did mention that Colton's father was at Hogwarts around the same time as Katie and Oliver though (since Katie stated that the Knotts have never 'played nice'), so I'd put Mr Creighton Knott as the same age as Oliver, which would make more sense as to why he has a child the same age as Victoire. Not that there's anything wrong with having children young (most purebloods do marry young) Mr Knott is not the same age as Harry. He would have been just another faceless Slytherin in Hogwarts while Harry attended it. I hope that clears up any confusion. Thanks for reviewing! :)

**trustxbelieve**: I'm glad you liked the sweet side of Victoire, I hope the new side from this chapter was also to your liking. Thanks for reviewing ;)


	40. An Unexpected Outing

A/N: Hey here's the new chapter sorry it took longer than expected, our exam schedual was pushed back because of the stupid sonwdays we kept having, so when we started our new symester our teachers had to put us right to work.

I hope everyone in Canada is having a happy Family Day! and I hope the Americans' are having a good time celebrating Washington's birthday!

I really hope you like this chapter!

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

* * *

An Unexpected Outing

"So what happened after that Victoire?"

"Um, this is my personal life here; I don't have to tell you everything that happened."

"Yes you do. Skeeter decided not to print the article because she didn't get enough interesting dirt on you. So all we have to go on is what you choose to tell us."

"Yeah, and I'm not telling you what I said because it's something private!"

"You were going to let a journalist from _The Daily Prophet_ publish your conversation in the paper three days ago, and you're telling me that you won't tell me because it was a private conversation!"

"I don't have to tell you everything Xavier; you're not one of my parents!"

"No Victoire, I'm not, because your parents already know what you said because they still had to proofread Skeeter's article even though she decided not to print it!"

"Godric you two, I'm _so_ glad that I don't have any classes with you!" Ally yelled from her spot in between the two Heads who looked like they were ten seconds away from hexing each other.

"And we're glad that we don't have our next classes with you guys either," Kyle said for himself and Sandra from where they were walking beside Victoire.

It was three days after Victoire had had her interview with Rita Skeeter. Victoire had only just heard from her parents at lunch earlier in the day that Skeeter had decided against printing the article about her interview with Victoire. And because of it, her friends had only _now_ decided to try to suss out what _had_ happened during the interview. Sandra, Kyle, and Ally had been interested in finding out what happened, but their interest was small compared to the lengths Xavier was going at to find out what she'd said. Victoire understood Xavier's curiosity, his name had accompanied hers in many of the articles Rita had written about her; she wasn't angry at him for being inquisitive, she was angry because she'd already told him what he needed to hear, and he still wanted to hear more. Mostly about what she'd said about her relationship with Teddy, even though Skeeter didn't know it at the time.

Victoire and Xavier had reached an impasse on their argument over Victoire not telling them everything that happened during her interview; mainly that they'd stop talking about it to stop another argument from ensuing. They didn't want to get at each other's throats again, Ally, Sandra, and Kyle were right; they were stuck with each other for the next two hours in class.

As they walked through the Castle corridors, Ally was the first one to disband their charming group as they walked by Professor Flitwick's classroom; Charms was her next subject. Kyle and Sandra continued the exodus when they dropped off at the room where their _Arithmancy_ class was held. Xavier and Victoire walked in silence down the hall.

"Okay, okay," Xavier cried when the silence had become to awkward, "I'm sorry I pressed you for details. It's your life and I shouldn't be pushy. That being said, you're important to me, and I _actually_ do want to hear about your relationship so that I know that it's going well."

Victoire smiled at the sandy-blonde, "Thanks Xavier, and trust me, I will tell you stuff, but on my own terms."

"Guess that's all I can ask for," Xavier said sadly. Victoire punched him in the arm, but ended up laughing with him.

"So what are we doing in _Herbology_ today?" Victoire asked Xavier as the stepped out of the Castle and began their trek down to Professor Longbottom's greenhouses.

"We finished our studies on Fanged Geranium yesterday, so we will probably be starting a new plant today," Xavier answered.

Victoire nodded at him, and they continued their walk down to the greenhouses, in companionable silence instead of the previous awkward one. When they got to the greenhouses, they went in and sat down in their stools next to each other. Professor Longbottom wasn't there yet, but a few of their classmates were.

"Getting cozy there Weasley?"

Victoire spun around on her seat and frowned. Pamela Mace was standing in front of her with her hands on her hips.

"What do you want Pamela?" Victoire asked coldly, she wasn't in the mood to deal with Pamela's antics. Well, truth be told she was _never _in the mood to deal with her antics.

"Tsk, tsk, Weasley now where did those polite manners you pulled out for the press go?" Pamela sneered.

Victoire opened her mouth to retort, but Xavier cut her off, "Hi, Pam, how are you this _fine_ day?" He even winked at her enticingly. Victoire had to refrain from rolling her eyes, or gagging at the sight of Xavier's fake flirtation. Victoire knew that he was only doing it to distract Pamela from saying something that would antagonize her and probably cause Victoire to get into a screaming match with her.

Pamela giggled like a bimbo and fluttered her eyelashes, "I'm _amazing_ Xavier. How are you?"

_Did she just check him out?_

"Oh, I believe I'm even more amazing," he answered with a wink.

"I can see that," Pamela almost purred.

_Eww! Gross, note to self, the only time when watching Xavier Wood flirt is actually _cute_, is when it's with Ally, and when he doesn't even realize that he's doing it._ Victoire thought to herself as she contemplated if she'd be able to find someone who would be able to _obliviate_ the memory of this conversation from her mind later.

"Hey Xavier," Victoire called to him, smiling devilishly.

Xavier turned his head to face her, and almost physically recoiled from the puckish smirk that was on her face. He knew that that look on her face meant that she was up to no good, "What Vic?"

Victoire looked at him innocently, "Don't look so scared Xav; I just wanted to know if you were able to help Ally finish her Transfiguration essay last night. You know the one you guys were working on late after everyone else went to bed?"

Xavier face flushed red and Pamela scowled at Victoire. But before either, one of them could say anything, Professor Longbottom walked into the greenhouses and asked everyone to take out their textbooks and flip to page one-twenty-four. The rustle of people flipping pages, and moving on their stools created a light background noise.

Xavier made sure to keep his voice low so no one else could hear him, "What in the name of Godric Gryffindor was that about? You know the only reason I was even doing that was so you wouldn't get into a fight with her."

Victoire didn't answer until she found the right page in her text, "I know, but Pamela isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. You need to let her know that she's got competition or she'll start to think that your inept flirting means that you're totally in love with her."

Xavier frowned at Victoire. She lifted her head up and faced Professor Longbottom so that he wouldn't see that they were talking. Xavier followed her lead, but spoke to her from out of the corner of his mouth, "Don't think that I overlooked the fact that you called my flirting skills inept, but the more pressing issue is that you decided to make an illusion to the fact that there is something non-platonic going on between me and Ally."

Victoire rolled her eyes and whispered back, "Xavier, this little game of denial you and Ally were playing was cute; two months ago. Now it's time for you to actually man-up and make it go somewhere. Because I sure as Hell know that she's not at the right spot to just make those kinds of gigantic leaps all by herself."

"What makes you think that I even see Ally that way?" he asked harshly.

"Hmm, let's see, you stayed up late to help Ally do her _Transfiguration_ essay."

"So?"

"You _hate Transfiguration_, and you always go to bed early on a school night."

"Just because I was nice, _to my_ friend, who's _a girl_, and _is_ smart, and funny, and pretty, and really nice to have around . . . where was I going with this again?" Xavier asked Victoire, he had gotten lost in his own little train of thought.

Victoire sighed, "You were telling me that you definitely _don't_ have the hots for Ally. You know, the smart, funny, pretty _girl _who's nice to be around."

Xavier glared at the blonde, "I _hate_ you-"

"Is there something you and Miss Weasley want to share with the class Mr Wood?" Professor Longbottom said coming to stand in front of the two Gryffindors, whose whispered arguments had turned louder and louder as they progressed.

"Well Professor Longbottom," Victoire started ready to lay on a total lie along with some thick Veela charm. However, before she could get it out Professor Longbottom gave her a specific look that screamed 'Victoire-Weasley-don't-you-dare-try-to-charm-me-I-can-tell-when-you're-lying'.

So she went with something that was close to the truth, or, at least was a truth in some dimension, "I was just telling Xavier that even though we won't be able to work with the next plant we're studying, _Devil's Snare_ of course, the class would probably benefit from seeing something that has similar looks and properties."

Professor Longbottom raised an eyebrow unbelievingly, but asked Victoire to continue, "And where are you going with this Miss Weasley?"

"Well, Professor, _Flitterblooms_ look a lot like _Devil's Snare_, and have similar properties like stem and leaf shape, foliage density, and the liquid it excretes is close to _Devil's Snare_ also."

Victoire could tell that Professor Longbottom didn't believe that she and Xavier had just been having a heated conversation about the properties of _Devil's Snare_ verses _Flitterblooms_, but her words did seem to cause the gears in his head to start turning.

"You know what Miss Weasley, you're right, the class might just benefit from studying _Flitterblooms_, if anything it will help with the essay I was going to assign today about the properties of _Devil's Snare_ and how to spot it," Professor Longbottom mused.

"Do you have any in the greenhouses Professor?" Shelly Alexander of Hufflepuff asked.

Professor Longbottom frowned, "No sadly I don't."

His gaze shifted to Victoire and Xavier again, "But I do know where we could easily find some. It grows wild in the Forbidden Forest."

He took a few steps closer to where the two Gryffindors were sitting, "And since Miss Weasley and Mr Wood already know enough about both plants to point out their similarities, they would not miss reading these few pages to go into the forest and get some sample _Flitterblooms_ for us all to look at."

Victoire smiled brightly, "Brilliant idea Professor Longbottom. C'mon, let's go Xavier."

Xavier was about to open his mouth to tell Victoire to pick someone else to go with her, when she grabbed his arm roughly and dragged him out of the greenhouses. She let go of him once they were a good distance away from the greenhouses, and when she knew he wouldn't try to turn back.

Victoire was smiling brightly at Xavier, "You can thank me anytime now."

Xavier rolled his eyes, "For what? For making me miss the lesson to go and pick some stupid plants in the forest?"

Victoire sighed, "You need to lighten up Xavier. This will actually be beneficial; it will be putting our knowledge to real world use, as opposed to memorizing random facts about _Devil's Snare_ and never being able to need them again."

"It seemed to be beneficial to your Aunt and Uncles when they were in their first-year here," Xavier countered.

"Yes, and I love them all to pieces, but they aren't exactly what I would call normal, nor are some of their antics things which we should emulate," Victoire retorted.

"You're right Vic, a lot of their actions shouldn't be copied, you know, like jumping onto the back of a mad dragon," Xavier shot back with a devilish smirk on his face.

Victoire moaned, "Nobody is ever going to let me live that one down, are they?"

Xavier laughed, "None that I know of, but hey, maybe Ted will."

Victoire shook her head, "He told me that if I attempt something like that again, he'll get my Dad and Kingsley to put me in a bubble."

"To save you from your own stupidity?" Xavier asked grinning. Victoire didn't feel that his question merited an answer, so she punched him in the arm instead.

"Oi! First, that was a legitimate question. Second, speaking of Aurors, shouldn't there be one following you around when you're outside the Castle?" They had just reached the edge of the forest, and Xavier was looking around them before they were going to enter.

Victoire grimaced, "There should be, but I don't see anyone . . . oh well. It's not like I'll miss it. Let's just go."

Xavier frowned, he didn't know why, but he felt like going in there without an Auror would be really bad. On the other hand, he knew how much Victoire hated being babysat.

"C'mon Xavier," Victoire said when she saw him deliberating, "We've been in the forest thousands of times, we'll only have to go, like twenty feet into the forest to get the _Flitterblooms_, _and_ we're a Head Girl and a Head Boy, if we can't handle the forest, who can?"

Xavier sighed. Her reasoning was rather airtight. They walked into the dense forest, and, after about five minutes of walking, they came to a stop. Victoire walked over to the base of a large ash tree.

"Hmm," she mused as she crouched down to get a better look, "We're going to have to keep looking, these are crushed." Xavier came over to her and looked to where she was gesturing. There was a large patch of trampled looking, tentacle-like vines and stems.

They walked farther into the forest before Xavier came to an abrupt stop. He turned around in a circle from where he stopped a look of confusion and concentration on his face.

Victoire watched him, when he'd finished his circuit she asked, "What are you doing Xavier?"

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

She gave him a blank look; "Hear what?"

Xavier's head was still moving, and his eyes seemed to zero in on something a few metres away from them. He walked over to it, and knelt down on the ground. Victoire followed him; he was looking at a series of prints in the ground. They just looked like blobs to her, but apparently, Xavier saw something of interest.

"These . . . they look like some giant paw prints . . . like a large cat or something . . ." Xavier mused. He looked up at Victoire, as if he expected her to confirm his theories.

She shrugged, "It just looks like a blob to me. It could be a paw print, but it could also be a hoof print, like from one of the centaurs that roam the forest. Because it's their home . . ."

Xavier tipped his head to the side as he considered the print again, "I guess you could be right Victoire . . . let's keep looking for those flitterblooms then."

They walked along in silence again, that was until a high-pitched keening noise echoed around the forest. Both Victoire and Xavier stopped where they were and looked at each other.

"'Kay, well I heard that . . . but there's a ton of creatures in these woods that that could be, we just need to find those flitterblooms and then get back to class before we run into _whatever_ that was," Victoire reasoned.

Xavier had walked away from her again to crouch down by the forest ground, "Okay, that last print could have been a centaur's hoof, but this is definitely some sort of feline print . . . a large feline at that."

Victoire walked over to Xavier with thoughts of appeasing him, but was surprised at the print she saw. Xavier was right it looked like it could be a cat's paw print, but it would have to be a large cat. It is how she would picture a lion's paw print, only lions aren't known to be roaming around woods in Scotland, plus, the print was still too large for a lion.

"Fine, you're right it looks like some sort of feline. However, it is some sort of large feline, which I'd rather _not_ run into," Victoire answered.

Xavier nodded, "Let's just find that stupid plant and leave."

They straightened up and decided to walk in the direction opposite the trail of the large footprints. They had been walking for a few more minutes, Xavier was several paces ahead of Victoire, and had just gotten to the top of a high hill they had to climb, when he froze in his spot. Victoire, seeing Xavier's distress, ran the rest of the way up the hill.

"What's wrong Xav-" She was cut off by Xavier grabbing her behind the waist, and then pulling her behind the closest tree that would shield their entire bodies.

"Shh!" Xavier hissed at her in an angry whisper.

Victoire scowled at him. "What's going on?" She whispered back harshly. She moved to look around the tree, but Xavier grabbed her and pulled her back.

"Let go of me Xavier!" She struggled.

"Please Victoire; just listen to me for once in your life. Stay behind this tree, and don't look," he begged.

And, because she was Victoire Weasley, she couldn't follow his orders. She pushed him off her, and then shifted step-by-step around the tree until she could see what Xavier was making such a big deal about. When she was able to see past the bark, her blue eyes went wide and she swiftly moved back so that the tree could give her better cover. Under other circumstances, Xavier would have rolled his eyes at Victoire and gave her a smug 'I-told-you-so', but he refrained because he knew that they were not in a situation where that would that would help. However, he did make a mental note to tell her that the first chance they had, if they lived through this.

"Did I just see what I thought I saw?" Victoire asked her eyes still wide.

"Body of a lion?" Xavier asked.

"Head of a human?" Victoire questioned.

"With razor sharp teeth?"

"And a scorpion tail?"

"Good Godric Gryffindor," Xavier exclaimed.

"It's a Manticore," Victoire finished for him.

They both took either side of the tree and glanced back around the tree. Standing about seven metres away from them was the gigantic creature that Victoire and Xavier had just described to each other. It stood at least five metres tall, and was every bit as dangerous looking as their old _Care of Magical Creatures_ textbook described. They shuffled back behind the tree and started at each other.

Xavier's face was worried and determined, but he was starting to get more nervous as he watched Victoire's face. He saw the same look from the big screen when he watched Victoire do her task, the _exact same one_ she had right before she jumped onto the back of the dragon. _Damn, this is _not_ good,_ Xavier thought.

"What's the plan Head Girl?" Xavier asked.

She glared at him, "Oh no, I filled my quota of stupid stunts with the Task last weekend. You're gonna have to take the reins on this one Head Boy."

"Working together on this it is then. What do we know about Manticores?"

"Magic doesn't work on them, and if you get hit by the poison from its stinger tail, it's instant death," Victoire answered easily.

"Darn, I was hoping my facts on that were wrong," Xavier mumbled.

"What are the chances that we could turn around and leave the way we came without it seeing us?" Victoire asked.

"I CAN HEAR YOU!"

Victoire and Xavier looked at each other; they'd forgotten that Manticore's not only had good hearing, but that some of the older ones were able to vocalize like a human. They didn't have time to answer back because the next second the heard the Manticore's lion claws swiping across the trunk of the tree they were hidden behind.

Both Victoire and Xavier ran from behind the tree, they split up and fled from opposite sides. Victoire ended up somersaulting and crouching for cover behind a rock. She peeked over the weathered stone to find where Xavier ended up. She gasped when she saw him on the ground, with the Manticore's large, sharp teeth, barred a foot from his head.

Victoire jumped out from behind the rock and waved her wand, "_Confringo!_" Most of the magic bounced off the Manticore's hide, like she knew it would. But it made enough of an impression on the Manticore that it turned its head away from Xavier to glare at Victoire menacingly with its coal black eyes. It turned its body away, Xavier rolling away just in time to avoid being hit by the poisonous stinger on its tail.

It began to stalk slowly toward Victoire, it's human head showing an expression mixed with a sneer and a condescending smile.

"Obviously the pretty little Hogwarts student doesn't know that regular old _magic_ doesn't work on a beast like me," the Manticore taunted.

Victoire smirked back at the beast, "Regular old magic might not work on you, but have you ever tested your luck with Veela powers before?" The hand Victoire had that wasn't holding her wand started to glow with fire.

The Manticore faltered in its steps towards her. "No wonder my senses were only alerted to the presence of one human. You must have tricked my senses with your tainted blood."

Victoire glared at the Manticore in the foreground, but behind her, she was trying to catch Xavier's eye. When she'd gotten his attention, she moved her eyes to the Manticore's tail, and then back to Xavier. The Manticore was still slowly stalking toward Victoire like the predator it was. She waved the hand that was alight with fire in a slicing motion, scaring the beast, but also sending Xavier a message. She only hoped that he would understand it before the Manticore decided to pounce on her.

Xavier moved forward, pointed his wand at the Manticore's tail, and then shouted, "_Diffindo!_"

On another creature, the slicing spell would probably have severed the tail off, but against a Manticore, it just really annoyed it. Although when it swept around to face Xavier, Victoire _could_ see that, the tail was dripping with some sort of green acid that burnt the ground wherever it dripped. While Xavier kept the talkative end entertained, Victoire waved her wand and attempted to do a wordless _Patronus_ charm. She didn't have much practice with _Patronus_' that carried messages, but now was as good of a time as ever to send one. She thought about what she wanted it to say, and that it should go to the first Auror it came across. Victoire waved her wand and a bright silver streak of light shot out of her wand. It seemed to sense her urgency, because Victoire was only able to get a glance at the _Patronus_ before it streaked away through the foliage.

_What in the world-_

"Victoire watch out!" Xavier called.

She snapped out of her wondering just in time to dodge the Manticore's stinger. The beast had ended up herding her and Xavier together as it circled them from a five-metre radius. The perfect distance away from them to shoot, it's stinger at one of them.

Victoire and Xavier shared a look. They both understood that whoever had the best chance, was supposed to keep trying with the severing charms. If they at least got the poisonous tail out of the way, then all they'd have to worry about was the razor sharp teeth and claws.

"Now, which one of you should I dispose of first?" the Manticore asked narrowing its eyes.

"_Diffindo!_" Victoire cried jumping to the side to hit the tail.

The Manticore thrashed around and glared at Victoire, "Pretty little appetizer first then."

"_Diffindo!_" Xavier cried from behind the Manticore.

The beast swung around and scowled at Xavier, "Well you're a man, so you _must_ be the biggest threat."

Victoire actually took a minute to roll her eyes at the Manticore before she saw it moving down into a crouched position, and swinging its tail around. It was just taking its aim at Xavier when she ran across the ground and pushed Xavier out of the way. She didn't have time to move herself before the poisonous stinger shot out of the Manticore's tail, and came shooting towards her.

Victoire was flung onto her back from the impact, and the last thing she remembered before the world around her descended into darkness, was the frantic yelling of several voices, and the completely broken look on Xavier's face.

* * *

Yeah I know you all hate me but I had to leave it there. I know this update was late, but that's because I had to get the next few chapers typed out in advance to keep the timeline in order and make sure there was nothing that would conflict. Next update will definitely happen next week!

Thanks again to everyone who has favourited, subscribed, and especially reviwed, it always makes my day.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this chapter, even if you all just want to yel at me or call me bad names ;)

Don't worry next chapter should be worth the wait!

Again, I'd love to hear from you all! And I hoped you liked it, even though it was a cliffie.


	41. Waking Up

**A/N:** Well, I'm sorry about that cliffie from the last one, but I hope this clears up all questions! I'm sorry if this seems a little boring or redundant when it comes to Victoire's health and all of the medical stuff about it, a lot of it is just important for later on.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything, it's all JKR's. I just put all of her character's into new and deangerous positions ;)

* * *

Waking Up

When Victoire broke through the blackness and regained consciousness, the first thing she noticed was the absolutely infuriating burning hot pain that, based on the ache she felt as her lungs constricted and inflated, seemed to find home in the middle of her chest, and leak through all the way to her back, which she was lying on. Her breathing picked up reflexively as she whimpered from the unbearable pain that was shooting back in forth on a circuit from the middle of her chest to the middle of her spine, then back again. Her eyelids were closed and heavy, her entire body felt weighty and lethargic. Her breathing had been getting faster and faster, until she was almost hyperventilating.

"Ugh!" Victoire exclaimed when she couldn't take the pain from her increased breathing anymore. It was only after she spoke-out, when the room around fell into a resulting silence, that she realized that there had been a low hum of voices and movement reaching her ears from the area around her.

"Victoire?" A voice asked tentatively into the silence. It took her a minute to recognize the voice that had called her name.

When she finally found the energy to open her eyes a minute later, she saw the face that matched the voice. Her father was standing above her.

"Dad?"

Bill's deep brown eyes warmed instantly when he heard her speak. Victoire inspected her father closer and saw that there were dried tear tracks streaking his scarred face. She turned her head slightly to the side, trying her best to ignore the flare of pain that shot up her spinal column and into her neck as she turned it. Right next to her father's strong looking face was her mother's heartbroken looking one. Victoire knew that below her mother's soft looking exterior was a very strong and determined individual, however, her face always showed her true emotions, and this time was no exception. Fleur had a look her face that was both completely stunned and hopeful at once. Her blue eyes looked like they were staring at something that didn't exist, but hoped so much was real.

Victoire could hear many more people breathing than just her father and her mother, but she didn't want to look around the room to see who else would be there. She recognized the pale blue blankets covering her, and deduced that she was most definitely in the Hospital Wing. And from the many sets of bodies she could sense, her family and friends were not following the visitors limit or five people per sick individual.

Victoire was more concerned though, with the looks on her parents faces, she expected them to have grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug (no matter how much pain she was in) the minute she woke up, or she at least expected her Mamma to kiss her on her cheeks, and her father her forehead.

"What's going on?" Victoire asked her voice was high pitched with nervousness.

"Honey, do you know why you're here?" her father asked her gently.

Victoire squinted her eyes in confusion, "Because I'm hurt?"

She was partly serious, but also trying to play off a bit of a joke. She expected at least one person in her family to take the bait and laugh with/at her. When no one did, she knew this was serious.

"Victoire, wat eez ze lazt zeeng you remember?" her mamma asked her, the ocean-blue eyes she'd inherited shining with concern.

"Umm," Victoire started, "Well . . . I remember tackling Xavier Wood, but for the life of me I can't really remember why. It was either because he was in danger, or because he did something to really piss me off."

That one got a reaction. But only from the sandy-blonde haired, Quidditch-obsessed Head boy in question. When Victoire heard Xavier's chuckling, she finally decided to try to sit up and see exactly who else was around her.

_UHG! Good GODRIC this was NOT a good idea!_ Victoire thought to herself as her body began to be attacked by waves of pain that washed through what seemed like every limb. She kept up with her plan though, she moaned and groaned, but she didn't stop until she was sitting up. Her parents started to flutter around her, and she thought she heard them telling her not to try to sit up, but their words were lost in the pain she felt. The sting abated slightly once she stopped moving. Once she had sat up fully, she felt the sheet covering her fall down to her waist, but she didn't feel the need to pull it back up. She wasn't cold.

When the pain was gone, she looked around her, initially bypassing her family and friends' faces, until she spotted Xavier.

"So which one was it? Saving your sorry arse from danger or you just royally pissing me off?" Victoire asked trying to catch Xavier's eye between her father and mamma.

Xavier, knowing that she was trying to see him, stepped between Victoire's parents and sat down at the end of her bed. He wouldn't meet her eyes, but Victoire wasn't concerned about that right now. What she was concerned about was the fact that he was wearing a pair of striped Hospital Wing, pyjamas. His face seemed to be scratched up, but he didn't seem to have any other injuries, of course, Victoire didn't know how long she'd been out, so Xavier could have just been fixed up and recuperating.

"Which one is it Xavier?" Victoire asked again, worried that she didn't get a response.

"Um, Vic," Xavier started still looking down at the blanket he was sitting on instead of at her, "Maybe you should pull your blanket up."

Victoire shot him a thoroughly confused look, "Um, I'm not cold . . ."

Xavier sighed loudly, "Just look down at yourself already."

She was still confused but she followed his orders anyway.

She gasped aloud, "What-but-" She spluttered. When Victoire looked down, she saw that her entire torso was bare except for the thick white bandages that started from her underarms, wrapped all the way around her in several layers, down to the top of her belly button. Below that, she could tell that she was at least wearing Hospital Wing pyjama bottoms. What really concerned Victoire was not the fact that her entire chest and stomach was covered in bandages. But the fact that right below her ribcage she could see a spot staining through the bandages. It was about two inches in diameter, acid green in colour, and seemed to be the source of the agonizing pain she'd felt when she first woke up, and every time she'd breathed and moved.

Even though she hadn't covered herself like Xavier asked her to, he looked up at her anyhow. Her bandages covered _everything_ up anyway.

"Think Vic, what do you remember?" he pleaded.

Victoire closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, "There . . . there was a Manticore, and it was going to attack us . . . No, it was going to attack you . . . I-I ran over and pushed you out of the way and then-then I-I was supposed to get hit with its poisonous stinger. But I'm here . . . so I mustn't have . . ."

Xavier locked eyes with Victoire, "Vic, look back at yourself."

Victoire looked down at her injury, she knew that the acid green colour of it seemed familiar; it was the same colour of the acid that was leaking out of the Manticore when they tried to sever its tail. She tried to detach herself from her injury, all facts pointed to one answer, but it couldn't be.

"But . . . I can't have gotten hit by it . . . I-I should be dead. A Manticore's poison should mean instant death!" Victoire cried out not understanding. She hated when she didn't understand.

Bill placed his hand gently on one of Victoire's bare shoulders, "Calm down Sweetie, moving like that could cause you to bleed out again, and you've already lost a lot of blood."

Victoire followed her father's advice. When she was still, she asked, "What happened to me?"

At that point, Madame Pomfrey made her first appearance through the crowd of her family (whom Victoire still hadn't had a chance to take a good look at yet).

"Miss Weasley, you were attacked by a Manticore. Mr Wood was about to be attacked by the stinger, and, according to him, you jumped in and pushed him out of the way in the last second. Because of your proximity to the beast however, you were hit by the poisonous stinger instead. The spot in the middle of your stomach was where the stinger entered your body; you have an identical mark directly behind it on your back, because the stinger went all the way through you, before getting stuck."

Victoire's blonde eyebrows rose high up on her head, "And what was the damage? Obviously I should be dead, but I'm not . . ."

Madame Pomfrey smiled in a motherly way, she looked over her shoulder, and a minute later Victoire's Aunt Angelina walked up to her. She had obviously still been at work when she'd heard about what happened to Victoire, because she was still in her lime-green St. Mungo's Healer robes. Angelina placed her hand on Victoire's forehead, and swept back some of the loose strands of her hair.

She smiled tiredly at her niece before starting, "Honey, I'm not going to lie to you, you're not out of the woods yet. We're not entirely sure why you're alive; Madame Pomfrey, Aunt Hermione, and I are trying to come up with a plausible hypothesis. But in the mean time, we're not entirely sure how you're going to react to the poison from the Manticore. You're the first case of this we've ever seen, the longest anyone has lasted with the poison in their system was a half hour, and they were still in horrible shape because the rest of their body had been ravished by the Manticore."

Victoire felt bile rise up in her throat, but she swallowed it back. She had to remind herself that she still seemed to be in one piece, and that Xavier seemed to be fine also.

Angelina looked contrite as she said the next thing, "You were fine except for the damage the stinger caused you. We're lucky that it hit you where it did though, it missed your heart and your lungs, but it did pierce your diaphragm and stomach, and only slightly miss your spinal cord and column. Madam Pomfrey and I repaired the damage to your diaphragm and stomach. Unfortunately, the poison has no doubt reached your blood stream by now, which would account for the searing pain you'll be feeling whenever you move. We can't give you any painkilling potions because we're afraid that their makeup might encourage the poison's destruction instead of helping you. We did you give a blood replenishing potion though, as Bill said you lost a lot of blood. Also-"

Victoire didn't hear the next part of Angelina's recital because she suddenly felt like she was going to throw up. She was almost certain that her face turned green, because right away, Madame Pomfrey held out a bucket to Victoire's side so she could get sick. Victoire retched for five minutes straight before lifting her head back up to breath.

_Ugh! That is definitely worse than Uncle George's Puking Pastilles._

As soon as Victoire looked like she had stopped feeling the urge to vomit, Madame Pomfrey waved her wand and vanished the contents of the bucket, but not before Victoire got a glance at the bright green contents.

"Did I just . . . ?" Victoire couldn't finish.

"Regurgitate poison?" Angelina finished for her niece.

Victoire nodded, not wanting to speak.

"Yes, and sadly that's something that you're going to be doing for a while, it seems to be one of the only safe and natural ways for the venom to escape your body."

Victoire nodded again understandingly. She knew neither Madam Pomfrey nor her Aunt Angelina wanted to play around with artificial potions and treatments to drain the venom from her body. It was safer to wait and see if her body would come up with a way to excrete it naturally.

"So, once my body gets the poison out, I'll be fine?" Victoire asked, as she glanced at her aunt.

Angelina looked over at Bill and Fleur. Fleur's eyes started to tear up, as Bill nodded at his sister-in-law brokenly.

"Victoire," Angelina started, placing her hand on top of the one of Victoire's that was lying on her bed, "Like we mentioned before, we're not sure how your body will react to the poison. There has never been a case like yours before. In fact, the only reason you're not at St. Mungo's right now is that I'm almost certain that the rest of the Healers would force me to allow them to examine and watch your condition. And there is no way I'm letting half the hospital treat you as an experiment, trying out different potions and spells to see if one would actually work."

"I'd like it a lot if you all would just be straight with me and tell me what my chances are at surviving this, please," Victoire said as she glanced from her aunt, to Madam Pomfrey, than back to her parents.

Bill almost smiled at the tenacious attitude his daughter put behind her words, "Calm down a little Vic, it's not that bad. We didn't know how you were going to be when you woke up, but all evidence is pointing towards you making a recovery, if not a speedy one."

"Your father's right," Victoire's Aunt Hermione said as she stepped forward out of the crowd of concerned aunts and uncles, "You were only unconscious, if Xavier's original timeline is correct, for about six hours; you're awake now, so you didn't slip into a poison induced coma; this is good. You can think, and talk coherently; you seem to be able to move all of your limbs, even if it does cause you pain. You have slight memory of the attack; so the poison hasn't injured your brain function. Your breathing has returned to normal, and your body has seemed to find a way to expel the poison. The fact that you were able to get sick in the first place shows that your stomach and bodily cells seem to be functioning normally; since they're trying to get rid of the threat to your body."

Victoire nodded, most people who were injured didn't like to go into the details of their injury, but she preferred to know exactly where she stood when she was wounded.

Victoire was about to ask something else, when she felt her stomach start to boil again. Angelina gave her the bucket again and she continued to get sick for several more minutes before her stomach seemed to settle. When Madame Pomfrey had taken the bucket back away from her, she looked back to her parents.

"I'm sorry that I got myself into this mess . . ." Victoire apologized contritely.

Fleur and Bill shared a look before they each took a side of their daughter and sandwiched her in between them in a gentle hug.

"Eet'z not all your fault Chérié. I 'ave come to termz weeth mozt of your eempulzeeve actions by. You are Greefindor after all, Xavier waz een danger and your first inzteenct waz to 'elp 'im, even eef eet waz to your own determent," Fleur said quietly to her daughter.

"Yes, not to mention the fact that there shouldn't have been a Manticore in the woods in the first place. They're not indigenous to Scotland, and it's illegal to breed them because they're a level five dangerous creature. It's actually amazing that you and Xavier both made it out in one piece," Bill added as he looked down at his daughter. She may have been considered a legal adult now in their world, but she was still his little girl. Unlike Dom (who always tried to act more grown-up than she was), Victoire never had a problem with Bill trying to 'baby' her. She was their first child, and even though both Dominique and Louis were younger than she was, she knew she would always be her father's baby girl. The fact that she always seemed to be the one to get injured or hurt, only brought out more of Bill's protective instinct. He had just cause though, if he tallied up all the times in which he had to go to St. Mungo's, or the Hospital Wing because of Victoire, it would be more than the visits Dom and Louis have had put together.

"How did we get out of there in one piece anyway?" Victoire asked as she glanced at Xavier who was still situated on the foot of her bed.

Xavier frowned; he didn't enjoy thinking back to the attack, "Well the Manticore moved away after its stinger got you. I didn't have to worry so much, because apparently it takes them a full forty-eight hours to grow a whole new stinger, all I had to focus on was to stay away from its claws and teeth. Almost as soon as you were pierced with its stinger, Professor Cooke and one of the Aurors showed up. Shortly after them, more showed up, they were able to handle the Manticore, but I'm not sure how they did it. Once you'd gotten hurt, my main focus was on working on you seeing if you were okay."

Victoire raised a blonde brow, "Working on me?"

Angelina smiled gently at her niece, "Someone had to perform magical first aid. You probably wouldn't have survived long if Xavier hadn't put an immobilizing charm on your body and most of your organs. It slowed the spread of venom through your body, and stilled your systems so you wouldn't lose all or your blood."

Victoire looked at Xavier surprised, "That's some pretty fancy stuff. How'd you know what to do?"

Xavier smiled brightly, "I do listen sometimes when you're going on and on about healing junk Vic. And speaking of listening when others talk, I've chosen this moment to say 'I-told-you-so'!"

Victoire rolled her eyes, she knew he was most likely referring to the fact that she should have just listened to him when he first saw the Manticore, and then walked away the way they had came. "So nobody's told me yet exactly how a Manticore got into the Forbidden Forest."

"We don't know yet, but you can be sure that Kingsley will find out before the day's over," Ron's voice came out from somewhere in the large blob of people surrounding Victoire and the hospital bed.

Victoire was somewhat surprised at hearing her uncle's voice. She had forgotten that pretty much all of her family was crammed in around her. She glanced to where she heard Ron's voice; it only took her a minute to locate him from where he stood just behind her Uncle George, and next to her Uncle Harry. Victoire decided that she should take the time to take a cursory glance of her visitors. She saw every one of her aunts and uncles including her Uncle Charlie, who hadn't travelled back to Romania yet, and even her Uncle Percy. (She knew that she must have been in bad shape then, because even though she knew her uncle cared for her, she also knew that he wouldn't have left work unless it was dire and extremely important.) The only people she noticed who were missing were: her cousins (she guessed that their parents didn't want them there until they found out exactly what her condition was like); her grandparents Molly and Arthur (although she wasn't entirely sure if anyone had told them. Knowing her family they probably hadn't even told them yet for fear of them becoming overbearing); Kyle, Sandra, and her other friends (they were probably waiting outside for the same reason); Kingsley, and, sadly, Teddy.

Victoire wasn't sure whose absence to bring attention to first. She decided that the safest would probably be her siblings, "Where's Dom and Louis?"

Bill glanced at Madame Pomfrey, "They're waiting outside with the rest of your cousins and friends. We didn't want any of them in here until we found out what-how you were doing . . ."

Victoire nodded, "I understand . . . but seeing as we're just taking everything as it goes in concerns with my health right now . . . I'd like to see them." She addressed the latter part to Madame Pomfrey.

Madam Pomfrey was usually annoyed when her Hospital Wing was filled past capacity, but she couldn't deny the fact that Victoire was going through a lot, and that seeing her family and friends would probably help. She nodded but said that some of the people in the room would need leave because there wasn't actually that much room in the wing. Percy and Audrey nodded, and after they each kissed Victoire on the forehead, left the room. George and Charlie each said goodbye to her before leaving; they said that they'd stop by the Burrow on their way back to inform her grandparents about what happened. Harry and Ron left quickly after, saying that they were going to let Kingsley know that she was awake, Victoire only noticed once they left the room, that they hadn't even mentioned Teddy's name; she had no idea where he was. Her parents left quickly, telling her that they were going to go so that they could arrange to get the next few days off work so that they could come see her again, and Angelina and Hermione went with Madam Pomfrey to her office to discuss the potions and spell regime Victoire should be on. The only adult left in the room was Victoire's Aunt Ginny.

Ginny forced Xavier back into bed because he was still supposed to be recuperating from his wounds; (Victoire hadn't heard much about what had happened to Xavier, but according to the small argument that had ensued between them as Ginny pushed him into bed, he had gotten some pretty bad scratches from the Manticore's claws). After she threatened to put a permanent sticking charm on his back to keep him in his bed, Ginny helped Victoire slip on the matching front-button up shirt to match her striped Hospital Wing pyjama bottoms. Victoire was feeling chilly, so Ginny helped her fasten the buttons over her gauze wrapped torso.

Once both invalid were settled, Ginny went out in the hall. She came back not even a minute later, a little Lily Potter attached to one hand, and a little Hugo Weasley attached to the other. Behind both nine year olds were Sandra, Kyle, Chris, Victoire's brother and sister, and the rest of the young Potters-and-Weasleys.

Sandra, Kyle, Chris, and Ally went to Xavier first, because it was easy to see that Victoire was already overwhelmed with her present amount of visitors.

"Okay, okay, I'm glad to see everyone too!" Victoire called above the noise. In normal family fashion, they had all started talking at the same time.

She decided to deal with Lily and Hugo first, knowing that Ginny and Hermione were probably going to take them home soon. She invited them both to climb onto her bed, despite Ginny's arguments that they were going to jostle it and hurt her. Victoire ignored the pain that flooded into her arms as she soothed a crying Lily who was so distraught to see her eldest cousin in such a weak position, and hugged a sombre looking Hugo who didn't seem to know what to say. After giving them both a goodbye kiss on the forehead, Ginny took their hands again and went to Madam Pomfrey's office to find Hermione.

Baxter, Molly, and Lucy were next.

"How're you feeling Vic?" Molly asked seriously, as she sat down on the edge of her cousin's bed. Victoire gritted her teeth and attempted to put on a smile for them. After several minutes, she was able to convince them all, that she was partly okay, and that they should go back to their dormitories. Lucy ran out of the room first, after Victoire had gotten slightly irritated with her constant questions and reminded her that she had patrol duty, or something else equally tedious, to do.

Baxter grinned at Victoire as he leaned down to kiss her cheek goodbye and whispered only to her, "Try not to run into any dangerous creatures tonight, alright?"

Victoire would have hit his arm if she didn't know that that move would hurt her. After Molly and Baxter left, Rose and Al came up to Victoire's bed. They were both very quiet and didn't seem to know what to say either. Victoire was glad for that. Because they were so quiet, she was able to shoo them out of the Hospital Wind after a few monotonous sentences and a couple awkward minutes of silence.

The next pair acted in direct contrast to Rose, and Al; James and Fred jumped onto Victoire's bed, and then they each started running their mouths at a mile a minute. She wasn't sure how she was able to understand what they were talking about, seeing as they spoke so quickly and left the other to finish each other's sentences. But she heard enough to get tired with their vein of questioning after a few minutes. They wanted to know all about the beast, and her injury. She was able to politely convince them to leave after they'd finished their inquisition with a request to see her wound. She declined and then gave them both a hug before sending them away.

Now that the Hospital Wing was less crowded, Ally moved from Xavier's side to sit at the foot of Victoire's bed. They didn't say anything to each other at first, but after a minute or so, Ally broke out into silent tears. Victoire shot her friends beside her at Xavier's bed a startled look; she didn't know how to deal with a broken down Ally. Xavier was watching the scene with wide eyes, and Victoire saw him attempt to get up from his bed to go over and comfort Ally. Kyle was next to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him seated. Sandra moved to Victoire's side and threw one arm around Ally's shoulders, and the other gently across Victoire's. She leaned in to whisper in Victoire's ear.

"She's been worried sick since we found out. Nobody really knew what was going to happen. They know that Manticore venom is deadly, but they weren't sure how to respond to your attack. Most of them have decided to convince themselves that, because you're 'Victoire Weasley', that you'd be able to pull through. Ally has a much . . . darker outlook. She's been scared to death these past couple hours every time the doors to the Hospital Wing opened that someone would come out to tell us that you didn't make it. She hadn't cried yet; she was the only one. It seems like seeing you now, brought the tears though."

Victoire nodded. Between her and Sandra, they were able to convince Ally to dry up her tears.

"It's okay Ally. I'm not going to lie, there not entirely sure that I'm going to make it. But between you and I, there's no way I'm leaving you guys so soon," Victoire said, trying to bring a smile out from her distressed looking cousin.

"Yeah, and between you and I Ally," Xavier said from his bed beside them, "I'm sure she's going to pull through because I definitely owe her one now, and not even fatal poison is going to stop Victoire from collecting her payment."

Victoire could see that the tears had stopped falling from Ally's eyes as she glanced over at Xavier. Despite her newly dry face, Victoire was worried about the desolate look in the brunette's eyes.

Ally blinked owlishly before she shot up and over to Xavier's bed. She held him crushed into an embrace that looked too forceful to be called a hug. Her arms were locked around his neck, and her face was pressed against his chest. Despite the fact that she was obviously sobbing again, her words were articulated rather clearly.

"Oh Godric Xavier! I'm sorry, how stupid of me! How could I forget that you almost died today?"

Victoire and Sandra giggled at the stunned look on Xavier's face. On the outside, he seemed more concerned for her tears than anything else. But underneath Victoire could sense that he was feeling a little giddy at the fact that she was clutching him so tightly. He shot Kyle a look that said 'tell-me-what-to-do-I-don't-know-how-to-handle-a-crying-female'. Kyle smirked at him, but grabbed Chris' arm and brought him closer to Victoire's bed so that they could see her, and give Xavier and Ally a bit of 'alone' time.

Victoire smiled as she listened to Xavier's attempts to calm Ally down. He was trying to get her to stop crying, while surreptitiously trying to keep her in his arms at the same time. Knowing that it would probably take some time, Victoire turned her attention away from Xavier and Ally and towards Kyle, Sandra, Chris, and her brother and sister who had been standing back while the rest of their cousins trickled through.

Dom and Sandra asked Victoire questions about her health in overly bubbly voices, while Kyle, Chris, and Louis stood around with their hands in their pockets; they were guys and they weren't sure how they were expected to comfort her. After several minutes of Victoire, answering a whole host of questions that she'd already answered at least twelve times over, Louis was the first person to notice that his sister seemed to be getting tired of answering questions.

"So you actually missed a lot at dinner tonight Vic. Austin Pennington was saying something about how you probably saw the Manticore and decided to do something to get glory for yourself, but then Dom, Ally, Sandy, Molly, and Cecilia hexed him all at the same time. He was very quiet after that, except for his occasional shouts of pain from the rather nasty stinging jinx Cecilia sent him, that is," Louis informed his sister with a sly smile on his face.

"Speaking of Cecilia, where is my sister?" Xavier asked from his spot in his bed. He was able to convince Ally to stop crying a few minutes ago, but when she stopped, she also slipped out from his embrace. He had frowned at that but his changed his expression before she could see it.

"We were waiting out in the hall to be allowed to come in when Professor McGonagall came and took her, she said there was someplace Cecilia needed to be," Louis answered, knowing that Xavier's question was directed more towards him than any of the others.

"But where did she have to go-" Xavier was cut off by the sound of the door opening so roughly that it banged against the wall. Two slim brunettes paced in through the opening. Once they saw Xavier they quickly went to his bed; the first one to get to the bed grabbed Xavier and squeezed him into a very tight hug. She was crying even more unabashedly than Ally had been a few moments previously, and it didn't look like she was going to let go of him soon.

Xavier patted his embracer's back awkwardly, "Umm . . . I'm fine . . . really . . . nothing to worry about. Victoire's the one who almost died, why don't you go cry over her?"

Victoire rolled her eyes at Xavier. The other brunette walked over to Victoire's bed and gave her a gentle hug.

"How are you feeling Vic?" Cecilia asked as she let Victoire out of the hug.

"I'm fine," Victoire answered absentmindedly as she continued to watch Xavier. He was one bed over and he trying to calm Katie down; she was smothering him in her hug, and Victoire doubted that he was even able to breathe.

"Mum, I'm fine. Just a few scratches, it's no big deal. I'm not even going to come out of this with any scars," Xavier was saying as he attempted to peel his mother off of him.

Katie finally surrendered her hold on her son. Her face was stained with tear tracks, but the water works seemed to have stopped. Victoire noted Katie's still tear filled eyes with curiosity; Xavier's mother wasn't one to cry. Victoire had seen her break her leg during a Quidditch match and then limp off the field as if it was a bruise, Oliver had been more worried about her safety than she was.

Katie sat on the side of Xavier's bed; she ran her hand tenderly through his messy dirty-blonde fringe, "I thought you promised me that you wouldn't get into trouble this year?"

Xavier smiled sadly but didn't answer.

"I'm sorry, this is my fault Katie," Victoire said.

Katie looked away from her son and at Victoire. She got up quickly and gave her a gentle squeeze, "This isn't your fault Vic. If anything, you saved Xavier, and we're all very thankful for that."

Victoire shook her head; she disagreed. If she hadn't convinced Professor Longbottom to let them go into the forest to look for flitterblooms in the first place, they wouldn't be in this mess.

Xavier, almost as if he could read Victoire's mind, frowned and said, "My Mum's right Victoire. This isn't your fault. You saved me. Heck, you jumped in front of a Manticore's poisonous stinger for me. I guess this means that you're not a complete heartless cow," he finished teasingly at the end.

Victoire rolled her eyes at him again, but couldn't help but crack a smile. "I only did because I'm completely in love with you Xavier, you know that," Victoire responded sarcastically.

"That's more than love," Katie chimed in, "If that was your father in that mess I would have left his arse there to suffer the consequences of his actions," she finished, sounding a lot more like the Katie Bell that Victoire knew than the blubbering woman she'd been just a few moments prior.

Everyone was still laughing lightly when Angelina, Hermione, and Ginny came out of Madam Pomfrey's office, the latter two dragging their sleepy looking youngest children behind them.

Angelina walked over to Katie and quietly explained both Xavier and Victoire's health situations to her. Katie's face was relieved when she heard that Xavier would be absolutely fine after a few days of recuperating, but it swiftly slipped back into worry when she heard about Victoire's predicament.

After Angelina had finished, and Hermione and Ginny wished everyone a good night and left, Katie looked down at her wristwatch, "Is it fine for Xavier to move?"

Angelina nodded.

Katie looked at Cecilia, and then looked at Xavier, "Your father will be here soon. Professor McGonagall said that we could use her office since I told her that there were some things we needed to talk about as a family."

Xavier's eyebrows lowered in confusion, "Dad's coming here?"

Katie looked taken aback by his question, "Of course your father's coming here. Why would you think that he wouldn't?"

"Well . . . I know he has a Quidditch game in Germany today . . ."

Katie placed her hand gently on Xavier's, "Yes, and the only reason he's not here right now was because they were halfway through travelling there when I contacted him. As soon as they got there, he arranged transportation to get back. He'll be here in fifteen minutes."

Xavier nodded, and moved to get out of bed, but he was distracted by the doors to the Hospital Wing banging open for what seemed to be the hundredth time tonight.

Kingsley Shacklebolt walked in determinately. Once he spotted Victoire, he went right to her side. He sat on the edge of the bed, grabbed her hand, and squeezed it gently.

"How're you feeling Princess?" He asked, his dark eyes trained on Victoire's face.

Victoire tried to smile, but even the muscles in her face were starting to hurt. She chalked it up to the venom in her system.

"Nauseous," she answered right away. She didn't think she was going to get sick right away, but her stomach was starting to boil.

Kingsley wanted to smirk, but his frown just ended up turning into an unreadable line. He nodded, "Okay, I'm going to go talk to Madam Pomfrey, I'll be right back, okay?"

''Kay."

After Kingsley moved from her bed and walked to the part of the room, where Madam Pomfrey's office was located, Victoire noticed that Kingsley hadn't been the only new comer to the room. Xavier seemed to notice also, and hurriedly ushered his mother and sister out so they could go meet up with his father. He told Victoire not to worry; she wouldn't be spending the night alone in the Hospital Wing, because he'd be back later since he was supposed to sleep in the Hospital Wing that night. Ally, Sandra, Kyle, and Chris continued the exodus, each one promising to visit later the next day. It took a little longer for Dominique and Louis to leave. Louis was trying to be tactful and to gently force Dom to leave, while Dom wanted to stay so she could be privy to what she was certain was going to turn into an interesting conversation. Once Louis had left the Hospital Wing, dragging Dom behind him, Victoire's last visitor walked slowly up to her bed. He sat down softly on the edge of her bed, grabbed her hand from where it was laying on top of the crisp hospital wing sheets, and squeezed it gently.

Teddy's dark twinkling eyes locked onto Victoire's ocean-blue ones, "I think it's time to put you into that bubble."

* * *

Aww, Kinda cute at the end there. I hope you liked this chapter, review please if there's anythign you want/need to say, about this chapter, past or present chapters, or about my story line or writing in general, especially if there's some things you don't entirely undersatnd :)

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, or subscribed, or favourited, it always makes my day to see that I've gotten feedback from someone!

**Next chapter . . . well . . . it's time for someone else to have some drama in their life than just Vic . . . *cough* *Xavier* *cough* ;)**

An especially big thanks to:

**imsuchanut**, **xLauraElizabeth**, **brilliant incandescence**, **Aurordreamer**, **Amara**, **book-freak24**, **Lobster**, **wish right now**, **azulaiii**, **Smileybox**, and **3l1n0r**.

**Smileybox**: Wow, thanks so much, it's always a compliment when someone compares me to a world famous author, so thank you, a lot. I'm glad that you think this picks off right where she left off, ebacsue that's why I wrote this in the first place. After I finished reading the last book, this story just cmae intomy mind a developed and developed until one of my friends introduced me to fanfiction, where I could finally get the story out.

Yeah, I love my Teddy too, a lot of people sometimes paint him as bitter or very cocky, and while he can be a prankster, I feel as though someone who is brought up in such a strong and moral family structure such as the Weasleys and the Potters would be a very upstanding person.

I'll make a deal with you, I won't stop writing, if you don't stop reviewing, deal?


	42. Xavier's Dilemma

A/N: Hi, I'm sooooooo sorry that it's taken me so long to update. I feel really, really, really, bad about it. Seriously, I'm even feeling the full efects of my Catholic guilt. All I can offer you as reasons (or excuses however you may see it) is that I spent the majority of my time organizing our school's Thinkfast, and working on my school's Relay for Life committee to get ready for our kickoff assembly, for our relay even that will take place in June. Those took over all of my extra time, along with school work, (stupid spirit week wich totally put me behind) and the fact that I actually had to work for all of March break.

Again, I am sorry and I hope you take this chapter (rather long at that) as an apology/peace offering for my lateness with updating. Thank-you to all of those who have patiently waited, and those who have waited, even if it wasn't patiently. You're all amazing.

This chapter will be lot's of fun because it's centered around Xavier, and man, did fate (okay . . . I . . .) drop a big load of drama on him :)

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything . . . seriously, I can't even take credit for the new character additon . . . you'll have to blame Katie and Oliver for that one ;)

* * *

Xavier's Dilemmas

"Victoire."

_Poke._

"Victoire."

_Poke._

"Victoire . . ."

Another _poke_.

It took Victoire a few minutes to respond to the poking seeing as she had been in a very restful state of sleep. She had fallen asleep at about nine o'clock last night, after a rather bad fit of nausea. She was exhausted from 'tossing her cookies', as Madam Pomfrey called it, and, even though every part of her body was (and still is) filled with pain, she fell asleep right away.

She groaned as she felt a male voice continue to poke her arm and whisper her name. He obviously was trying to wake her up. She spent a few more minutes trying to ignore the person who was trying to get her attention. When his voice became louder, she finally wretched open her eyelids, worried that Madam Pomfrey would hear the noise and come out of her room to investigate.

When she opened her eyes, she wanted nothing more than to close them again; looking down on her from his position beside her bed was a very distressed and disgruntled looking Xavier Wood. His dirty blonde hair was standing up everywhere. And even though his eyes were light, she could see worry deep within them.

Victoire could tell that there was something wrong with him, but she was way too tired and sore to deal with it right now. Her eyes quickly shot to the clock on the wall, and she groaned and pressed her face down to the bed when she read that it was only midnight. _Ugh, maybe if I don't look back up Xavier will finally understand that I'm not in the mood right now, to deal with whatever it is he wants to talk to me about,_ Victoire thought. She snuggled her face closer into the soft fabric of the mattress, only to realize that it felt . . . off . . .

The warm bed beneath Victoire's face was harder than she expected, but that fact was nothing compared to the fact that it seemed to be gently moving up and down. She opened her eyes and was confused to see dark fabric, and what appeared to be the pale skin of someone's stomach. _A very, _very _muscular and toned stomach_, Victoire found her still hazy brain admiring. Her sleepy state of mind was shocked into complete consciousness when she realized that she was lying _on top_ of someone. She sat up on the bed (and the person) until she remembered what had happened before she went to sleep, and why there was someone lying underneath her in her Hospital Wing bed.

Victoire's unexpected movement not only caused her thoracic vertebra and stomach to become attacked by painful licks of fire from the Manticore acid that was still in her system from the day before, but it also jostled the entire (small mind you) bed, and caused the person currently employed as Victoire's human mattress to awake. The lightly closed eyelids began to flutter and soon Victoire was looking into a well-known pair of dark blue eyes. She bit her lip in worry as she watched Morpheus' spell drain away from the eyes, leaving recognition to take its place. As the mouth began to open, most likely to question Victoire's position as she ended up straddling the other person's legs, Victoire turned her head to the side (ignoring the pain that shot up her cerebral spine as she whipped her head) and glared at Xavier, as if it to blame him for what she assumed was going to happen next.

"Umm . . . Vic . . . why are you on top of me?"

Victoire turned from glaring at Xavier, to looking sheepishly at the guy who she was pretty much sitting on, "Uh, because Kingsley told you to stay here last night?"

Teddy Lupin blinked his eyes quickly; afraid that if he did it slower he would fall back asleep. As it were, he wasn't even one hundred percent sure, if he was awake right now.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure that when Kingsley told me to stay and make sure that nothing happened to you overnight he didn't plan on me taking my role so . . . physically close."

Teddy placed his hands on Victoire's hips, with the intention of lifting her off of him so that he could slip out of the hospital bed, when he saw her face turn a very light green shade.

_Crap!_

Teddy forgot all about the impropriety of their situation and quickly sat up, so that he could reach his wand, which was sitting next to Victoire's on the bedside table. No sooner had he conjured up a bucket, than Victoire snatched it out of his hands, lent over the side if the bed, and began getting sick into it. As Victoire retched, Teddy's large hands gently gathered up her long blonde hair, and held it away from her face at the nap of her neck, as he started whispered small words of comfort into her ear. He transferred her soft hair into one hand, so he could soothingly rub circles onto her back as he heard her heaving gradually slow and listened to her as she took deep, panting lungfuls of air. When she had finished, he vanished the bucket along with its contents, and conjured water into the glass that had been left on the bedside table from the last time she'd gotten sick before falling asleep.

Once Victoire had cleaned her mouth out, she pushed Teddy back down onto the bed and curled up around him, with her head on his chest. Getting sick, and that fact that it was really late at night, added up to the fact that she was completely exhausted. So exhausted that she wasn't even sure if she was thinking properly.

He sighed, "Vic, I really can't stay here." Teddy's words didn't make much of an impact, because his arms curled around her back and his hands resumed rubbing soft circles across the fabric of her pyjama shirt, as she lay across his chest.

Victoire sighed sleepily into the fabric of the black t-shirt that was covering Teddy's chest, getting sick had dealt with the boiling she'd felt in her stomach, but it also made her head pound from the venom still throbbing in her veins.

"Teddy I feel violently nauseous, not only does every limb of my body hurts, but also every muscle and organ, and I feel as though I'm never going to get to sleep. Now, Xavier just woke me up from a, surprisingly, restful sleep, and the only reason I can think of to explain why I slept so well, is because you're so comfy to sleep on, m'kay?"

Teddy shifted slightly so he could look down at Victoire's face, her eyes were closed and she was snuggling her head onto his chest. He sighed but wasn't sure if he really had it in him to argue with her about this at midnight just a few hours after she should have died. Victoire smiled as she felt Teddy's muscles relax underneath her cheek, she was just getting comfy again, when she heard a very pointed throat clearing.

She cracked one eye open again to look at Xavier, he was looking at the two of them oddly, but there was still an undercurrent of stress to his inquisitive eyes.

"Umm, Vic . . . I really need to talk to you . . ."

Victoire contemplated this and figured out that the sooner she got this conversation with Xavier over, the sooner she could go back to sleep, and into the pleasant dreamland she had had to vacate.

"Fine," she grumbled. She felt Teddy shift under her, probably getting ready to move out of the bed again, and turned to glare at him.

"If you knew what's good for you Lupin, you'd stay in this bed."

Teddy rolled his eyes at her melodramatic tendencies, and shifted both him and her gently until they were both sitting up on the bed. Teddy sat with his back to the headboard with his legs stretched out beside him, and Victoire sat in-between his legs, with her back pressed against his chest. His arms snaked around her waist and held her tightly to him. She turned her head in to his neck, and pressed her lips lightly to his throat.

"A-hem," Xavier tried again. He knew that Victoire wasn't always the most alert after being woken up, but her lack of attention so far was something else.

Victoire took her time turning her head towards him, hoping that slower movements would stop her neck from hurting so much. Once she was facing him she arched an eyebrow, "What do you want Wood?"

Xavier sat down on the edge of her bed and furrowed his eyebrows. He looked back up at her opened his mouth to say something, and just as quickly, closed it again. He opened his mouth once more, determined to begin, but changed what he was going to say at the last minute, "Why is Ted in your bed?"

Victoire rolled her eyes at him, but decided to give him some slack seeing that it was late, and the fact that she suspected that he was just getting in now; which probably meant that he hadn't had any sleep since yesterday morning.

"Kingsley thought that it would be a good idea to have someone watching me overnight. Personally I thought he was being a little overkill, but hey, he volunteered Teddy, so who was I to complain?"

Xavier gave her an odd look, "Okay . . . but how did he end up in your bed?"

Victoire grinned wickedly, "I think you can piece it together yourself Head Boy."

Teddy sighed and leaned his head back so it banged against the wall behind him, "Victoire was complaining that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep, so I got into bed with her in hopes that she'd just be happy about it, shut up and get some sleep."

Xavier nodded his head, but didn't know what else to say on that subject, "'Kay, well that's not important right now. I really need to talk to you."

"So you say Xavier, what's the problem?" Victoire asked, suddenly very worried for her friend.

Xavier looked down at his feet, "I-I just came back from talking with Mum and Dad-"

"It's midnight Xavier; did your talk with your family go that long?"

He shook his head, "The first part was over a few hours ago, that's when Cee-Cee went to bed. There was just a lot of extra stuff we needed to go over."

"Just spit it out Xavier, what's up?"

"My Mum's pregnant."

Victoire felt her eyes widen, "Wait, what?"

Xavier swallowed thickly, "My Mum's pregnant, her and Dad are going to have a baby, I'm going to have a new little brother or sister."

Victoire looked at Teddy; he was just as surprised as she was. She turned back to Xavier and smiled brightly, "Katie and Oliver are going to have another baby, that's brilliant Xavier! I'm so excited for you guys, all of you."

Xavier nodded, but his forehead seemed to crease even more.

Victoire noticed his unease and stress, "Xavier, this is great news . . . why aren't you more excited?"

Xavier sighed, "It's not the baby, I'm excited about that . . . I mean, it's a little weird thinking that I've just reached legal adulthood, and my parents are going to have a new baby, but I think I can deal with that stuff. It's more all of the changes that are going to come with the baby."

Victoire gave him an odd look, she still wasn't sure where he was going with this, "Uh, Xavier, I'd kinda understand this attitude if you were an only child, but you're not. You must remember a bit, of when Cecilia was born. Yeah, this going to take some adjustment, but more for your parents and Cecilia than for you, you're an adult, so you'll be out of school and out of the house sooner than later."

"Well it sure looks like it's going to be sooner than later now," Xavier mumbled.

Victoire sighed and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose, "Merlin Xavier, stop talking in riddles and just tell me what the problem is."

He sighed again and ran a hand through his dirty blonde fringe, (looking oddly like Teddy as he did so, Victoire thought), "Mum's about three months pregnant right now, her and Dad decided to wait until her first trimester was over to tell us. It's something she got out of some sort of Muggle magazine; they wait until the first trimester is over because there is less of a chance of miscarriage or something else going wrong. That idea isn't very popular in the Wizarding World anymore, but Mum still wanted to wait because she's a lot older than most women are when they're carrying babies now, and Dad wanted to wait because there was a lot of stuff they had to arrange."

Victoire nodded, she'd heard of Muggle women doing that, but she wasn't entirely sure what it was that Katie and Oliver would need to arrange for a new baby. They had a huge house as it was; more money than they'd ever need seeing as Oliver was an international Quidditch star and Katie was a well sought-after trainer. Not to mention that Katie had already semi-retired from Quidditch, so they wouldn't have to go through the whole process of finding a replacement and training like they needed to for when they were expecting Cecilia.

"What kind of stuff did your parents have to arrange?"

Xavier's face turned white, and Victoire knew that she was finally getting to the root of the problem, "Dad's decided that he's going to retire once the baby's born."

Victoire's eyebrows shot up her forehead, "Really?"

Xavier nodded, "He says he's getting older, and that he'd have to step down in a few years anyway, so he thought he'd take an early retirement. He'd never actually say it aloud, but I think he feels bad that he missed some big milestones in Cee-Cee's life and mine, because he had to travel so much. I think both he and Mum see this new baby as a chance to try to start over, to not miss something in our lives now. They have a new baby for all the smaller milestones of life, and it gives them an excuse to be able to be there for the next ones in Cee-Cee's and mine. We aren't angry about this, Dad's only just in a position now where he can ask to retire, and then be given a coaching job because they don't want him to leave the team entirely."

Victoire smiled softly, "Your Dad's going to coach Quidditch now?"

Xavier smiled wistfully, "Yeah, Puddlemere United just couldn't get rid of him, it's kinda like how they gave Mum a job as a trainer when she tried to retire when Cee-Cee was born. She yelled at them and told them that she didn't want it, but they kept that spot open until she was ready to come back. They gave Dad one of the head coaching jobs right away when they found out that they wouldn't be able to change his mind from retiring from playing."

An idea shot into Victoire's head as she heard Xavier explain, "Wait! If your Dad's retiring once the baby's born, than that means that there's an opening for a Keeper on Puddlemere United! This is great news for you Xavier. There's an even bigger chance that they're going to give you an offer now!"

Xavier's frown deepened at Victoire's words, he knew she was going to come to that soon, "I'm going to be serious here with you Vic. I already have the spot. It took Dad so long to get here because he brought Morton Scrivener with him. Dad's retiring and they wanted to make me a serious offer. They want me to take his spot on the team for next fall."

"Wait, are you saying that they aren't going to make you wait out your time on the reserve team first?" Victoire asked. She knew that even if Oliver weren't retiring, Xavier would still have gotten a spot on the team by the end of the year. But even when she was certain about his skills, she still thought he'd have to go through the regular system of getting on the team, meaning that he'd have to become the first string reserve keeper, than move up to the 'actual team' when Oliver did retire. Now that everything's happening so much sooner, she was surprised to hear that, they'd offer him the spot without him having to do a stint as a reserve keeper.

Xavier nodded his head, "Morton joked that it's because they're so cheap that if they offer me Dad's spot, they won't have to pay to get a new jersey with a new name written on it. But it's actually, because they think that I have more original skill than their reserve keepers, and that if they had try-outs between all their keeper prospects that I'd still win. Essentially, they're just saving time and offering me the spot, because they know that I'd get it one way or another. Plus, it would be a really good publicity thing for them, 'Oliver Wood retires to head coach, and his son Xavier Wood comes in to take his spot as Keeper,' the media will love this."

_Yeah, and if the media's obsessed with the Woods, maybe they'll lay off me for a bit,_ Victoire mused.

"'Kay, so to summarize, your Mum and Dad are having a new baby, your Dad's retiring to a head coaching job on Puddlemere United, and Puddlemere now wants you to take his place a first-string Keeper, without subjecting you to a few years of sucky-reserve-squad-non-action."

Xavier nodded.

Victoire smiled, "Good, but I still don't see what the problem is Xav, all of this news, while it will be a lot to adjust too, sounds fantastic, I don't know why you seem so worried."

"There's more to it, Vic," Xavier said sadly, "Mum's due sometime in the middle of May, so that will be when Dad retires. The Fall Quidditch season for Puddlemere United doesn't start until the middle of August. If I take their offer, the coaches will want me to have more than two months of practice time with the rest of the team. Not to mention that they have to hold some sort of Keeper try-outs to show that they've given the reserve Keepers a fair chance, instead of just giving me the job on the spot (even thought they did)."

Victoire's blue eyes were scrunched up in confusion, "Well, if school doesn't let out until June, and the next Quidditch season starts in August, how are they expecting you to get more than two months of practice with the rest of the team?"

Xavier wrung his hands together, "If I accept their generous offer, they want me to start my training in February, that way I'd have six months of practice before the next season starts."

Victoire narrowed her eyes in anger this time, "They want you to leave school, and start Quidditch training in February? Xavier you at least need to graduate from Hogwarts! I can't believe Oliver and Katie would be even the slightest bit okay with that suggestion."

Xavier exhaled, "They weren't, which is why they had a long chat with McGonagall before Morton even offered me the position. They've worked it out so that I can continue to study, and to earn my basic Hogwarts diploma while training. If I pick that course of action, they've even spoken to the examiners, and convinced them to come to _me_ to do my final N.E.W.T. examinations."

Victoire let out a breath of air, "Wow, well in that case . . . wow. This is an amazing opportunity for you Xavier."

Xavier's didn't look excited though, he looked defeated, "So you think I should accept their offer then?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there a minute Wood. I'm not telling you to do anything; I'm just saying that there doesn't seem to be anything standing in your way if you wanted to accept their offer. Is there?" Victoire asked, scrutinizing his face.

Xavier's face turned red, and his expression seemed even more downcast, "Well . . . um . . ."

Victoire leaned forward off of Teddy's chest, and gently placed her hand on top of the one Xavier was using to scrunch up her bed sheets, "Xavier, this is what you've been waiting for since you were thirteen. What's holding you back from accepting this?"

Xavier swallowed thickly, and looked slightly panicked, "I just- This isn't what I thought it'd be like. When I imagined moving on to the next point in life, life after Hogwarts, I always imagined it differently, you know?"

"Kyle and I would get an apartment together, I'd be on the reserve team and he'd be working on getting his fast-track Wizarding business degree so he could take over his father's business. I'd walk into the apartment late at night after an exhausting day at practice and walk in on Kyle and Sandy making out on the couch or something, and even though we always complain and heckle them, we only do that because we know deep down that they're actually just so perfect for each other."

He smiled slightly and continued, "I would end up in St. Mungo's emergency room for the umpteenth time in a span of three months, and you would be the Healer-in-training who would miraculously end up being assigned to heal me. And instead of just doing your job and just getting it over with, you'd painfully use the Muggle way to re-set whatever broken bones I'd obtained have; because that would be your way of telling me that you were angry with me and worried that I'd really hurt myself that time. Then we'd end up yelling at each other because you had caused me physical pain, and because I'd caused you emotional pain. And the only people who'd be able to get us to stop fighting with each other, and to shut up, would be my Dad and Angelina when they came in to the examination room to see what the ruckus was about."

Victoire almost felt tears coming to her eyes as she listened to Xavier, if she didn't know better, she'd actually have thought that he was reminiscing things that actually happened, because what he was predicting just seemed so realistic, and true to how they were.

"But that's not how it's going to be. I-I don't know if I can do this by myself. If I'm ready to do this so soon," Xavier finished warily.

Victoire tried to comfort him, "It'll only be a few months Xavier, then we'll all catch up with you. You'll probably be living at home for those first couple of months anyway. Won't that be fun? Getting to see your parents again before the new baby comes."

Xavier blanched at her words, "Bloody hell I didn't even think of that. Merlin, I can't just move back home, I might have only been four when Cecilia was born, but I remember my Mum's pregnancy hormones leading up to the birth. I really don't know how my Dad handled it. If she is as bad with this new baby as she was with Cee-Cee, than I'm probably not going to be the only one regretting this new baby by the time it comes."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Xavier, Katie's pregnancy mood swings can't be _that_ bad."

"Dad says that he wishes she was pregnant when Voldemort was in charge all those years ago, because she would have scared all the deatheaters," Xavier said earnestly.

Victoire was about to open her mouth to argue, but then decided against it. She'd rather wait a few more months to see what Xavier was talking about in person.

"Okay, but besides being worried about your Mum's pregnancy hormones, what else is there to hold you back at Hogwarts? I know that you don't think you're ready to go yet, other than that, what else are you worried about?"

Xavier didn't answer Victoire; he decided to pose his own question for her instead, "If you were in my position Vic, what would you pick?"

One of Victoire's perfect blonde eyebrows shot up her forehead, "If there was no Tri-Wizard Tournament, and if the Healing school offered me a chance to start right now, instead of finishing my year out here?"

"Yes, no Tournament, and an offer to start early on you're next few years of study."

"I'd miss you Xavier, but I'd definitely choose to get out into the real world," Victoire answered firmly.

Xavier looked saddened, "Really?"

Victoire nodded, "Yeah, but our situations are still completely different Xavier. I'd be fine with skipping out on the rest of the school year, because I'd be leaving school, for even more school, I have at least two more years of school ahead of me before I can become a fully qualified Healer. Plus, there's another reason I have, that you don't."

Xavier looked intrigued, "What's that?"

Victoire turned around slowly, still feeling the venom flare up and run throughout her veins and arteries, and faced Teddy. He had quietly been listening to Xavier and Victoire's conversation. He didn't want to intrude, or seem rude, so he unobtrusively sat back while Victoire tried to help her friend. At this point in the conversation, Victoire had given Teddy one of the grandest, most loving grins she could muster while feeling as though her head was going to split open from pain.

Still looking Teddy in the eyes, Victoire answered Xavier, "If I had a chance to leave school and start my life outside of Hogwarts, a life where Teddy and I wouldn't have to sneak around, and lie, and pretend that we're nothing more than friends, I'd jump at it as soon as possible. I'd miss all of my friend's here, but I don't know if I'd be able to give up a chance like that."

Teddy smiled warmly and placed one of his hands on the back of Victoire's head. He pulled her in slowly so he could give her a very tender kiss. She sighed when he pulled away, and gave him another big grin. She knew that Xavier would probably be looking awkwardly around the room, trying to focus on everything but the bed where she and Teddy were kissing.

She looked at Xavier, and apologized with her eyes before continuing, "I would take the offer because it would mean that I could be with Teddy. But that's different for you."

Xavier looked down at the striped hospital wing sheets again, and was studiously ignoring the knowing look on the blonde's face.

"Xavier," Victoire said gently, "you've spent enough time in denial. It's as I was saying to you before we were attacked yesterday, it's time to you to own up to your feelings."

Xavier looked up and took one last shot, "Own up to my feelings about whom?"

Victoire was about to open her mouth and scream, when she felt Teddy's hands came across her mouth and stop her from speaking, he filled in for her, "Own up to your feelings about Ally. It's obvious that you like her, and that she likes you. This is something you have to deal with now, sooner than later; especially if you're thinking about taking up Puddlemere United's offer."

Xavier growled in frustration, he was past being curious about how Teddy knew he liked Ally, "But I can't, especially since they've made me this offer. How can I tell Ally how I feel about her now, when I might decide to abandon her in two months because I've decided to take their offer? How is it fair to let her know, then make her wait a year and a half while I'm traveling all over the globe playing Quidditch?"

Victoire and Teddy each arched an eyebrow in synchronization; Xavier quickly backpedalled, "Listen, I don't mean to be rude, but I saw how unhappy Victoire was when she was away from you Ted, I don't know if I could do that to Ally. Besides, it's not like it would just be a year like you guys were going to do, it'd be almost two years, by the time everything would settle down. Anyway, Ted would have been in London for the most of the year, I'm going to be traveling everywhere. And you know that I'd never cheat on Ally or anything, but you two both know that the media can do crazy stuff with your name and with pictures, and I don't want a miscommunication to happen when I'm in some foreign country and she has to read about it through some gossip rag . . ."

Victoire started to snort as she listened to Xavier's fears snowball; he was becoming very paranoid. She reached for her wand from the bedside table, and waved it lightly. Xavier's voice stopped working once he was hit with Victoire's silencing spell.

"'Kay Xavier, take a breather for a minute and let me talk. First, everything you just said, while it had some sort of base, was a worst-case scenario more than anything else. Second, you don't know how Ally is going to react until you get the guts to actually tell her that you fancy her. Third, I'm sure she'd rather attempt some sort of long-distance relationship with you next year, than have to live everyday thinking that you think nothing more of her than just as a friend, and that you were free to go off and get involved with whatever floozy fan girl caught your eye that week."

Xavier nodded at Victoire's words, but gave her a pointed look that said, 'take-this-damn-silencing-spell-off-me-Weasley'. Victoire rolled her eyes and complied with the hidden message his look was giving her as she waved her wand again.

"But . . . what if I say something about how I feel, and she says that she only thinks of me as a friend?" Xavier asked timidly when he could speak again.

Victoire snorted, "Please Xavier, Ally is just short of worshiping the ground you walk on. I'm sure that anyway you tell her how you feel about her, she will react favourably towards."

Xavier bit his lip, "Godric this is so much to process."

Victoire laughed in agreement, as she leaned back into Teddy's chest, "Yeah it is. So let's get back to the basics. When do you have to tell Morton if you accept the offer or not?"

"By New Year's Eve."

"Okay, so essentially that means you've got a month and a half to decide if you want to take up the offer to join Puddlemere United. You can take over for when your Dad retires, or you'll wait until you graduate from Hogwarts, and then spend a few months on the reserve team before taking over as first-string Keeper. Besides, we'll be serious here, either way you pick to go about it, by your sibling's first birthday you'll be first-string Keeper on Puddlemere United."

Xavier nodded, "Yeah, but how am I going to make this decision? My Mum and Dad are no help because they told to me pick what feels right for me, and no matter what happens they'd be proud of me. You were no great help, and I don't think Kyle or anyone else is going to give me a straight answer of what _I _should do."

Victoire shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know Xavier, all I know is that you should make sure that you've exhausted every possible pro and con before deciding. Which means that you need to tell Ally how you feel about her before New Year's Eve. If I were you, I'd aim for her seventeenth birthday in a few weeks, but since I know that that's more than likely asking a lot from you, you should probably aim for by Christmas, 'kay?"

Xavier sighed, "Yeah, okay, you actually make a lot of sense . . . weird, are you sure you were the one who got their brain rattled and not me?"

Victoire slapped Xavier's arm, "Are you done having a mid-teenaged life crisis? I'd really like to go back to sleeping on top of Teddy now."

Teddy's face and hair turned red, "Merlin Victoire, if you keep talking like that I'm leaving this bed and you can go back to twisting and turning in the bed and getting yourself a grand total of no sleep."

Victoire turned around and straddled Teddy's upper legs; she smiled mischievously at him and pressed her forehead against his, "If you didn't want to sleep Teddy, all you had to do was tell me. There are a lot of things we can do instead of sleeping."

Teddy smirked at her and kissed the very far corner of her lip, "Really? Well I'd say that I'd love for you to show me, but I'm very tired, maybe I could get a rain check?"

Victoire moved her head slightly so that she could connect her lips lightly to Teddy's she put minimal pressure on his lips before drawing back, their lips were still pressed together, but there wasn't enough pressure to call it a kiss, "If you wish."

"Well . . . if you two need me, I'll be over in my hospital bed trying not to let the image of you two being all disgustingly romantic wheedle its' way into my dreams," Xavier said as he got up from the foot of Victoire's bed, and moved to the one next to hers.

Somewhere in the back of Victoire's mind, she registered Xavier's teasing words. But for the moment, she was happily wrapped up in the tingling sensation that Teddy's lips softly brushing across hers' created. Teddy wrapped his arms gently across Victoire's lower back, and slid down from his seated position with his back to the headboard, to lying back down on his back on the bed. He squeezed Victoire tighter to him as he continued to kiss her softly. Victoire was starting to grumble because he wouldn't deepen it, and broke away from him when she'd had enough of his teasing.

Teddy moved a finger to touch her pouting bottom lip, "Vic it's late, and we aren't exactly alone here. We'll finish this later, after we have a chance to talk about what happened yesterday."

Victoire nodded her head. She's had a total of two minutes alone with Teddy last night before Kingsley came back in with Madam Pomfrey. He told Teddy to stay in the Hospital Wing over night to watch over her, and Madame Pomfrey instantly told Victoire to go to bed. When the two adults had cleared the room, Victoire instantly felt nauseous again. After she was done getting sick, Teddy told her to go to bed right away. He promised that they'd talk in private when she woke up in the morning.

Before Victoire drifted off to sleep, she glanced at the clock on the side of the wall, and wistfully thought that she couldn't wait to be able to speak to him, just the two of them again.

* * *

There you go! I hope you enjoyed.

And please, evn though I know I really don't deserve it, please review, they really mean a lot to me. Especially since I haven't updated in a while, and I want to know how people feel about where my story's going, and just about it in general.

Thank-you again to everyone who has been absolutely fantastic and has reviewd, subscribed, and or favourited, it really does mean a lot. (And it helps you in getting another chapter because it appeals to my Catholic guilt . . .)

I hope you enjyed! Keep checking your alerts for my next update. Enjoy until then! :)


	43. Expecto Patronum

A/N: Hey Guys! Well here's the new chapter, I know that you're all probably really excited for the new chapter, so I'll leave the rest of the A/N for the bottom, make sure you all read it though? Okay?

Disclaimer: I'm not JKR, I do not own any of this.

* * *

Expecto Patronum

Teddy sat forlornly at the wooden table, an untouched mug of tea sitting on the wood in front of him, and a small, torn piece of parchment paper in his hands. His mind was running a mile a minute, and he was barely aware of his surroundings in the break room, as Aurors of every level ran around him to do their tasks. Hoping desperately that Kingsley would not decide to walk into the room at the one moment, they took to stop for a few seconds and take a breath, and facing his wrath for slacking on the new investigation. Teddy was spared from having any duties to do that morning seeing as he had been 'up all night watching over Victoire, pour Kingsley's request'. He was actually supposed to be in his room right now catching up on his sleep, but his last conversation with Victoire was replaying repeatedly in his head; haunting him and definitely keeping him from wanting to get any sleep at all.

_Merlin, I knew talking about that stuff that early in the morning wouldn't be a good thing. We'd only actually gotten a total of about five hours of sleep when you deduct the time we spent working out Xavier's crisis from last night, or I guess it was earlier this morning,_ Teddy thought. He felt really bad about arguing with Victoire like he did, but she wasn't listening to him, and she had to understand how serious her predicament was.

Teddy looked back down to the paper in his hands. At present, it was blank, but when they'd woken up and found it slipped between both their wands from where they rested on the bedside table, the words written on it had been clear as day,

_. . . The dragon and the Manticore will be far from the last . . ._

_. . . You be more careful, or you'll be stuck with nothing but a past . . ._

_. . . This will be _the_ final warning you get, so make sure that you heed it. . ._

_. . . Quit the Tournament now, for to survive you'll need more than your wit . . ._

Neither Teddy nor Victoire could pin-point exactly what the note was referring to terms of Victoire's next doom, but the words that were written were enough to convince Teddy that not only were Victoire's last near death experience's not accidents, but that whoever was responsible would not stop until she quit the Tournament. Teddy knew that his next suggestion in regards to the note would start an argument, but he still had to say it. They needed to inform Kingsley and Harry, and if they weren't able to make any headway before the next task, well, she might just have to quit the Tournament. He knew that she wouldn't want to hear it, but Teddy was up for anything that would keep her safe. That's what started their argument, but there were plenty of more things that came up to add to the flames.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping instead of shoving more caffeine into your system?"

Teddy looked up dully as Harry sat himself down in the chair closest to him. He was surprised that Harry had spotted him, everyone else in the room were too busy doing whatever Kingsley had asked them to do, than to bother and notice Teddy sitting by himself at a table.

"Can't sleep," Teddy mumbled out. He knew that he sounded tired, but there's no way he'd be able to go and sleep while he knew that Victoire was awake, in pain, and angry with him.

Harry nodded knowingly, "What's up Ted?"

"What makes you think something's up Harry?"

"The fact that right now you look just like Ron does after he's had a fight with Hermione, not to mention that it's probably the same look I get after a fight with Ginny. So, I'll ask again, what's up, and what have you done to anger your specific Weasley woman this early in the morning?" Harry asked, smiling superiorly.

Teddy sighed; no one could read him better than his godfather. He crushed the piece of parchment in his hand and spoke dejectedly, "We had an argument about her safety. I don't think she's taking it seriously enough, and she thinks I'm taking it too seriously. We've tried, but since we don't see eye-to-eye, it's not really something we can compromise on. I'm not going to take short cuts when it comes to her safety, but everything Kingsley or I suggest just ends up pissing her off."

Harry nodded and patted the back of Teddy's hand comfortingly, "Teddy, you know better than anybody that Victoire's always had a mind of her own. She hates it when people infer that she's unable to protect herself, or that she's done something wrong. I know that that's not what you and Kingsley are trying to do, but that's the way it seems. She doesn't show it, but she's scared, and when she's scared, she get's defensive of what she's done."

Teddy looked around himself; making sure that there was no one close enough to them to hear what he was going to say next, "I don't understand why she's still so defensive with me though. She's my best friend, and my girlfriend. I love her, but she won't let me do all I can to protect her. What good is it being an Auror if you can't protect the people you love from harm?"

Harry smiled sadly, "That is a question which every Auror asks themselves at some point in their career, and sadly Teddy, no one's ever come up with a good answer for it. All you can do is your best, and if you have to, sit back and bite your tongue to keep from arguing about it, because trust me, arguing with a Weasley woman will never be in your best interest."

Teddy frowned, "It's just so hard. Especially since, I'm so close to her, yet so far away. It's so hard having to wait a respectable time and distance when something bad happens to her. Yesterday when I heard what happened I wanted to run to the Hospital Wing, but I couldn't, I had to wait and finish my patrol or else people would have noticed that something was up. It's so hard to be detached when I know she's in trouble or in pain."

"Does she know that Teddy? Have you told her that? Did you tell her that you're so obsessed about her safety because you can't think straight when you know that she's been hurt? Did you tell her how hard it was for you yesterday when you knew that she was hurt and you still had to wait until Kingsley came to get you so you could go see her? Have you told her that?"

Teddy shook his head, "She has enough to deal with without me making her feel guilty too."

"You're not trying to make her feel guilty. You're being an adult and you're telling her your side of what's happened. She needs to understand how her actions affect you, and vice versa," Harry reasoned.

Teddy looked down at his un-touched cup of tea, "I guess I should go try to talk with her again. I won't be of any use to anyone unless we're at least on speaking terms again."

Harry smiled, "I'm really proud of you Ted, sometimes facing your angry girlfriend takes more courage than facing a nameless dark wizard."

Teddy raised any eyebrow at Harry's analogy.

Harry laughed, "Okay, I'm not going to lie, facing an angry girlfriend will always take more courage than facing a nameless dark wizard. Especially if said girlfriend is a short-tempered to start with, part Veela Weasley."

Teddy smiled and stood up from his seat, he was about to move out the door when he heard Harry call to him again, "Wait! Kingsley needs you to stop by room 257 before going on with the rest of your day off."

Teddy nodded, and walked out of the room. He walked down the corridor for a few minutes until he found room 257. He stood at the door while he debated whether he should knock or not. Seeing as Kingsley had asked Harry to ask him to stop by, he decided against knocking and just walked right in. Sitting down at a table in the room, along with a tired looking Kingsley Shacklebolt, were Auror Jilly Donaldson, and Professor Caleb Cooke. Teddy connected the dots as to why these two would be joining Kingsley and sighed; it was going to be a long meeting.

Teddy sat down in the empty seat beside Kingsley, and across from the other two, when he was seated, Kingsley started, "Thanks for coming Ted; I needed someone else to be a second to the meeting."

He turned to Jilly and Professor Cooke and continued, "Now, I know that you two already gave your own separate reports about what happened yesterday. But now that you've had some time to sleep on it and think, we need another report from you two together. To make sure that it matches up, and to see if there was anything new you could remember."

Teddy wanted to bang his head against the shiny tabletop; it was as if the universe was trying to punish him. He was feeling depressed about having to sit by yesterday after he found out that Victoire had been attacked, and not do anything, and now he had to sit by and take notes while Jilly and Professor Cooke spoke about what happened when they showed up in the Forbidden Forest. They had been the first people that her _patronus_ had found when she and Xavier were being attacked by the Manticore, and they were the first people on the scene just after Victoire had been pierced by the stinger and passed out.

The only thing that was going to make this interview easier for Teddy was the fact that he knew that Kingsley was also feeling guilty about Victoire being attacked, and not being able to protect her before it happened. Of course, he had a much more productive way to channel his anger, after he originally almost snapped the wand he was holding in half when he first heard about what happened in the forest, he was throwing himself completely into the investigation about how the Manticore got into the Forbidden Forest in the first place.

"Okay Auror Donaldson, we'll start with you, how did you end up being in the same place as Professor Cooke when you found out about the attack?" Kingsley asked getting right down to business.

Jilly sighed, "I was assigned to patrol outside the Castle from twelve o'clock to five."

Kingsley nodded; he had the schedule from yesterday on the table in front of him, he was just going over all the points, "Yes, now Miss Donaldson, did you see Miss Weasley and Mr Wood yesterday afternoon before they went into the forest?"

Jilly shook her head, "No, I was assigned to the far side of the Castle grounds; my patrol ended at least a kilometer away from the Herbology greenhouses. If I'm not mistaken that area should have been taken care of by another Auror, not to mention there should have been an Auror assigned to follow Miss Weasley anytime she left the Castle."

"You're not mistaken Auror Donaldson, someone should have been assigned to that area of the grounds, and someone else should have been assigned to be following Miss Weasley. However, when I look over the roster and time sheet from yesterday, it seems as though not one person was scheduled into either of those spots."

Teddy's eyes widened at Kingsley's discovery. If there was one thing that Kingsley, Harry, and Ron had forced into all of the Aurors minds, it was that nowhere on Victoire's regular school route should be left unguarded.

Kingsley turned to Professor Cooke, "And how did you end up outside the Castle at that time? Isn't your classroom on the third floor?"

Professor Cooke nodded. "Yes, I had my organizing period and I decided to go outside so I could figure out how to schedule my sixth years' 'field trip'. I pick certain spots from the Castle and the grounds and connecting it to not only Hogwarts' but also Wizarding history, I find it's easier for the kids to understand the events, if they can stand in the place it happened," he explained.

Kingsley nodded, "And how did the both of you, end up answering to Victoire's _Patronus_?"

Jilly shrugged her shoulders, "Right place at the right time I guess. I didn't really notice how it came about. Professor Cooke was just right next to me, and then we saw a silver _patronus_ shooting out of the forest. The only reason why I answered it in the first place was because I thought it was Ted's-"

"Wait. What?" Teddy interrupted, "Victoire's _patronus_ looks nothing like mine."

Jilly narrowed her eyes at Teddy in disbelief, "Are you crazy? Victoire's _patronus_ looks just like yours, only a little smaller. You can't blame me for confusing the two of them; they're both wolves after all . . ."

Teddy's eyebrows rose even higher, "Jilly Victoire's _patronus_ is an eagle . . . not a wolf."

"I'm just telling you what I saw Ted. A small silver wolf came shooting out of the forest, and it spoke with Victoire's voice in a plea for help. We followed the patronus into the forest, and saw Mr Wood kneeling down next to a very injured Miss Weasley."

Kingsley turned to Professor Cooke, "Was it Victoire's voice?"

Professor Cooke nodded, "Yes, it was definitely her voice, although, now that Mr Lupin has mentioned it, I do remember you saying that Miss Weasley's patronus was an eagle . . . but I swear what we saw was a wolf . . ."

Kingsley looked thoughtful for a minute before shooting a quick glance at Teddy, then continuing, "I believe you two, I guess the person we should be talking about, about Victoire's patronus is her, we still need to interview her about what happened after all."

Teddy nodded not sure what revelation Kingsley had determined he hit upon, but decided to ask him later when they were finished interviewing Professor Cooke and Jilly.

* * *

Teddy sighed as he banged the back of his head against the wall behind him. He was glad that he was able to have a little breather before they went to question Victoire. He had basically just relived the entire horrible attack that occurred to Victoire and Xavier as he listened to Jilly and Professor Cooke retell exactly what happened. They were still in the room next door, Kingsley just needed them to sign their names to their statements, and then they could go back to their regular schedule.

"Alright, that's done. Now for the hard part," Kingsley commented as he whisked out of the room and strode down the corridor. Teddy took up a jog so he could keep up to Kingsley.

"Yeah, this next part isn't going to go over so well . . ." Teddy, mumbled to himself.

Kingsley looked at him kindly, "You can go back to the break room if you'd rather not be here for this . . . heck! You can go to your room and get some much needed sleep if you prefer . . ."

Teddy shook his head, "No . . . Victoire and I-I, we had a fight this morning . . . we've had some time to cool off now, and I think it's time we try to talk this through again."

Kingsley smiled proudly and placed his hand on Teddy's arm; "That's a very mature point of view you have going on there. I have no idea what you guys were arguing about, and I'm pretty sure I'd rather not know and get into the middle of it, but I'm sure that you guys will be able to work through this. You were always able to when you were just friends, so I'm sure you will now that you're in a . . . slightly different relationship."

Teddy actually cracked a small smile as he listened to Kingsley's words, if anyone knew Victoire's personality and temperament, it was her godfather; so when Kingsley said that he was sure they'd make up, he believed him.

Thanks to Kingsley's words of comfort, Teddy only hesitated for a minute to collect himself before he followed Kingsley into the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey was busy fussing over Victoire when they came in, so they waited politely at the door, until she realized that there was company. Madam Pomfrey quickly finished, whatever she was doing to Victoire, and left them alone to go to her office. Kingsley decided that it would be easier for Victoire to give her statement of what happened when she had Xavier there with her to help her. He wouldn't be able to put words into her mouth, but looking at him would probably help her jog her memory.

Kingsley started out the interview very professionally, and Teddy followed his lead. He considered it a good thing that Kingsley was the lead investigator on this case, and that all he had to do was take notes. Because, if he thought that listening to Jilly and Professor Cooke talk about Victoire and Xavier's attack was difficult; Teddy soon realized that it was nothing compared to the emotions that were instilled in him as he listened to Victoire recount the tale from her perspective. His carefully built mask almost crumbled when he heard Victoire's voice break as she shared how she felt responsible for the attack. At every turn, she blamed herself for what happened, for suggesting that they go out into the forest in the first place to Neville. For not listening to Xavier when he saw the warning signs about how there was something odd going on in the forest before they even found out about the Manticore, and for not listening to him when he left her at the bottom of the hill to investigate.

Teddy had wanted her to take responsibility for her actions, but at the same time, he didn't want her to take all the blame, it wasn't all her fault, he just wanted her to realize how her actions affected others. The hardest part was when he had to hear about how she had jumped in front of the manticore's stinger to save Xavier, he had to turn his head and stop writing for a minute to collect himself so he could go back to writing what Victoire was saying.

When they were done the interview, Kingsley moved to Victoire's bedside, and gently sat on her bed, "I have a few more questions for you Princess, but just so you know, these are off the record, they are of a personal nature, and I'm not going to record them for the investigation, okay?"

Victoire shot a confused look in Teddy's direction, but she nodded, "Go ahead."

Kingsley studied her face calmly; he wanted to make sure that he got every detail, "Victoire, do you remember sending your patronus to ask for help?"

She nodded, "Yeah . . . I wanted it to go to the closest Auror for help . . ."

Kingsley smiled gently, "Yes, and it did, it went to Auror Donaldson. She just so happened to be near Professor Cooke at the time, and he also sent out to help. I just came back from questioning them, and something they said just didn't add up."

A perfect blonde brow rose up Victoire's forehead, "I could have said something wrong . . . I don't really remember exactly everything. . ."

Kingsley patted her hand comfortingly, "You're not in trouble or anything Victoire . . . it was just an odd discrepancy. You see, Professor Cooke and Auror Donaldson both stated that the patronus that found them, that spoke in your voice, was in the shape of a wolf."

Victoire's blue eyes widened, and her pale face froze, "Wha-but . . . how?"

Kingsley shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know Princess, but they both swore that that is what they saw, and that it definitely spoke in your voice. Auror Donaldson was absolutely certain that it was a wolf; she stated that the only reason why she answered the patronus in the first place was because she thought it was Ted's . . . looking back now she said that she realized that it was smaller, but that it was definitely a sliver wolf."

Victoire locked eyes with Teddy for the first time since he entered the room, her eyes were confused, "I-I don't know how that's possible . . . I could have sworn-"

Kingsley placed both of his hands on her shoulders, she was starting to fidget and quick movements were not good for her injury. "Calm down Vic, it's alright. Just close your eyes and think back to when you cast the spell . . ."

Victoire did as was told, but her posture was still tense.

"Good," Kingsley dictated, "Now, do you remember anything out of the ordinary happening as you casted the spell, besides being attacked by a manticore of course?"

Victoire seemed to flinch but then she spoke up, "I remember . . . Oh my Merlin . . . there was something off about it now that I think back. I remember thinking that it looked weird when it came out of my wand . . . I just didn't have time to worry about it, Xavier was about to be attacked-"

Kingsley cut her off again, this time by enveloping her in a gentle, yet tight hug, "It's okay Princess, we just needed to get to the bottom of this." He moved back, "Now, I know Madam Pomfrey wanted to keep you from doing any strenuous magic, but if you feel up to it, I'd really appreciate it if you could cast your patronus so we could see what it does look like, once and for all."

Victoire nodded and reached for her wand on the table beside her bed, "_Expecto Patronum_!"

As soon as the words left Victoire's lips, a streak of silver shot out of her wand and took on the form of a small, sleek wolf.

Both Teddy's and Victoire's mouths popped open, as Victoire mouthed the words '_ohmyGodric_'.

Kingsley nodded his head, "'Kay, well . . . I guess we know what we're dealing with now . . ."

At first, Teddy wasn't sure what to do, but once he saw the tears beginning to form in Victoire's eyes he shot over to her bed and sat on the side that wasn't occupied by Kingsley.

He enfolded her in his strong arms and ran his fingers through her hair, "It's okay Sweetheart, we'll figure this out. It's alright . . ."

Victoire snuggled her face into the crook of Teddy's neck and nodded into his sweet smelling skin, his scent always calmed her, even when she wasn't exactly sure why she was upset, like she was now.

When Victoire spoke her voice was steady, but her words were slightly muffled by Teddy's skin, "How did this happen? I thought a person's patronus only changed when someone went through some sort of emotional upheaval."

Kingsley nodded, "Yes, but who's to classify what an emotional upheaval counts as? What I suspect is that you were going through a very emotionally stressful time during your attack. Something like that could easily trigger a patronus change."

Victoire nodded, her face still buried in Teddy's neck, "But why is it now a wolf when my old one was an eagle?"

Kingsley smirked slightly, "Victoire, what memory did you use to conjure your patronus?"

Victoire moved her face away from Teddy's neck in time for Kingsley to see her face turn a bright red, "Ummm, one from one of my birthdays . . ."

Kingsley nodded smilingly, "My guess is that your patronus changed to a wolf because it reminded you of Ted and of his patronus. Patronus' are a wizard's guardian; they are the embodiment of what makes us feel safe and secure. It makes perfect sense that, if your patronus were to change, that it would change to a wolf, something that reminds you of Ted and of his patronus, seeing, as you no doubt feel safe and secure when you're with him."

Victoire looked up at Teddy with her bright ocean-blue eyes, "I really do- feel safe with you that is."

Teddy smiled and kissed her forehead gently, "I know."

Kingsley smiled, and since he was done questioning Victoire, he decided that he should take his leave, and give Teddy and her an opportunity to talk through whatever they had disagreed upon.

* * *

Yeah, Well, I hope you liked that, I know you wanted to hear their talk, but that will be coming up in the next chapter, I really needed to finish this one so you all would have something to read.

A/N: Yeah, so I'm really sorry that I took a month to update, I feel so so so so bad about it. My life just got really insane with school and I had to do really well becasue our mid-term marks were going to be the last marks that the universities will see before they accept us, and even though I've already been accepted to one of my universityies, I'm still waiting to hear back from one that only accepts 90 people into the program, so yeah, I had a lot of work to do.

I'm also going to blame my after school club, because I did spend a majority of my time preparing for our school's ThinkFast event, and helping my fellow school committee members get ready for our school's Relay For Life event that will happen at the end of May. Plus, I ha to work for the entire March break so I wasn't able to write at all, and I've gotten back into babysitting again . . .

Anyway, thank you to all of you who have been so sweet to review, subscribe, favourite, and who have so patient as to re-read my story because I hadn't updated. I really hate letting you guys down and I'm so sorry. I'll try to get a start on the next chapter and have it ready soon. I definitely know where my story's going, I just sometimes have a hard time writing the interveining chapters, while making sure that it still has a nice flow. Plus, I had some major writer's block a little while back, but I'm back, and I hope to update soon, and get back on track . . . if my laptop decideds not to die on me that is.

Again, I'm sorry, and I'm going to blame getting my life in order concerning my plans for university next year to blame. Thank-you again for all being so patient and waiting for me to be ready, I'm sorry if this chapter has some mistakes, I wasn't able to edit it because I wanted to get it out to you.

Please review and tell me that you guys don't completely hate me, and that you want to kick me in the butt so that I'll try harder to schedule time in to write for all of you amazing people out there, who, for some reason, still enjoy my story.

Thanks again, hope you all enjoyed!


	44. Quidditch Rosters

A/N: Hey well here's the next chapter, and what do you know, right on time (for when I guessed I'd get it done) not bad, not bad.

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own.

* * *

Quidditch Rosters

Victoire hated this. Not only was every part of her body in pain, but she felt as though she was going to burst into tears any minute. She tried not to let Kingsley or Teddy see just exactly how close she was to crying during the interview; however she was almost one hundred percent sure that she wasn't able to fool them. She knew that those two know her better than she know herself at times, and they both definitely knew that re-living her experience from yesterday wasn't easy, and she knew that they wouldn't have asked her to do that unless it was important to their investigation.

She didn't know what Teddy did to get Kingsley to leave the room so fast, but whatever he did, it was effective. Kingsley was there one minute, and gone the next; and Victoire was certain that the only reason why Teddy was still here was that he wanted to talk about what had happened between them earlier in the day. Victoire was worried about having that conversation with Teddy. Right now, when Xavier was only a bed over and would be able to hear everything that they were going to argue about.

She found out that she didn't have to be worried, however, because Ally chose that moment to walk into the room with a pile of books in her arms. She was no doubt there to visit both of the invalids, but once she saw Teddy sitting on Victoire's bed, her plan changed. Xavier barely had time to answer Ally's 'hello' with a greeting of his own before she was at his bed side with a sly look on her face. She sweetly asked him if he would help her with a Transfiguration essay, she had been assigned that day, barely waited for him to nod his acquiescence, and then grabbed his arm and dragged him to a bare desk sitting in the corner on the other side of the room.

Victoire was slightly stunned at the swiftness of Ally's movements, but was very happy that she was now -somewhat alone- with Teddy.

She looked up at Teddy and thought that it was up to her to break the ice, "You didn't tell Kingsley, did you?"

After she said it, she realized that she hadn't been very descriptive, but she knew that he would know that she was referring to the new message they'd found this morning.

"No, I promised you I wouldn't tell him without your permission and you know that I keep my promises," Teddy said watching her face closely.

Victoire nodded and looked down at her blanket-encased legs. She really wanted to get out of the hospital bed and burn off some of her excess energy in the form of pacing. However, the large wound in the middle of her chest that was intermittently oozing green acid was telling her that getting up and moving wasn't in her best interest at the moment.

"Teddy . . . I just- there's so much going on right now. I don't want to add anything else in the mix that's going to worry Kingsley or my family even more," Victoire said glumly.

Teddy sighed and picked up Victoire's hand, he gave it a tight and affectionate squeeze, "Victoire, I understand one-hundred percent where you are coming from . . . that being said; I don't think you've tried hard enough to see my point of view . . ."

"Teddy-" Victoire started only to be cut off by him.

"No Vic, I need to say my piece first, 'kay?"

She nodded hesitantly.

"I love you Victoire, so, so much. Sometimes I can't even think or breathe because I'm so overwhelmed by my feelings for you. Remember, this isn't something completely new to me; I've had strong feelings for you ever since I first saw you. I've always felt a connection to you Vic, and even before I realized how my feeling for you had changed from brotherly affection to romantic love, I've always cared about your well-being. I've always worried about you when you were out of my sight. Godric, knowing your track record with creatures I thought I was going to have an aneurysm your first day that you had a Care of Magical Creatures class in your first year."

Victoire cracked a smile as she envisioned a younger Teddy pulling his hair and staring out of one of the library windows as he tried to get a good look at the edge of the forest where she remembered her first class taking place.

Teddy continued, "The point is Vic, I've never worried about you without good reason. I know that you're strong, confident, and abundantly talented . . . but I also know that you're impulsive, and headstrong, and that even though you have one of the most analytical minds that I've ever seen, I know that you make so many rash decisions without thinking through the consequences. I also know that all of that is characteristic of not only a Gryffindor but also of a Weasley, and even though I know all of this, and accept all of these traits as part of you, Vic . . . you really need to understand that you can't just keep going on like this.

"Victoire you're seventeen now, you're an adult. You are expected to act like an adult, and to be accountable for all of your actions like an adult. And part of being an adult is to think through your actions before you go through with them. Sweetheart, I need you to know how I feel when I hear about the positions you get yourself into. I need you to understand how it felt to have to sit in the Aurors break room and wait there until _Kingsley_ came to get me to tell me that I could go see you because everyone else was distracted and they wouldn't notice where I was going. I need you to know how completely lost and terrified I felt as I sat there, pulling out my hair, as I listened to every single piece of gossip and rumour that travelled around that room trying to figure out what was fact and what was fiction. You have to understand how completely useless I felt sitting there twiddling my thumbs, while _Kurt _went and interviewed Jilly and Professor Cooke about what happened, because Kingsley and Harry wouldn't let me touch this case because of my _connection_ to you."

Victoire felt her eyes start to water, she knew that Teddy wasn't trying to make her cry, just telling her how he felt. She knew where he was coming from, but she didn't know exactly what to do, "Teddy I can't say I completely know how you feel, but I know where you're coming from. And I can't say exactly how sorry I am to have put you into this position. I-I'm sorry that I was so thoughtless and I know that what happened was entirely my fault. I feel horrible that I've put everyone through such stress and worry, and that it was my fault that Xavier was almost killed. But-but thinking back I don't know what I could have done differently . . ."

Teddy, who was still sitting on the side of Victoire's bed, placed his hand gently on her cheek and stroked it lightly, "I know Vic, and I know that you're always going to be impulsive, but you really need to start thinking before you act. M'kay?"

Victoire pretended to think about it for a minute before smiling slightly, "'Kay, deal." She even held out her hand for him to shake. After Teddy shook her hand, he brought it up to his mouth and placed a delicate kiss on the palm.

"So . . ." He began, "Now that we've handled that, we need to talk about what we _found_ this morning."

Victoire nodded warily, "Teddy . . . I know that you want to talk to Kingsley about it, especially after what happened yesterday, but let's think about this logically. We have no idea if the note is connected to the attack. Yes, the note is creepy, along with all of the other ones, but the Manticore attack seems more . . . I don't know, random than the notes."

Teddy stared at Victoire wide eyed, "Random? Victoire the note specifically mentioned the Manticore's attack!"

"Yes, but the note was given to me today, after the attack. The entire population of the Castle is aware of what happened to me. Maybe the mysterious author of these notes just used this attack as an example and is just adding it to everything that happened to try to make me quit the Tournament."

Victoire had expected Teddy to wave off what she'd just said, so she was rather surprised when she saw that he was taking his time thinking through what she'd just told him.

He started slowly, "You might, and I say that cautiously, you _might_ have a point."

Her eyes sparkled brightly, "Really?"

"Yeah. Well . . . if we go with the idea that the accident with the dragon and that the manticore attack were freak accidents -which isn't much of a stretch taking into account your track record with magical creatures- then these notes don't seem connected, seeing as they only mention the attacks _after _they happen. And, if we go with the idea that the accidents weren't, well, that they weren't accidents, they still might not be connected."

"And this is coming from someone who knows a lot about wizarding law, right? An Auror in training?" Victoire clarified.

Teddy sighed, "Yes well . . . the M.O.'s don't seem to mesh. It's like they are from two different people. A person who's well- who's trying to kill you shouldn't be giving you notes to warn you. If they were just trying to injure you, it would make more sense to try to make you quit, but all of these accidents came very close to killing you."

A perfect blonde brow rose high on Victoire's forehead, "Okay . . . but whether I got injured, or died, either way I'd be out of the competition, which is what it seems like this person wants . . ."

Teddy sighed again, "Yes, but both approaches are complete opposites. One wants you to quit on your own so that you're not physically hurt, whereas the other doesn't care if you die, as long as you don't win in the end. It seems like two different people, working with two different approaches, but working to the same end. It doesn't seem very likely that you'd have two people trying to take you out."

"So they could be working together?"

"Yes, but then they both have such drastically different approaches . . . it would be hard to think of two people working together with opposite morals about how to get rid of you."

"So you don't think that the two are connected, and you do agree that the attacks were both accidents?" Victoire asked trying to sum it up.

Teddy ran a hand through his hair again, "If we go with the idea that the attacks were accidents, there is still the problem with someone pretty much threatening you through these notes."

Victoire nodded her head, "Except for that first note . . . it was more prophetic than anything, and kinda weird, but it wasn't threatening like the others."

Teddy frowned, "I forgot about that one . . . you got it before you were even picked for the tournament, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"And I guess if we were being fair, since we don't have a lot to go on, it would be inappropriate for me to say anything to Kingsley. He has enough to worry about working on actual investigations that could turn up results . . ."

Victoire smiled brightly, "So you will wait and see if anything else happens before saying something to Kingsley."

Teddy nodded, "Yes, we'll wait to talk to Kingsley, but just so you know, we're going to work on the 'three strikes and you're out' rule. One more near-death accident accompanied by a mysterious note and we're both going to talk to Kingsley, with no complaints, got it?"

"Yes."

"Good, now since we've just had a fight . . . I think it's only fair that we make up," Teddy said grinning slyly.

Victoire was thankful that her Veela blood stopped her from blushing at Teddy's words; she didn't expect him to be so forward. Maybe he forgot that Xavier and Ally were still in the room, even if they were at the far end of it, "I can't believe that I'm saying this Teddy, but I feel yucky. I've already vomited acid five times today, and I feel like the next thing anyone says to me will reduce me to tears, even if it's something completely non threatening!"

Teddy smirked at her tirade, "Fine, I'll just do all the work then."

Before Victoire could say something Teddy had gently grabbed her face and pressed his lips softly, yet urgently against hers. Whatever Victoire had been about to say quickly transformed into a moan as she pressed her lips harder against Teddy's. He smiled at her insistence and grabbed her bottom lip in between both of his. Victoire moaned again and attempted to move her arms so she could grab a hold of him. That was her first mistake. Teddy still held her lips captive in his, so she couldn't jerk away from the pain that shot through her body at her sudden movement. He kept her soft mouth tangled with his, but moved one of the hands that had been cradling her face so he could wipe away the tears that had come to her eyes.

The ache in Victoire's body seemed to disappear as quickly as it had come. The searing pain being replaced with what felt like an even hotter wave of something else that seemed to originate from where Teddy's mouth was connected to hers. She stayed as still as she could so she wouldn't hurt herself again, but couldn't help the groan of annoyance that escaped when she realized that she couldn't grab him and push her mouth harder against hers as she wanted to.

Teddy could tell that she was frustrated with her part of the kiss, and he smirked against her lips before pulling back. He pressed a kiss to her nose, and then one last one on her forehead.

"I think I should go now."

Victoire's face went from blissful looking from the kisses, to a pout when he announced his intention to leave, "No. I want you to stay."

He smiled gently and ran a hand through her hair, "I want to also, but I really should go. I need to sleep, and if I need to sleep, I'm thinking that you need to sleep too."

"I'll sleep better if you're near me . . ." she tried to wheedle.

Teddy sighed; she really didn't understand the power she held over him, "I know, but seeing as you're supposed to be recuperating I don't think that's such a good idea."

He stood up and placed another kiss on her forehead, "Get some sleep, I'll see you later, 'kay?"

Victoire nodded and sighed as she watched him walk away from her, out of the Hospital Wing. Almost as soon as the door closed with Teddy's exit, she felt her bed move as Ally came skipping over to her and sat on her bed.

Victoire groaned when she looked at her favourite cousin; her thoughts were plainly written all over her face, "Not one word Ally, not one word. I'm tired and I don't want to deal with whatever you're about to say."

Ally smirked, "My lips are sealed Vic, my lips are sealed."

"Thank you," Victoire said as she leaned back down and put her head on her pillow.

"Although, I will say that you looked rather frustrated when you realized that your injury would impair you from being able to kiss Teddy properly," Ally said with a bright smile on her face.

"UGH!" Victoire said as she shifted around to complain into the fabric of her pillow. When she moved, she realized that turning her body around completely didn't hurt as much as her little movements when she wanted to pull Teddy closer into kiss. _Okay, it hurts more to move my arms separately than my body completely, probably because it puts more strain into my extremities, and caused poison to flow directly to them, instead of just sitting in my body._

"Ally, be nice to Victoire, she's had a tough day," Xavier scolded lightly. He had tried his best to stay out of it, but he did hear Teddy and Victoire's argument earlier in the day. He didn't hear specifics over what it was about, but he did hear enough to know that it was one heck of a fight. The first fight between them as a couple if he guessed correctly.

Ally looked at Xavier and raised an eyebrow, if anyone liked to tease Victoire; it was him, "O-kay . . . So how long do you guys think that you're going to be stuck in the Hospital Wing?"

"I'm not sure; Xavier will probably get out before me though. They're going to have to keep a close eye on me. Make sure I don't die and stuff," Victoire answered.

While Ally nodded, the door to the Hospital wing opened and Cecilia walked in along with Louis, whose arms were full of different books and rolls of parchment paper. Cecilia was smiling happily and greeted both Victoire and Xavier with a gentle hug. Louis on the other hand seemed to be very busy with what looked like half of the Hogwarts school library in his arms.

Cecilia didn't even bother to look at him as she instructed him to place everything in his arms downs on one of the empty beds beside Xavier.

"So what's up?" Cecilia asked happily sitting down on the edge of Xavier's bed.

Instead of Xavier answering Cecilia's question, he gave her one of his own, "Why was Louis carrying enough books for the entire fifth-year class to write their History of Magic O.W.L.?"

Cecilia laughed and Louis rolled his eyes and answered as he sat down next to her on Xavier's bed, "On our way out of the Common Room, Sandra and Kyle overheard us planning on stopping by to visit you guys. They asked if we would mind giving you guys the homework they got from the classes that you missed today."

"Yeah," Cecilia added, "They had said that they originally were going to come and visit you . . . but then Kyle whispered something in Sandy's ear that made her blush and giggle, and we really didn't want to know anything else."

Victoire laughed at the look on Cecilia and Louis' faces as they thought back to their encounter with their best friends, "Yeah, when they start doing stuff like that it's best to not ask any questions, and to just leave the room as soon as possible."

Xavier nodded in agreement, and then the five had a quick conversation about how their days were going. Halfway through their conversation, Madam Pomfrey walked in to give Xavier another dose of some sort of potion for his healing, and while she was in the room, Ally asked her how long Xavier and Victoire would be in the Hospital Wing.

"Mr Wood could probably be released in a day or two will a clean bill of health. Miss Weasley on the other hand, I think it would be good for her to stay in the Hospital Wing for at least three more weeks."

"What!" Victoire asked surprised. She knew that she'd have to stay in the Hospital Wing for a little while longer, but at most, she thought she'd be out by the end of the next week. Now she had to stay in the Hospital Wing for the rest of the month of November!

"I'm sorry Miss Weasley, but we're not entirely sure how your body will be able to cope with this injury over the next few weeks. We've discussed how the fact that you're alive right now it so amazing to start with; we really don't know how the next couple of weeks are going to be for you. It's safer if you're somewhere where a professional can get to you in case something happens. It will also be easier to keep you immobilized and moving less if you're confined to a bed."

"Wait!" Xavier said, "Three more weeks . . . does that mean that she can't play Quidditch on the twenty-ninth?"

The Gryffindor Quidditch team's next Quidditch game would be on Saturday November 29th against Hufflepuff.

"Yes Mr Wood, that is correct, Miss Weasley will definitely not be able to play Quidditch this month. And if she wants to be in shape in time for the next Tri-Wizard task in February, she should take it easy at Quidditch practices after I finally let her out of the Hospital Wing at the end of the month."

Madam Pomfrey looked to her watch and then walked back to her office. Both Victoire and Xavier were looking at each other wide-eyed and with their mouths hanging open.

Ally was the first to speak, "What are we going to do?"

Victoire shrugged her shoulders, "I have no idea. You and Xavier can take over temporarily as Captain for me, but I've been Seeker on this team since fifth-year, we don't have any replacements or back-ups."

"Well we're going to have to find someone," Xavier reasoned, "We can't play without a Seeker."

"What about moving someone else over to the Seeker position that's already on the team and knows the plays? That way the position that you have to fill from outside the team is one that you had try-outs for earlier in the year," Cecilia suggested.

Xavier rubbed his hand over his face, "We could try that, except for the fact that everyone else on the team is too slow at flying and has more sluggish reflexes than Victoire. The only person that even comes close to Victoire's speed when we're doing laps around the pitch is Ally . . ."

"Then Ally can be Seeker!"

Both Xavier and the potential Seeker elect turned to stare at Victoire after her outburst, "What?"

Victoire rolled her eyes at their expressions, "Ally is the second fastest flyer on the team, with the exception of Xavier who can't play any position but Keeper in the first place. She also has very fast reflexes, which we know from her being a Beater. She knows how to keep her eye on the game that's being played, but she also knows how to search around the pitch for the bludgers, which won't be too different than looking for the snitch."

"I don't know Vic . . ." Ally began.

"C'mon Ally, you know all of the plays and you've even helped me do my practice drills before, you know how it works!"

"I don't know Vic, even if I take over as Seeker, we'll need a replacement Beater then, and I'm not sure that we're going to be able to find anyone that will want to deal with Freddie . . . maybe we should just see if Caroline would be able to be the replacement Seeker?"

Xavier shook his head, "No, she's not fast enough, besides her reflexes are almost worse than James' . . ."

"James! That's it!" Victoire shouted excitedly.

"What? I thought you wanted me to be Seeker Victoire," Ally asked confusedly.

Victoire shook her head, "Just listen to my plan. Ally can be the replacement Seeker because she has the best reflexes and she's the fastest. The only reason she wouldn't be able to do that is that we're going to need the replacement Beater to be able to handle Freddie. Well no one can work with Fred like James can!"

Xavier nodded as he consider her words, "That just might work. James might not have trained to be a Beater, but he and Fred together anytime is actually a well working team. And even if neither of them will be able to hit a bludger come game time, the knowledge that they're working together will be enough to make the other team seriously worry."

"Yes, but they'll probably make us worry even more Xavier. Victoire has a hard enough time controlling the two of them when they're on opposite ends of the pitch, how are we going to be able to control them when they're supposed to be working together?" Ally asked.

"I don't know, but just because Vic can't play doesn't mean that she can't discipline them with a strict word if necessary," Xavier reasoned.

"Okay," Ally said, "But if I'm playing Seeker, and James gets moved to Beater, who's going to fill our empty Chaser spot? The next person with the best score at tryouts was McCormick, and I highly doubt Victoire's going to want to go to him and beg him to be on the team for even one game."

"Like hell I'm not," Victoire said testily.

"Well than whom can we use as Chaser Vic?" Xavier asked exasperated. He didn't like McCormick's attitude back during tryouts anymore than Victoire did, but it seemed as though he was their only choice.

"How about an intelligent, fast flying, talented player who knows almost all of our plays already and who will listen to every word that Ally says?" Victoire suggested.

"If you can find someone like that I say they're in," Xavier answered tired of Victoire's games.

"Fantastic," Victoire smiled, "So, Cecilia, how do you feel about playing Quidditch at the end of the month?"

Cecilia's mouth popped open, "Oh, um, ahh . . . wow. That's nice of you to ask Vic, but I don't know if I could play . . ."

"Nonsense," Ally said brightly, "Cecilia I agree with Victoire, you'd be brilliant on the team. We all know that you have talent. I know you don't really want to play competitively, but I think you'd be fine for just one game, please."

"Yeah, I think you'd be great Cee-Cee. And as Ally said, it would just be for one game," Xavier said trying to cajole his thirteen-year old sister.

Cecilia bit her lip and looked to Louis, "What do you think?"

He gave her a smile so bright that only a person who was part-Veela would be able to smile like that, "I think this is something you should try. You love to play Quidditch, and of any of the other houses, Hufflepuff should be the best to play against since they like to keep things fair. It would definitely be safer to play against them than Slytherin or Ravenclaw because they'd be less violent."

Cecilia nodded, "Okay, I'll play . . . but only under one condition."

"What's that?" Victoire asked interestedly. She'd agree to anything as long as Cecilia decided to play.

"No one can tell my parents because when if they found out before the game they'd go crazy."

"C'mon Cee-Cee, if I have to deal with their crazy every time I play, than you should too."

"There's a difference between us Xav," Cecilia said, "Mum and Dad expect you to be amazing, if they find out that I'm playing and arrange it so they can come, they will go completely insane, and the next thing I know I'll be forced into training and actually making a career out of Quidditch from now on."

"Okay, Cecilia, we all promise not to say a thing to your parents. So will you play the next game?"

Cecilia nodded.

"Thank Merlin!"

* * *

Aww! Aren't Vic and Teddy so sweet together?

I wrote this because I know a lot of you felt that they needed to have a discussion about stuff, and, well here it is. I've always meant to write this, but it just took a while to find a spot to fit it in. It's amazing how they can always work things out though, isn't it?

Anyway, Vic's upset because she can't play Quidditch, but what do you know? It seems as though Cecilia can . . . hmmm . . . I wonder how that's going to go?

A big, huge, humongous THANK - YOU to everyone who reviewed, subscribed and/or favourited, it always makes my day to see that I've got a review! No matter what it says, really.

Please, please, please review, I wnat to know if people are still okay with the direction the story's going. I know that these last few chapters were not the most interesting, but I promise it's about to get a lot more fun!

**An especially big thanks to:**

**RomineEverlark**, **killerbunny117**, **MuggleCreator**, **Aurordreamer**, **Teddy Lupin Forever**, **Istillwishiwasaweasley**, **Amara**, and **abt**.


	45. Broken Secrets and a Hyperactive Invalid

A/N: Hey, umm . . . please don't kill me. I do realize how much time has passed, I really, really do . . . that being said . . . I also know how much time it has been since I updated, and I'm very truley sorry.

Real Life just came in and completely took over.

1. I had to arrange almost absolutely everything for university next year (I finally picked and accetped and even put a down payment in for residence), and since my University does everything before absolutely everyone elese, I've already made my time table for next year, whereas my twin brother and other friends still have to wait until August to pick their courses . . .

2. I had a really busy time scheduling my shcool's Relay for Life, whcih was absoluty amazing as awlays, again we made even more money than our last ten years and we ended up raising 50,000 dollars!

3. While I was helping organize for Relay, I also had to help organize our Gr. 12 class' Grad Retreat which took place the next week

4. The other time filler was my school's Formal (Prom) which took place last Friday (and which was absolutely AWESOME!)

5. And now exams and culminating are starting, along with a party or me having to babysit for the next three weekends . . . busy busy.

That being said (typed) here is the next chapter, and don't forget to stay tuned for the ending where I grovel for forgiveness :)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this (P.S. When it comes to what Oliver says, I always picture him with a Scottish accent, it really gives it a certain charm ;)

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A Broken Secret and a Hyperactive Invalid

Victoire was pissed.

Seriously pissed.

She had been looking forward to this day for weeks and now she was stuck back in the narrow, and mildly uncomfortable, hospital bed she'd been so happy to vacate four days earlier.

She had been excited to be discharged from the Hospital Wing; not only was she able to get back to her regular schedule, (surprisingly she actually missed going to class every day), but she was also excited to be able to get outside of the Castle. Whether it was to walk down with Xavier to the greenhouses for Herbology (heavily watched after and guarded of course). Or whether it was sitting in the practically empty Quidditch stands to watch Xavier and Ally as they co-captained the Gryffindor Quidditch team into shape for their game against Hufflepuff that was fast approaching.

The latter was the reason why Victoire was currently pissed at absolutely everything, especially Madam Pomfrey who was forcing her to stay in her bed in the Hospital Wing, instead of allowing her to be with the swarms of students who were now making their way down to the Quidditch pitch to watch the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff Quidditch game. Besides feeling horrible, physically (the reason why she was back in the Hospital Wing in the first place) she was feeling even worse because of Cecilia.

Sweet, funny, superbly talented Cecilia who had worked so hard the past few weeks as she trained to get ready for her first ever competitive Quidditch game. It was worse because Victoire knew how worried she must have been feeling, as she was getting ready in the change room, as she should be now. Victoire remembered how she'd felt before her first game, and she knew that Cecilia must have been feeling the anxiety she had felt times ten considering that they had to beg and plead with her to join the team in the first place, even if it was only for one game.

Victoire knew that Cecilia would be amazing in the game today; she'd been working so hard, and had been so impressive during practices that Victoire knew that she'd been able to hold her own in the game today. The only thing that she worried about for Cecilia was how she'd react to having almost the entire population of the Castle watching her play in her first competitive game. She knew that Cecilia was self-conscious when it came to her playing. Ally had to physically drag her out of the dressing room before their first practice because Cecilia had gotten so nervous and didn't even want her fellow teammates to see how she played. Once Ally had gotten her on the field she'd joked that she had her work cut out for her with Cecilia, but in Ally's and Xavier's careful hand she'd gotten out of her shell. Well, at least enough out of her shell to allow a small crowd of Gryffindors to watch their final practice so Cecilia could get a feel for what it would be like to have people watching her.

Victoire looked to the clock on the wall and groaned, it was twelve-thirty; that meant that in half an hour, the game would be starting, and in an hour, she'd be getting sick again.

It had been almost four weeks since Victoire had been attacked, and only about a week since she'd been first discharged from the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey, along with her parents and her Aunt Angelina, had wanted Victoire to stay in the Wing for a while to see how she would handle her wound, and the venom that was consequently coursing through her system. However, in the last week she'd spent in the Hospital Wing before she was able to get out, she had been getting stronger if anything. She knew that she was being watched to see if she'd take a turn for the worse, but she was beginning to feel better instead. Her body stopped hurting every time she moved, and now, at most, she'd get a hollow ache if she over extended something or if she stood or sat for too long. She was still vomiting the strange green venom though. In fact, instead of it being at random times during the day like it had been the first few days after the attack, Victoire realized that she was only getting sick five to seven times a day, and all at regular intervals. The timing was so precise that she could probably set a clock by it, hence the fact that she knew in an hour she'd be getting sick again.

Victoire would take the consistent throwing up though, if it meant that she could get out of the Hospital Wing. And it did, for the first few days. Victoire had been released the Sunday morning of the week, and had attended classes without problem on Monday through to Thursday. It was yesterday, the Friday, which had messed her up. When she woke up she knew that she didn't feel as normal as she had been feeling, but she didn't have much time to debate her feelings before she had to run to the bathroom to get sick. After her seven-thirty, nine o'clock, eleven forty-three, and one o'clock appointments with the lavatory, she had begun to feel light headed. She didn't think much of it until she had returned to her History of Magic class and ended up fainting twenty minutes later.

When she came to, she was back in the Hospital Wing with a concerned looking Sandra and Kyle by her bedside, and a smirking Xavier hovering over her face. Xavier had been the most worried when Victoire was released from the Hospital Wing, he wanted her to stay there so that she'd have someone around in case she was to be sick again. Needless to say, even though he was sad that she'd fainted, he was kinda glad that she was back somewhere where she would be looked after.

Victoire's bad mood had started on Friday once Madam Pomfrey had told her that she wanted her to stay for the rest of the day, and even the next so she could check up on her. Victoire did not enjoy that. She was fourteen seconds away from completely losing her cool when Xavier was finally able to reason with her. He reminded her that if she didn't stay in the Hospital Wing that night and on Saturday, Madam Pomfrey would make her stay for the Saturday and Sunday instead. The Sunday being Ally's seventeenth birthday, and the newly rescheduled Hogsmeade weekend. (The first one had to be rescheduled because of the first task, and then next had to be rescheduled because the Aurors had to do a deep sweep of Hogwarts and the surrounding area for their investigation into Victoire and Xavier's attack from the Manticore.) Victoire, very ungraciously, folded to Xavier's insistence, because even though it meant that she had to miss the Quidditch game, at least she'd be able to make it into Hogsmeade to celebrate Ally's birthday with their friends.

Twenty minutes of boredom later, the door to the Hospital Wing slowly opened. A dark head quickly peeked into the room and, seeing that Victoire was up and awake, walked to her bedside, followed by a tall dirty-blonde head.

"What are you guys doing here?" Victoire asked surprised as Katie and Oliver took turns gently hugging her.

"We thought that we'd stop in and see you before going to watch the Quidditch game," Oliver explained smiling brightly.

Victoire rolled her eyes at the oblivious Scotsman and directed her next question at his more understanding wife, "How did you know about the game today?" Victoire knew that they were here to see Cecilia play in her first ever Quidditch game, so all she really needed to know was how they'd heard it from.

"I can't believe Cee-Cee actually thought that she'd be able to keep something this big from us. It's actually a little insulting that she and Xavier think that we don't know what is going on in our children's lives. Especially if it has to do with Quidditch," Katie complained; her tirade seeming very suspicious as it didn't actually answer Victoire's question.

"Yeah, I don't get how they think that they could fool you guys either, but seriously, who tattled?" Victoire asked.

"Well," Oliver began, "I'm not going to tell you who told us. But I will say that said person only had Cee-Cee's best intentions in mind, and knew that she might be angry when she finds out that we're here without asking, but that she'll get over it. Whereas, if we actually did miss out on this first, she would not only be upset with us, but also with herself . . ."

Victoire smirked and rolled her eyes, "This is exactly why I don't tell Louis anything, that boy could not keep a secret if his life depended on it. And seeing as he's going to have to face Cecilia's wrath when she finds out that you told her, well his life really did depend on it."

Katie smiled, "Don't be too hard on him; Louis was just trying to do what was right."

"Oh, I'm not angry at him. I agree that what he did was most likely the right thing to do in the end. That being said, when Cecilia find out that it was he who told you, well she's going to kill him," Victoire said, a smirk still on her face. Imagining what Cecilia would do to her little brother was actually quite humorous. She wouldn't put it past her to recruit Fred or James' help when it came to retaliation either.

"Anyway," Oliver began in his Scottish brogue, effectively changing the conversation, "How are you feeling? We heard that you had a fainting spell yesterday."

Victoire sighed, "Did Louis tell you that too?"

Katie laughed, "No, I had a floo chat with Angelina last night. As your principal Healer and your Aunt she made Madam Pomfrey vow to tell her everything that happens in reference to your condition."

"And that's why you guys are here? Thought you could kill a few birds with one stone. See Cecilia and Xavier's Quidditch game, and come check up on me and give a report back to Auntie Angelina in one visit?" Victoire asked.

"Yeah pretty much," Katie replied, "But we really do want to know how you're feeling."

Victoire smiled, "I'm feeling a little nauseous, but that's just because I'm due to get sick in a little while, besides all of the vomiting, I feel fine. Most of the pain has stopped, it only happens when I do something really stupid now. And the first and only time I've ever fainted was yesterday, I think I just overtaxed myself."

"I don't mean to sound like a broken record only mentioning one thing, but do you know when you'll be able to go back to playing Quidditch?" Oliver asked. He knew that she was upset that she wasn't able to even practice Quidditch while she was watching the rest of them practice.

"Hopefully soon. Our next Quidditch match won't be 'till around March. I'll have to be fine by the next Tri-Wizard Task in February, but ideally, I should be back in full speed by the end of December. This will be _great_ since Christmas and the Yule Ball are coming up and I'm going to have to be in top performance for that." Victoire answered. She was hoping that she'd be feeling better by Christmas, but she was also hoping that she wouldn't, because that way she had an excuse not to go to the Yule Ball (that would be traditionally held on Christmas Eve, as per Tri Wizard Tournament tradition) and be the centre of attention for the night, yet again.

"You're getting antsy being on bed rest for so long, aren't you?" Oliver asked smilingly.

Victoire grinned back, "Yeah, I've been contemplating ignoring what everyone's saying about my health and just jumping back on my broom to play."

"Ah, my kind of girl," Oliver said jovially as he placed a hand on Victoire's shoulder.

At that moment, a loud cheer was heard from the window beside Victoire's bed. She, along with Oliver and Katie, turned to see what was going on. It seemed that the game had started, and that Roger Michael's, the fourth-year Victoire had selected for the team this year, had scored the first point of the game; for Gryffindor.

"Oh," Victoire said forlornly, "I guess I made you guys late for the game. You should probably go before you miss anything else."

Katie smiled and gave Victoire a gentle hug, "You didn't make us miss anything Sweetheart. We decided to come see you when we did; we wanted the game to get started a little before we made our appearance."

Victoire nodded knowingly, "You thought that if you could sneak in amongst the crowd, Cecilia wouldn't see you until the end of the game then?"

Oliver chuckled and gave Victoire a light hug before moving behind his wife to embrace her, "Yeah, we thought she'd play better if she didn't know we were here until after. It didn't really matter to me but Katie, in her all controlling glory, insisted that Cecilia not know that we were here until the end of the game."

Victoire giggled, and then smiled as she watched the Wood's embrace. Oliver rested his head on Katie's right shoulder and hand his hands clasped around her, in the middle of her belly. Katie noticed Victoire's gaze, "I take it Xavier told you?"

"Yes, he needed a little advice and decided that I was the one he wanted to talk to."

"Did he tell you everything?" Oliver asked interestedly.

"Everything. And for some reason, he decided to tell me all of this at twelve o'clock at night. Just seconds after waking me up."

"He didn't," Katie said with moderate outrage.

"He did," Victoire affirmed.

"And he's still alive?" Oliver tease.

"For now. But so far he's got two strikes."

"How'd he get the other one?" Oliver asked.

"He got that one from the first time he woke me up earlier in the morning. And that was only the day of try-outs," Victoire grumbled.

"Yes, well since Xavier seems to have taken after Oliver in the whole obsessed-with-Quidditch gene, hopefully this next baby won't be as insane when it comes to it," Katie said as she loving patted her stomach. Victoire knew that she was only three months along, so that she should start showing soon. As of yet, she thought she could see a slight bump, but that might be because she knew that it would be there.

"Hey, you were rather obsessed with Quidditch too when I think back to it," Oliver teased, "I distinctly remember you trying to injure Flint from Slytherin, every chance you got, during our school Quidditch years."

"Git had it coming. He tried to mess with me every chance he got," Katie reasoned.

Oliver grinned widely and placed a kiss on his wife's temple, "I love you Babe, but I think that it's unfair to hope that the baby will be less like me. I mean back me up here Victoire, Xavier and I may be annoying and obsessed when it comes to Quidditch, but you have to admit that those genes make some _fine_ looking Scottish men."

Victoire giggled, and winked at Katie, "We'll just hope that the baby's a girl and then we won't have to deal with anymore mini Olivers or mini Xaviers running around."

The sound of Katie and Oliver's laughter was joined by the sound of the Hospital Wing door opening. Victoire looked to the door and bit her lip to stop the humongous smile that was about to spread across her face as she saw Teddy standing in the doorway.

Luckily, Oliver spoke and begun a conversation with him before Victoire could do something crazy like get out of her bed and jump him.

"How are ye doin' Ted?" Oliver asked, removing one of his hands from Katie's belly and shaking Ted's hand.

"I'm good. Oliver, Katie, how are you guys?" Teddy spoke politely and looked only at the two of them.

"We're well. Are you here to see Vic?" Katie asked brightly.

"Yeah, Kingsley wanted me to make sure that she was in her bed, and told me to make sure that she stays there," Teddy looked at Victoire this time, a smirk on his face and a sparkle in his eyes.

"Afraid she'll find some way to escape is he?" Oliver laughed.

"Mmm-hmm. He was probably more worried that some visitors of hers' would take pity on her and help her out of bed," Teddy joked.

"Don't worry about us doing that," Katie smiled, "We want her to get better and heal more than anything."

Victoire rolled her eyes, in the span of three minutes she'd gone from the poor invalid to the evil escape mastermind. She preferred the latter title out of the two, but she wasn't going to say that because she knew that Teddy would take her too seriously and start to worry about her.

"If you guys are done having a laugh at the _poor invalid's_ expense, I think Oliver and Katie have a Quidditch game to go see, and a daughter to hide from," Victoire said, crossing her arms over her chest to show that she meant business.

Katie and Oliver laughed and gave Victoire one last goodbye hug before leaving her alone in the room with Ted. Once the door closed behind them, Victoire looked at Teddy, "How do you plan to keep me in my bed all day?"

He shook his head, "Vic, you fainted yesterday, is now really the time to try to tease?"

Victoire fluttered her eyelashes, "The better question is, are you really going to waste your time standing over there chatting with me, or are you going to get your arse over her and kiss me hello?"

Teddy shot her another 'sexy smirk' before moving over to sit on the side of her bed. He grabbed her face lightly within his hands and brought his mouth close to hers.

"Ugh!" Victoire complained. Teddy's lips were as close to hers as he could get without actually touching them.

"Something wrong Sweetheart?" he asked, his lips whispering against hers as he spoke.

"You know very well what's wrong Lupin," Victoire said trying to narrow her eyes at him but losing the effect seeing as their faces were so close together.

"Are you going to do something about it Weasley?" he smirked as he heard the desperation in her voice.

She sighed in frustration, "You very well know that I can't when you hold my face like that Teddy!" The way he was holding her face made it impossible for her close the distance between their lips by herself.

"Well, I think you may need to say the magic words then Victoire."

"Fine. Please?"

"Nope, that's not it."

"_Accio_?"

"Nuh uh."

"Abra kadabra?"

"Ha ha, no."

Victoire sighed in more than one type of frustration, "What do you want me to say!"

"I'll give you a hint, it's actually three words."

Victoire felt her cheeks light up, she knew what Teddy wanted her to say.

"I love you."

Teddy's smirk grew more pronounced, "There it is."

Without further ado, he pressed his lips softly yet securely against hers. She sighed dreamily and matched the passion he was pouring into the kiss. His lips were moving so softly against hers that she almost felt faint from the sweetness of it.

Victoire leaned closer to him and opened her lips wider to deepen the kiss. Teddy broke away after a few seconds to take a breath of air. Victoire's lips however, kept moving. They trailed down Teddy's chin until she stopped when she got to his collar. She lifted her lips off his skin and pressed her face into the crook of his neck.

Teddy's hands came up to stoke her head and said, "By the by, I love you too."

Victoire grinned widely but then her face fell into a grimace and her eyes began to bug out of her head. Teddy knew exactly what was going on and quickly pulled out his wand and conjured up a trash bin. She hastily snatched it out of his hands and lent over the edge of the bed, as she got sick into it. Teddy held back her blonde hair and rubbed soothing circles into her back as she retched. Once she was finished he conjured up a glass of water and instructed her to sip it slowly as he vanished the contents of the garbage bin.

When she had finished the small glass of water, Victoire lied back down on her bed. Teddy nudged her body over a little and lay down next to her. She moved her head up so he could place his arm underneath her head, and curled into him with her head in the crook of his neck.

"You don't have to stay you know, I know that that was rather disgusting to have to witness," Victoire said in a monotone voice.

Teddy chuckled lightly and kissed the top of her head, "You silly, intelligent, beautiful, self-conscious girl. I've stuck with you this long and you actually think a little vomit's going to make me leave?"

Victoire's lips curled against her will and she snuggled even closer into him as they quieted down so they could listen to the announcer of the Quidditch game that was going on outside the window next to her bed.

* * *

An hour and a half later, the Gryffindor Quidditch team was up 120 points to Hufflepuff's 40. The game could still be a loss though, if Hufflepuff ended up catching the Golden Snitch. Victoire had had a hard time laying still in bed where she was and just listening to her team playing, without the visual stimulus of watching the game progress. At this point in the game, where the destiny of the Golden Snitch still made the most of the game, Teddy was practically pinning Victoire down to her hospital bed to keep her from getting up and running down to the pitch to watch the game.

She was very jittery about the fate of the game, even though she knew that she really didn't have anything to worry about seeing as what she had heard of the game was going by amazingly. Xavier had caught almost everything that came to the hoops, save the four he'd let in that amounted to Hufflepuff's only score -most of which were scored when Xavier had been hit by a bludger or pushed out of the way by another player. James and Fred were doing very well as the Beaters, Fred in his original spot was playing as well as she'd expected, whereas James was the one she had been surprised to hear about. It seemed that even though he didn't have the best aim when swinging his bat at the bludger and sending it flying at another player, he was good at deflecting bludgers (thanks to his flying speed) and setting up plays for Fred to follow through with. Their normal teamwork plus the fear that they instilled in pretty much every player on the opposite team helped make up for the fact that one of them wasn't playing in their original position. Two of the Chasers, Caroline Hilbert and Roger Michaels were on top form and if Victoire could _see_ the game, she knew she'd be happy with their performance. Victoire was upset that she couldn't see the other Chaser, Cecilia, on her first game, but after what she could hear from the announcer (who was the same Hufflepuff from the first game) she could only guess that Cecilia was doing phenomenally well. She had scored half of the twelve goals that Gryffindor had to their name, and it seemed as though the crowd really loved her because every time she got the quaffle there was a humongous cheer in the stadium.

Victoire knew her team was doing well, but she also knew that the future of the game was on Ally shoulders. Ally, who was a Beater and was only playing Seeker in this game because Victoire had practically begged her to, was having a slightly harder time adjusting than the other guest players. From what Victoire heard, Ally was flying well and had come close to catching the snitch a couple times earlier in the game. In essence, she had been playing great; too great, it seems for the likes of the other team. Victoire knew that Hufflepuff would be using the change in game line-up to their advantage and would try to breach the team at their 'rough spots', she didn't hold it against them, knowing that it was a smart, if simple strategy, and that she would no doubt do the same thing if their situations were reversed.

That being said, she also knew that it would be hard for Ally to go from swinging bats and aiming bludgers to dodging them and every other free player on the field who all seemed to swarm her the minute it seemed she caught a glimpse of gold. Hufflepuff was taking a chance on using more manpower to block out Ally while they tried to give their Seeker the advantage. As a result, Gryffindor had the quaffle in their possession more than Hufflepuff and scored easier goals as the other team used their players to stop Ally at almost every turn. With Hufflepuff playing a strategy like that, it was no surprise that Gryffindor was leading in points. Hufflepuff was planning to win the game through the means of finding the snitch first, and they were doing everything they could to exploit the fact that instead of Victoire Weasley being the Seeker, that it was Alexandra Weasley instead.

As Teddy forced Victoire to stay on the bed by clasping her in an embrace so string she was hardly able to breathe, they listened to the announcer for the game, "And Cecilia Wood of Gryffindor has the Quaffle and goes speeding down the pitch for what seems like the hundredth time this game . . . SHE GETS CLOSER TO THE HOOP AND . . . Is that Alexandra Weasley going after the snitch?"

Victoire snapped her head up from where she had it angled down to whisper in Teddy's ear as she tried to coerce him into letting her up and letting her go down to the pitch. She stared into Teddy's no longer laughing sapphire eyes, as they both strained to hear the next words.

"Yes, she is! Alexandra Weasley, usually a Beater with her brother Fred, who is now playing Seeker in this game, has spotted the snitch! SHE'S SPEEDING DOWN THE PITCH TO GET IN POSITION IN FRONTOF THE RAVENCLAW SEATS, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE GEOFFERY LANCASTER WILL GET THERE FIRST! Lancaster, Hufflepuff's _superior_ Seeker is flying alongside Weasley but he definitely seems as though he's going to pull ahead soon . . . AND HE DOES! LANCASTER IS NOW IN THE LEAD TO THE RACE TO THE SNITCH AND LEAVING WEASLEY BEHIND IN HIS DUST!"

"Weasley is still flying after Lancaster, even though she has no chance of catching up to him now, AND SHE . . . she stops?"

Victoire frowns and whispers to Teddy, "What is she doing . . . ?"

The announcer a started up before Teddy could offer her up his answer, "And Weasley takes off on her broom again only this time instead of continuing to fly length wise after Lancaster and the snitch she flies off and zooms across the width of the pitch. SHE SEEMS TO BE FLYING HEAD-ON TOWARDS LANDCASTER AND THE SNITCH ONLY SHE SHOOTS UP FIFTEEN FEET TO GET ABOVE LANCASTER'S WIND TRAIL . . . She continues to hover there while everybody else questions what she's doing. It seems like anything can happen in the game now that Gryffindor isn't being watched by Captain Victoire Weasley, who is still A.W.O.L. from Quidditch because of the injury she sustained several weeks ago in the Forbidden Forest with fellow Quidditch player Xavier Wood."

"Alexandra Weasley is just sitting there on her broom as Lancaster comes closer. HE'S A FOOT AWAY FROM THE SNITCH AND- HOLY HELGA HUFFLEPUFF! ALEXANDRA WEASLEY SUDDENLY DROPS INTO A SHARP NOSE DIVE SHE SHOOTS DOWNWARD WITH HER ARM OUT STRETCHED BARELY MISSING A COLLISION WITH LANCASTER AND SHE HAS . . . YES! WEASLEY HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! THE GOLDEN SNITCH HAS BEEN CAUGHT AND GRYFFINDOR WINS THE MATCH! THE FINAL SCORE IS 270 - 40 FOR GRYFFINDOR, GRYFFINDOR WINS!"

Victoire squealed close to Teddy's ear as she let herself celebrate and make noise along with the sounds of the spectators in the stadium outside. Teddy leans his weight off of Victoire now that there is less of a chance of her trying to escape. He grins at her but the smile is quickly wiped off her face as Victoire reaches forward, grabs Teddy's head, and forces his mouth to meet hers'. After a minute, Teddy gently extricated his lips from Victoire's and smirks at her.

She blushed back and said, "I'm going to take more care of myself later, I don't think I could sit through just _listening_ to another Quidditch game if I got hurt again."

Teddy rolled his eyes but didn't say anything about it being missing a Quidditch game that made her decided to be more careful about her well-being. He knew that that was just the way she was. He kissed her forehead lightly before moving his lips down her face and capturing her lips again into a sweet yet scorching kiss.

* * *

So . . . how was it?

I'm beging for forgiveness for taking so long to update, but am asking that you find another way to punish me besides withholding reviews. Not reviewing will only end up with me being less enthusiastic about writing (I'm not going to lie I also had a bit of Writer's block halfway through this chapter) and that will only hurt your fellow readers.

So that being said, if you wish to punish me, feel free to lecture me in a review! ;)

And a Big BIg BIG thank-you to everyone who has reviwed, favourited, and/or subscribed! It means so much :)

Next chapter . . . Ally's Sweet Seventeenth!


	46. Strike Three

A/N: Hey, I know this is late, but I had exams and the end of school year stuff. But now, exams are done, and my High School career is over . . .

This chapter is a little short because I wrote this and it was long . . . like almost 10,000 words. So, this chapter is the shorter around 3,000 words long one, and the next one is the fun around 7,000 words one.

Ayway, hope you enjoy, and read the A/N at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I do not own this . . .

* * *

Strike Three

"Victoire."

"Victoire."

"Victoire . . ."

"Xavier . . ."

"Yeah?"

"Shut the Hell up and get your hand away from my face."

"Okay . . ." Xavier said as he moved his hand away from her face. He straightened himself up and contented himself with sneaking glances around her dorm room. He had been hoping that because it was later in the morning (eight-thirty-four) to be exact, and that because it was a Hogsmeade weekend that Victoire's roommates would have been up and out of the dorm room before he decided to come up and wake her up. He was wrong, as he glanced around the room he noticed several people, Pamela Mace specifically, that he didn't want to wake up to see him here poking Victoire; as attempting to wake her up.

Victoire knew that her hope that Xavier was going to leave and let her alone to sleep was a baseless one, so she stretched and jumped out of bed. She moved to silently root through her trunk to look for her clothes for the day.

"Xavier why don't you go wake up Sandy while I get changed in the bathroom?" Victoire suggested.

Xavier' face turned red, "Umm, Sandra's already up and well, she _seemed_ very awake . . ."

Victoire stopped searching for her white blouse and shot a look over to Sandra's tidy and made-up bed, "What's that supposed to mean Xavier?"

Xavier looked down as he shuffled his feet awkwardly, "Yeah, well Sandy was already awake and in my dorm room when I woke up this morning and-"

"Are you sure that she'd gotten there earlier this morning, or have you thought that maybe she just slept over?" Victoire and Xavier's philosophy about their friend's romance was always based on the phrase 'Ignorance is bliss', the less they knew about Kyle and Sandra's physical relationship the better. However, in the past, they have had to discuss their friends' relationship before and each time it was extremely awkward.

Xavier ran a hand through his dirty blonde fringe, "Does it really matter? They're both dressed and being disgustingly romantic and are ready to start the day. I thought I'd come wake you up and take you with me when we went to wake Ally up because that way it'd be less awkward."

Victoire grinned widely at the now blushing Keeper, "I'm sure it would be a much better birthday present for her though if she were woken up by just you alone . . ."

Xavier coughed, "Well, I'm not going to argue about whether or not your statement is correct because we both know that that would seem like an abuse of my powers as Head Boy and-"

"And you're just afraid of how it's going to look if her roommates wake up and see that you're there. But really, she's turning seventeen today . . . it won't look as bad as it could . . ."

Victoire winked when she saw that her teasing words had the desired effect. Xavier's face went from a pale red, to a bright crimson. After he attempted to splutter out some garbled words, Victoire waved him off and went to the bathroom to be changed. She came out seven minutes later, grabbed her brown leather Muggle coat off the end of her bed, and strutted out of her dorm room.

Xavier had to jog to catch up with her fast pace, "That was quick, don't girls usually take longer to get ready? In the summer, I've seen Cee-Cee spend up to two hours in the bathroom getting ready for the day."

Victoire raised an eyebrow and gestured to herself, "Part Veela remember? I'm naturally drop-dead sexy. Why spend time in the bathroom when I don't need to? Besides, I'm spending the day with you guys in Hogsmeade celebrating Ally's seventeenth birthday. I don't really need to dress-up all fancy."

Xavier gave her a speculative look, "What if Ted was going to see you today?'

Victoire laughed unabashedly, "Okay, you've got me. I'd probably end up spending about eleven minutes in the bathroom if that was the case. But it's not. He's got the day off, and I convinced him to go see Andromeda today because I know he hasn't been able to see her in person in a few weeks."

"_Tsk_, _tsk_, _tsk_. You're already manipulating his emotions aren't you?" Xavier chuckled.

Victoire waved him off but then stopped. She looked at Xavier puzzled, "Did Cecilia actually spend two hours getting ready? She doesn't even wear make-up on a regular basis."

"Yeah, I know. It was even weirder because if I remember correctly, all we did that day was go over to your house and hang out with you, Louis, and Dom," Xavier shrugged.

"Godric you're oblivious, Xavier," Victoire laughed after putting Xavier's newly found information about Cecilia and Louis together with what she's seen herself.

"What? What'd I say?" Xavier asked confused.

Victoire rolled her eyes but decided that if he was going to be so stupid, she wasn't going to bother letting him in on what she was guessing at. The two Heads walked briskly to Ally's dorm room, and Xavier had Victoire peek in and check and to see that the coast was clear before he followed her through the door. The room was empty; it seemed that the rest of the girls in Ally's dorm had decided to let her sleep-in on her birthday. A good idea since Xavier and Victoire were there to wake her up. Before Xavier could discuss with Victoire how it would be best to go about waking Ally up, Victoire ran and jumped onto Ally's bed, a mixture tackle/tickle in the process, all the while yelling, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BIRTHDAY GIRL! SOMEONE'S SEVENTEEN TODAY AND its DEFINITELY NOT ME SEEING AS I STILL HAVE THOSE BLACKMAIL PICTURES OF XAVIER AND KYLE DOING KARAOKE AT MY OWN SEVENENTH BIRTHDAY PARTY!"

"_Oi_! I told you to not develop those!" Xavier complained, momentarily forgetting Ally's birthday and focusing on getting those awful blackmail photos out of Victoire's possession.

Ally giggled as she watched her two favourite people argue, "The only way to remedy this problem Xavier is to get Victoire totally wasted tonight and take counter blackmail photos."

Xavier smiled at her suggestion, "Yeah, I don't know it that would work, but we can try it. In the meantime happy seventeenth birthday Ally!"

Ally smiled and hugged Xavier, "Thanks. Wow, I can't believe I'm seventeen!"

"Me either!" Victoire joined in, still bouncing happily on Ally's mattress with her, "It seems like only yesterday you were crying that I was going to Hogwarts without you because of our age difference, and now you're an adult just like me!"

"Umm, Vic, the only reason I was crying was because Fred and James had put a spoonful of wasabi in my scrambled eggs because they knew that spicy food makes me cry . . ."

Victoire shrugged, "I know, I just like to go with the idea that you were so distraught over my leaving that you couldn't control yourself. You have to admit that my story sounds better than yours."

Ally laughed, "Whatever you say Vic."

"C'mon Ally! You're seventeen, I know it's not as much fun because you're actually allowed to use magic in school, but you can use it without being tracked now. Let's see your first spell as an adult!" Xavier asked cheerfully.

"Um, okay, uh . . . What spell should I use?"

"I'm not sure, I'm pretty sure my first spell was one that made all the other guys in my dorm shut up so I could sleep in, but your roommates are already kind enough to let you sleep, so I'm not sure what you could do . . . what was your first spell Vic?" Xavier asked turning to her.

She grinned widely, "I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to discuss that . . ."

Ally and Xavier both cringed but decided that they weren't going to press the issue. Xavier opened his mouth up to say something, but was cut off by a large screech from Victoire.

"_Ekkkk! _I know what spell should be your first!"

Ally looked wary, "Okay . . . what one?"

Victoire smiled widely, "Can't say yet, Xavier has to leave first."

Xavier pouted, "C'mon I want to know!"

"Nope. Besides, it's one Ally has to perform while she's getting ready and changed. And you can't be here for that. Or, at least I don't think Ally wants you here for that . . ."

Xavier stood up and held his hands up in a defensive pose, "Okay, okay, I'm going."

The last thing he saw was Victoire's wide, rather scary smile, as she slammed the door of the dormitory in his face.

* * *

"Teddy you're up early for your day off. If it was my day off I'd be sleeping in 'til noon," Kurt accosted his roommate as he walked out of his own room.

Kurt was dressed for the day and already on his third cup of coffee (a necessity since _he_ still had to work today) and was frowning at the fact that on his day off, Teddy was actually up before noon, (as it was it was already nine o'clock in the morning).

Teddy rolled his eyes, grabbed a cup of tea, and then sat down at a chair at their table, "Victoire convinced me, not that it would take a lot of convincing mind you, to go visit my Grandmum today because I haven't actually seen her since the First Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. I thought she'd appreciate it if I got there as early as I could, because then we'd have more time to spend together today."

Kurt grumbled into his coffee some sort of non-committal confirmation of thought and went back to perusing the paper. Teddy was almost finished his cup of tea when their front door opened and Jilly came running in.

"Nice of you to knock first," Kurt said sarcastically as he started to fold up his copy of _The Daily Prophet_.

Jilly barely spared him a withering glance before taking a seat at the chair closest to Teddy. She didn't say anything but was strongly imploring him with her eyes.

"Er . . . do I even want to know what you want?"

"Will you go on a date with me?"

Teddy choked on his tea as her words filled his head. He had to take a few minutes to clear his throat by himself since it seems that Kurt was in a similar predicament as him, choking on his own specific choice of morning beverage. He'd obviously overheard what Jilly had just said to him.

"Uh . . . listen Jilly. You're a really nice girl and all, but I kinda see you more as a friend. Besides I kinda already-"

Jilly stopped him before he could go any farther, "I don't want you to date me Ted. I need you to come with me on a date-"

Kurt interrupted her before she could finish, "Hold your train of thought there for a minute Jilly; I wanted to see where Ted was going to go with that sentence. Were you about to say that you already _have_ a girlfriend?"

Teddy used his metamorphmagus skills to hide his blush, he was going to brush off Kurt's question, and then go to Jilly's situation, "What? Girlfriend, _psh_. What were you asking me again Jilly?"

"Oh, no you can't get away without actually answering me Lupin, I demand a-" Teddy got tired of Kurt's speaking and cast a quick non-verbal S_ilencio_ spell on him.

Jilly eyed Teddy speculatively for a minute before deciding that her problem was more important, "I-I'm kinda in a predicament Ted, and I really need you to help. You know I wouldn't be asking you this if it wasn't important. I'd even ask Kurt, but he has to work today and you have the day off, well, for now . . ."

"Just tell me what the problem is Jilly," Teddy said tired of the suspense.

"Caleb kinda asked me out today."

Teddy blinked, "Okay . . . who's Caleb?"

Jilly frowned, "Professor Caleb Cooke, he teaches _History of Magic_. He helped me when Victoire Weasley and Xavier Wood were attacked by the Manticore."

Both Teddy and Kurt stared at her wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Since Teddy was the only one who could speak, he questioned Jilly first, "Wow, well . . . um, that's good for you I guess. I still don't see the problem though, or why you need me to go on a date with you-"

Jilly cut him off, "No it's not good!"

"So you don't like him that way then?"

"No, that's not the point!"

"So you do like him-"

"Of course I like him! He's smart, funny, and completely gorgeous!" Jilly practically yelled.

Teddy shared a look with a still silent Kurt, "Well then I'm confused. Why do you want to go on a date with me if you like Professor Cooke?"

"Ugh!" Jilly groaned, "Stop asking stupid questions and just listen to me. It doesn't matter if I like him and he's just asked me out on a date. I can't date him because of Shacklebolt's rule about getting involved with people at Hogwarts while on the job."

Kurt, who had gotten tired of not being able to talk and went to find his wand and cast the counter-charm to the spell Teddy had cast on him, finally spoke, "Geez, take a calming draught Jilly. I'm pretty sure Shaklebolt's rule was more to stop the male Aurors from preying on the young seventh and sixth year girls . . . or maybe it was specifically just so nobody attempted to flirt with Victoire or Alexandra Weasley . . ."

Jilly rolled her eyes at Kurt, "But it's still against the rules!"

"Then what's your problem, you told Professor Cooke 'thanks, but no thanks' it's against the rules. Why do you want to go on a date with Ted?" Kurt asked confused.

Jilly blushed and looked down at the table, "Umm, well . . . I didn't really tell him no . . ."

Teddy frowned, "I'm even more confused now. You didn't say no to going on a date with Cooke, but you just asked me out on a date."

Jilly sighed, "I was getting there. Will you two just stop asking questions and let me finish?"

They both nodded.

"Good. Well Caleb asked me on a date, and I was really worried about saying no. I mean I kinda really like him and I didn't want to completely ruin his opinion of me seeing as in a few months when we're gone from here it wouldn't be against the rules to date him. So I tried to explain to him about the rule Shacklebolt made, but . . . I don't know the conversation ended up with us deciding that we'd still go out today, we'd just go into London or something where no one from Hogwarts was going to see us. I thought it'd work too, seeing as it is supposed to be my day off."

Teddy and Kurt nodded, "That makes sense, we're with you so far . . ."

"Yes. Well I was all set for this plan but then I went into the Auror break room -big mistake by the way- and Shacklebolt saw me. He asked me if I could do him a favour and I-I just couldn't say no when he had such a beseeching look on his face!"

Teddy knew what look she was talking about but decided not to talk. He preferred not to start his day off with a hex from her.

"So, he ended up asking me to take babysitting duty today because Lassoder called in sick with some sort of crazy vomiting/fever thing and-"

"Sorry Jilly, but babysitting duty?" Teddy asked not completely understanding her terminology.

Kurt and Jilly shared a glance before she answered him, "Yeah, well . . . that's kind of what we nicknamed any patrol that has to do with following Victoire around. I mean Kingsley really doesn't give her enough credit; she's a grown witch after all."

Teddy nodded and tried not to be offended by the title they'd given to watching Victoire. After all, she'd called it that herself a few months ago.

"So you have to go into Hogsmeade now and watch Victoire and them as they celebrate Ally's birthday?" Teddy asked, finally understanding in part what Jilly was telling them.

"Yes, but Kingsley told me he wanted me to act like I wasn't there stalking her. I wasn't sure what he meant by that, so he explained that it would be easier if I came up with a backup story if she recognized me there, which face it, she will because she's one smart and suspicious girl."

"So, you come up with a background story, no big deal," Kurt said, still not seeing the problem.

Jilly blushed, "I ended up making Shacklebolt think that I came up with this plan to hang out with some friends around Hogsmeade and just lie more specifically when she catches me. I might have casually mentioned to him that I knew that Professor Cooke was planning on going into Hogsmeade to get some supplies for his classes. I suggested that if he were part of the group with me, she'd be less suspicious than if it was just a group of Aurors she'd seen around the school. He agreed, but also said that he would feel a bit better if I could get another Auror to join the group so that there'd at least be two of us there if something went wrong."

Kurt grinned, "So the date with Cooke's back on then. Crafty Jilly, very crafty, and Shacklebolt believes that it was all his idea. Damn girl, I think that I'm rubbing off on you." He gave her a proud look and held his hand up for a high-five.

Jilly stared at his hand until he put it down and looked back at Teddy with a pout, "And since Lassoder is sick -vile Git- Teddy's the only other Auror who would be free to tag along . . ."

"Hence why you asked him _to go on a date with you_," Kurt finished breaking out in a fit of laughter.

"Yes, well, please Ted. I know you had plans to visit your Grandmother, but she'd probably understand, especially since it's because you're looking after Victoire and all," Jilly finished.

Teddy sighed. He knew that he would agree to what Jilly suggested; only if it was because he was so anal about Victoire's safety.

"Fine, I'll be a third wheel on your 'not-a-date-but-a-security-patrol'. But I'm going to have to be in disguise because if Victoire sees that I'm following her around she's going to kill me."

Jilly smiled brightly and threw her arms around him, "Thank you. Thank you. _Thank you_ Ted!"

* * *

Hey, well I hope that you enjoyed that! I know it was more on the boring side, but trust me the next chapter's going to be a **lot** more fun. There's friends, and alcohol, and things which some people are going to wish that they don't remember the next day . . . I know, sounds like a regular party, but trust me, no party's regular when Vic's at it.

I've already go the next chappie finished, so depending on how the reviews for this chapter go, I might update the next chapter earlier.

Hey, if I get some really, really nice reviews, I might even update again, in two days, or even tomorrow!

Tell me what you all think ;)

And thanks again to everyone who favourited/subscribed/reviewed! It always makes my day!

An especially big thanks to:

**kwidditchfan**, **wish right now x**, **RoLouG**, **Smileybox**, **nifflerstorm17008**, **deant33**, **alicecullenisrealinmyworld**, **kneeecole**, **potterhead1997**, **Amara**, **killerbunny117**, **brilliant incandescence**, **MuggleCreator**, **LiveLovePotter**, **YukiLovestoWrite**, **Yellowtomato**, and especially _**Neferit-12** _for her awesome support and ideas!


	47. The Party

**A/N:** Well, the 16 of you who have reviewed so far have twisted my arm, and I'm going to update again today.

For those of you who've lost count, that is **TWO** chapters in **TWO** days. Think of this as my School's Out Summer gift to all of you. And maybe a Graduation Gift (I'm graduating from High School, maybe other people are graduating from their own different schools or programs).

Warning: This chapter contains seventeen years olds partying, so yeah, alcohol (legal for them) and other drunken fun times.

I hope you enjoy this, and meet me again at the end of the page for another A/N :)

**Disclaimer:** I'm not JKR, and I do not own this. I also mention a bit of Bill Shakespeare's words from _Romeo and Juliet_. I meantion in the conversation where it's from, but just so I'm not stepping on some dead people's toes . . .

* * *

**The Party**

"Happy BirthdayHHHGDDFH:KJHGFDSfrghhythgyhjyHarry askedII re" ftgtrrggtghggfdvgttrergftre Ally!" Victoire pretty much shouted into her favourite cousin's ear. The loudness of their surroundings made close proximity and loud voices a must if any information was to be passed from one person to another.

Ally laughed, her eyes a little wary of her cousin, "Thanks Vic . . . but this is the, I don't know, thirteenth time that you've told me this today . . . so it kinda makes me wonder . . . how much have you had to drink already?"

Like almost every witch or wizard who celebrates their seventeenth -and coming of age birthday- Ally's friends wouldn't allow her to celebrate this big milestone in her life without one of the most important things about coming of age, alcohol. Because Ally could now legally drink, and because it was hands down the best place to party in Hogsmeade, Victoire, her friends, Ally, Ally's friends (the ones who were already seventeen and even the ones who weren't) were celebrating at _The Three Broomsticks_. The Three Broomsticks, being a large tavern to begin with, had grown in size over the years as the popularity of Hogsmeade grew. The bar was easily large enough to fit its normal patrons, along with a group of about twenty-five Hogwarts students who were giddily celebrating a friend's birthday. Because of the cold weather of the late-November day, the tavern was pretty much full. A divide had occurred, Hogwarts students (some who might not exactly be Ally's friends but who wanted to stick around that side of the building), and another side filled with all of the other people who frequent the bar, citizens of Hogsmeade village, or just anybody who wandered in to get out of the cold. Victoire and her friends were thoughtful enough to keep the noise down to a minimum, because almost all of the patrons of the bar were talking anyway -creating a dull background noise- they weren't disturbing anyone, or causing too much of a ruckus.

Victoire pouted at her dark haired cousin. She took a sip of her drink; a mixture of soda and _firewhiskey_, and smirked, "This is probably my tenth." An eyebrow rose upon her pale forehead, daring her cousin to say something.

Ally just rolled her eyes and brought her own drink up to her lips. They'd been there for about three hours now, and Ally had only had a total of about four drinks. As per Weasley tradition, Victoire bought Ally her first drink once they got to the tavern. (Tradition states that the last person to turn seventeen should be the first person to buy the next coming of age witch or wizard a drink. Teddy had bought Victoire her first alcoholic drink when she became of age, and now Victoire was passing along the tradition.)

"Just because you can drink like a fish and not be affected by the alcohol the same way everyone else would, doesn't mean that you should actually drink that much Vic," Xavier said as he took a seat across from her at the table, and beside Ally. He seriously meant it, but in his hands were three more bottles of alcoholic beverages; one for him, one for Ally, and one for Victoire.

Victoire easily finished off her previous drink and held her hand out for the new one Xavier had brought her.

"Thanks Xav."

Ally rolled her eyes again, "You really shouldn't encourage her Xavier. Just because she can handle all that alcohol doesn't mean she should drink that much. She might become complacent and then end up getting totally sloshed!"

Xavier opened his mouth to answer back, but Victoire beat him to it, "The only reason why he keeps giving me more alcohol is because he wants me to do something embarrassing that he can take a picture of, then use as blackmail."

Xavier nodded his head, "That's true."

Ally giggled and Xavier smiled at her as he handed her the drink he'd brought for her.

She grimaced lightly, "I don't know Xavier, I've already had like four already. I don't know if I'll be able to handle even one more without getting totally smashed."

Xavier pouted exaggeratedly, "C'mon Ally! I haven't had a chance yet to buy you a drink; you wouldn't want your birthday to pass without letting me have the opportunity to buy a special girl a birthday drink?" He was smiling at her brightly and even winked.

Victoire's eyes widened, _is Xavier Wood actually flirting with Ally?_

Ally blushed and looked down at her hands, "Well I guess it would only be fair." When she looked back up at him and fluttered her eyelashes, Victoire almost fell out of her chair.

_Bloody Hell. If I'd known what a little bit o' liquid courage in their systems would do, I would have tried to get them drunk together months ago._

Not wanting to distract or disturb the conversational flirtation they'd started, Victoire quietly got up from her chair and left the table. She was several steps away from them when she turned back to see if they'd noticed that she'd left; they didn't.

She looked around the crowded room, smiled and said 'Hi' to a few people who looked her way, and then made her way over to a table near the middle of the tavern, where she saw Sandra and Kyle sitting with a few other people. The table would have been full if everyone was sitting in a seat, but luckily, for Victoire, Kyle and Sandra were squished together in the same chair, as per usual. She walked up to the table, set her drink down, and sat in the empty seat beside her best mate and her best mate's boyfriend.

"Hey Victoire."

"Hi Vic!"

"'Sup Weasley?"

Was chorused around the table. Victoire smiled and chatted with her fellow students for about an hour before they started to dissipate from the table. A few of the sixth years were leaving to get back to Hogwarts, while most of the seventh years were still in the tavern. As the people at the table left to get more drinks or to see some other friends, Victoire was left with Kyle and Sandra.

"So, how was the birthday girl when you left her?" Kyle asked as he absent mindedly ran his hand through his girl friend's hair.

Victoire smiled and swirled around the contents of her glass, "Last I saw, Xavier was treating her very well."

Sandra giggled; she'd definitely had a few drinks that night. She usually got giggly when she drank, even if she was still able to think and talk rather clearly, "They'll be so cute together when they finally get their heads out of the sand and realize that they're made for each other."

Victoire agreed, "Yup. Although I'm not sure if I'm ready for everyone to be paired off."

Kyle chuckled, but Sandra didn't laugh as Victoire was going for. Instead she eyed her best friend's expression minutely before pushing herself off her chair, and consequently off of Kyle.

"Kyle sweetie, will you be a dear and go refill mine and Victoire's drinks?" Sandra fluttered her eyelashes and ran a hand down her boyfriend's cheek.

Kyle grinned and placed his hand against her hand on his cheek, "Okay Baby, I'll get some more drinks, but I'm only going to get you a soda. I think you've had enough alcohol tonight, and I don't want you to get sick."

"Oh isn't that sweet," Victoire said, more to herself, as she watched her friends' sickly sweet embrace.

Kyle shot a wink in Victoire's direction, "But I'll definitely get Victoire another drink, because it seems as though she hasn't had enough alcohol to loosen up yet."

Victoire shot him a sarcastic smile and raised her glass up to him as he kissed Sandra on the forehead and walked toward the bar.

Once Kyle was out of earshot, Sandra turned to her best mate, "Okay Miss-starting-to-sound-bitter. What was that last comment about?"

Victoire downed the rest of her drink and then placed her hands on her forehead, "I don't know. I just feel bitter today. I hope that Ally and Xavier get together, I really do. If they wait any longer, I'm pretty sure that I'll end up strangling them both."

"But . . ." Sandra hedged her on.

"But it's kinda depressing seeing all of you with the people you really care about, when I'm not able to be."

Sandra patted Victoire's hand reassuringly, "C'mon Vic. Teddy's living here this year. You've seen him more, so far this year, then you would have if he wasn't working in the Castle this year."

"I know, I know. That's what everybody says, but it's not as if we're in a position where we can see each other all the time and be romantic or anything. The only time I usually see him is if I'm injured, being yelled at by my family, or if Kingsley gets worried about my safety and makes him follow me around everywhere I go. Which is _not_ any fun because when he's like that he's in 'work mode' and nothing I can say, or do, can snap him out of it. Trust me I've tried!"

Sandra hummed in thought, "Well, I guess that is a tough one . . . are you sure you've tried _everything_?"

Victoire sighed and blushed. The alcohol she'd imbibed in earlier in the night wasn't much affecting her physically, mentally, or emotionally, but it was making it harder for her Veela blood to mask her genetic Weasley blush.

"I've tried everything _I _can think of that would work or that I'd do," Victoire answered.

Sandra sighed and shook her head, "That's the problem Vic, you need to stop thinking like yourself, and start thinking like me."

Victoire's eyebrows rose up her forehead, "Um, Sandy, I made a promise to myself that if _I_ actually ever did start thinking like you, that I'd slap myself so I don't think-"

Sandra cut her off, "Quite the comedian aren't you Weasley? Just listen to me and I'll explain why you should listen to the plain Muggle born girl when she's giving dating advice to her part-Veela best mate, okay?"

Victoire nodded primly.

Sandra smiled and pressed her hands together with a smirk on her face that looked eerily similar to the looks Freddie and James got on their faces when they were planning something especially devious.

"Now, take this advice from someone who's been dating their own boyfriend for four years. Is Kyle and mine's romance still alive?"

"Yes."

"And thriving?"

"Disgustingly so sometimes, but yes."

"And that is because I know how to keep him entertained."

Victoire gave her friend an odd look, "I'm still confused."

Sandra sighed, "Romance fails sometimes because the relationship gets stale. You need to make sure that there's something fresh in the relationship every once in a while."

Victoire frowned, "Should I be afraid by what you mean by 'fresh'?"

"I take it that you and Teddy haven't had much time for a good ol' fashioned snog session in a while?"

"What would make you say that?" Victoire asked her face red again.

Sandra smirked, "Because I've never seen a hickey or a love bite anywhere even close to your neck before."

Victoire's face had surpassed common red and was now a bright Gryffindor crimson, "I can't hide marks, or things, like other girls can. Glamour charms don't work on me properly, you know that."

Sandra rolled her eyes, "Really Vic? Listen, everyone in the Castle already thinks that you either have a secret boyfriend, or that you're dating several people. So, if you show up with a hickey, it's not going to be very surprising to others, it's just going to make all of the guys jealous because it wasn't them who gave it to you. But on your more personal side, do you know what that's going to do to your relationship with Teddy?"

Victoire shook her head, "Even though Ted is a total sweetheart, he's still a guy, and he still thinks like a guy, even if he doesn't necessarily want to."

"I don't really-"

"Let me finish!"

"Okay, okay," Victoire said raising her hands up. _Man, Sandy gets testy when she's sloshed._

"Every man has some sort of primal urges to mark his mate," Sandra said scientifically.

A blonde brow rose up her forehead, "But what does that have to do-"

"I told you to _shh_! Now, what I was getting to was that it wouldn't seem like a big thing to the people around you if you have a hickey, but Teddy will absolutely love it, because he was the one who gave it to you. It would be like a guy marking his property. This is Teddy showing to the world that you're his, even if he can't actually come out and say it. In a relationship like yours when people can't actually know that you're dating, that would definitely add a bit of spice."

Victoire looked at her friend dumbly. She didn't think that the alcohol was affecting her that much, but she was starting to doubt her self-assessment that told her that she wasn't drunk. She had to be pretty smashed if she was thinking that Sandra's advice actually had some merit in it.

"Hello ladies, sorry it took so long, but I was talking to the barman," Kyle said as he came back and placed the drinks down in front of the girls. He took an empty seat next to Sandra and placed a gentle kiss on the side of her neck.

"Why did talking to the barman take so long?" Victoire asked wanting to change the subject of her and Teddy's love life to the one Kyle so conveniently offered.

He smirked at her, a sparkle in his blue eyes, "It took me so long because I asked the new barman if he knew what you were drinking. Mistakenly, I thought he'd know whom you were when I said your name. But it took the help of the two guys beside me, who described you as 'sexy blonde', 'gorgeous body', and 'nice arse' before the barman realized who I was talking about."

Victoire sighed, "Really now, and you just let them talk like that about me?"

Kyle shrugged and grinned, "I wasn't going to complain when the two guys said that they'd not only pay for your drink, but also for mine and Sandra's as long as I told you that they paid and pointed them out."

Victoire grimaced, "Seriously?"

"Yup," Kyle answered. "They would be the gentlemen sitting at the bar, wearing the blue and red polo shirts, respectively."

Victoire turned in her chair to see the area that Kyle was pointing to behind her. Two men in their early twenties were sitting at the bar, when they saw her looking in their direction they both winked at her and motioned for her to come over. She shook her head and then nodded it in her friend's direction as an excuse. She gave them an apologetic smile, even though she was anything but, and turned back to her friends.

"I'd leave now, but I'm now afraid of being jumped on my way out of here," Victoire joked, taking a sip from her drink.

Sandra got back into her giggly mode as she leaned against Kyle and played with the straw he'd made sure to get for her soda. Kyle chuckled but then his eyes started to sparkle with mischief.

"I don't think you have to worry about being jumped going home Vic. You know your body guards would never allow that."

"What body guards?" Victoire asked confused. Her friends and she had spent almost the whole day in Hogsmeade, and they hadn't run into any of the Aurors from the school. Victoire knew that based on protocol there should be at least one person following her around, but she hadn't seen anyone and had hoped that Kingsley was starting to be more lenient with her.

Kyle rolled his eyes and pointed his chin to the part of the tavern, which housed the other patrons. A few tables away, almost directly in the line of view, were what she was sure Kyle was talking about.

"Is that Auror Donaldson and Professor Cooke?"

Kyle nodded, "Looks like it to me. And what would they be doing here together?"

Sandra broke in before Victoire could reply, "Maybe they're on a date Kyle. Auror Donaldson's a pretty young woman and Professor Cooke is a gorgeous young man. They could very well be here on a date."

"Yes, nothing more romantic than a first date in a student infested tavern. Especially with a third wheel tagging along," Kyle commented still looking at Auror Donaldson and Professor Cooke.

I looked over at them again to see what Kyle was talking about, when I noticed that another man had sat down and at the table. He was a distance away from the couple, but it definitely looked like he was there with Jilly and Professor Cooke.

"Well . . . maybe . . . oh I don't know!" Sandra complained and pouted. She was upset that she didn't have an excuse for what was going on.

Kyle laughed and pecked his girlfriend on the cheek, "Babe, you're adorable when you're sloshed."

Sandra pushed him off her, "I am not that drunk!"

Kyle laughed and grabbed her again into a tight embrace. He whispered something in her ear that effectively flipped her frown into a grin and made a giggle escape her now smiling lips.

Victoire rolled her eyes and looked down at her drink. She considered it for a minute before downing the rest of the glass in thirty seconds flat. When she looked up from her now empty drink, she locked eyes with the third man sitting at Jilly and Professor Cooke's table, whom she hadn't recognized. He shifted his glance away from her eyes the minute his hazel ones had caught her ocean blue ones. He said something to his two companions and then stood up, left the table, and turned his back to her to walk to the bar.

She was going to shift his gaze when something about him caught her attention. She didn't look away from the man's back but she did slap Kyle on the arm to get his attention.

"Ouch! What was that for Vic?"

"Go get me another drink."

Kyle raised an eyebrow at her, "What? Why?"

"Because I finished mine, and I need you to leave so that I can have a quick second of girl time with your girl friend."

Kyle stood up, but before he left, he looked back at the two girls, "I swear. If I come back and find you guys giggling uncontrollably or something, I'm just going to leave again."

Victoire waved off his warning and once he was out of sight she looked back at Sandra. She was playing with the straw in her drink again.

"Sandy!"

Sandra looked up startled, "What?"

"If you're only going to have, like sixty seconds left of clarity tonight before you get into the stage of drunk where all you do is make out with Kyle, could you please use those sixty seconds right now?"

Sandra looked around herself suddenly, "Where's Kyle?"

Victoire groaned; she knew that she shouldn't have mentioned Kyle to her. Sandra was definitely at the stage of drunk where all she wanted to do was snog her boyfriend.

"Listen Sandra, sixty seconds, that's all I'm asking."

Sandra nodded, she looked like she was trying to clear her head, "'Kay, I think I can do that. What's the problem?"

Victoire looked back to the bar and was glad to see that the man that was there with Jilly and Professor Cooke was still at the bar, with his back to them.

"You see the third wheel on Auror Donaldson and Professor Cooke's date?"

Sandra nodded and inspected him closely, "Yup. Hmm . . . he's got a nice arse."

Victoire grinned; this was why she liked her friend. Even when one of them was completely drunk, and the other was on their way, they were still on the same wavelength.

"Yes he does, but does that arse look familiar?"

Sandra tilted her head in confusion as she started to examine the man's arse as closely as she could in her drunken state and from her seat, "No . . . but I am pretty smashed. Should it look familiar?"

Victoire thought about that question for a minute. She was okay with the fact that Sandra didn't recognize his arse.

"Well that depends, how often do you stare at Teddy's arse?"

Sandra's eyes widened and then she looked closer at the man, "You think that's Teddy?"

Victoire nodded. She knew her boyfriend, even if he was using his metamorphmagus abilities to hide himself, "I'm ninety-nine point nine percent certain that that's him."

"Oh," Sandra said squinting her eyes a bit, "Well in that case I must be more sloshed then I thought I was because I've actually spent quite a lot of time staring at Teddy's arse."

Victoire laughed and Sandra broke into a fit of giggles. Kyle arrived back to the table and found his girlfriend and her best mate laughing hysterically at the table.

"Um, I don't know if I should give you this Vic," Kyle said sitting beside Sandra and holding the re-filled glass of alcohol, he'd gotten Victoire.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Deux ménages à la fois semblables dans la dignité, dans la belle Vérone, où nous posons notre scène. De pause vieille rancune à la mutinerie nouvelle où le sang civile rend les mains impures civile."

"What was that?" Kyle asked confused.

Victoire laughed, "That was me reciting the first half of the prologue of _Romeo and Juliet_ in French."

"Why . . . ?"

"To prove to you that I'm not sloshed, yet. When I'm drunk my French is the first thing to go," Victoire stated matter o' factly.

Kyle thought back to the few times he'd actually seen Victoire good and drunk. They were only a few but she was right, her French usually was the first thing to go.

"Okay then," Kyle replied easily as he handed Victoire her new drink.

She started out sipping it as she thought about why Teddy would be in The Three Broomsticks in disguise. She knew he'd be in disguise because he didn't want her to see him, but she thought that they were past the part of these dilemmas. Apparently, she was wrong. She stopped her train of thought and looked back up from her half-finished drink to ask her friends' their opinions.

Wrong move. When she looked up she sighed sadly, Kyle and Sandra were staring deeply into each other's eyes, and looked about twenty seconds away from wanting to jump at each other. She knew that they were only holding back because she was still there, and because they were trying to be respectful friends. So she quickly guzzled down her drink and stood up.

Kyle and Sandra both moved their attention off each other and looked at Victoire.

"I'm gonna go get another drink and then look around for Ally or Chris, okay?"

Kyle and Sandra were about to open their mouths and tell her that she didn't have to leave, but she was already half way to the bar.

She had to squeeze through a couple people who were just milling around the bar, to get to the counter. She saw the barman on the opposite side of the bar, (Kyle was right he must have been new because she'd never seen him there before) and resigned herself to the fact that she'd probably have to wait fifteen minutes before he was able to get to her. She turned her head to the side and calmly surveyed the parts of the tavern that she could see. Out of the corner of her eye, she was watching the table where Jilly, Professor Cooke, and who she thought was Teddy, were sitting. From her vantage point, she saw that Teddy was not looking at her, but that Jilly was.

Victoire rolled her eyes to herself when she saw that, _Godric Kingsley! You can't even let me go out with my friends without forcing people to come babysit me!_

"What can I help you with Miss?"

Victoire spun around and saw the barman looking at her intently. She glanced down the bar to where he'd been a minute ago and saw a group of middle-aged woman scowling at her. She deducted that the barman had left the patrons, who were waiting longer than her, alone when he saw that she'd come up to the bar.

Her hypothesis seemed to become legitimate when she saw that the barman wasn't actually staring intently at her, but her white blouse.

Victoire rolled her eyes, but was too tired to yell at the barman for ogling her, "Can I have a glass of firewhiskey?"

The barman gave her a large smile and winked, "You can have anything you want gorgeous."

Victoire frowned and had just decided to tell the barman off for hitting on her when she saw a scowl grow on the barman's face. Simultaneously she felt an arm lazily grab her waist and pull her towards a tall body.

The barman frowned and looked back at Victoire, "Coming right up."

Victoire waited for the barman to turn his back on her before turning to her side and looking into a pair of light blue eyes.

"You should know better than to come up to a bar by yourself Vic," The voice said closely in her ear so that she could hear his deep voice over the roar in the tavern.

Victoire nodded half-heartedly at what he said, but turned to look over her shoulder to see her 'bodyguards' table. Teddy was still sitting there only this time he was staring directly at where the man's arm came across the small of Victoire's back.

Victoire turned her attention back to her companion and smiled thankfully at him but slowly moved out of his grasp, "Thanks for the save Chris. I didn't think it'd be that bad if I came up and got my own drink."

Chris smiled brightly and placed a hand on the counter top of the bar, "No problem. But really Vic, you should know better than to just walk up to a bar full of men unaccompanied. Haven't you figured that out from your previous trips to the bar tonight?"

Victoire shook her head, "No. This is actually my first trip to the actual bar. Earlier in the night people got me drinks."

Chris chuckled, "Xavier and Kyle are spoiling you."

Victoire shrugged at Chris' words as the bartender set her drink down in front of her, along with what looked to be about four shot glasses of some other type of alcohol.

He smiled brightly at Victoire and spoke to her shirt again as he explained, "The gentlemen down the bar there sent some shots over for you."

She glanced to where he pointed down the bar. It seemed that the first two men in the polo shirts from earlier in the night had met up with three other men. Victoire barely spared them a glance.

She looked at the shot glasses, and then back at Chris, "I hate shots."

Chris laughed but looked at her seriously, "You probably shouldn't drink something if you don't know who it's from."

Victoire nodded agreeing. The only reason she'd drank the drink Kyle had brought her that he said the men had paid for was because she trusted Kyle to watch their drinks as they were being made to make sure that nothing happened to them. She'd watched the barman make her drink, but didn't watch him when he went down to the five men and talked to them or made the shots.

"I'm not going to drink them; I'll just leave them here. What were you going to get?"

Chris shrugged, "A beer."

"'Kay, I'll get it," Victoire said.

"You don't have to Vic," Chris tried to argue.

Victoire waved him off and gestured to get the barman's attention again. She ordered Chris' drink and turned to him, "I'm pretty sure I haven't actually paid for a drink all night. I can buy you one no problem Chris."

Chris smiled and thanked her. They waited a few minutes before the barman placed Chris' drink down in front of Victoire.

He winked at her again, but then eyed the shots still sitting on the counter of the bar, "Don't want them?"

Victoire shook her head and plastered a fake, flirtatious smile onto her face, "No. I think I'll just stick to these drinks. The alcohol's a little lighter. I'm sure those shots would just do me in."

The barman gave her a bright smile. _Wow, he actually thinks that I'm flirting with him. Man is he stupid._

"I'll just take them away for you."

Victoire nodded thankfully and took a sip of her firewhiskey. Her eyes followed the barman as he brought the glasses to the five men who'd paid for them. They drank them, and then said something else to him. The barman nodded his head and then began making another shot. Victoire's eyes narrowed when she saw the barman walk over to the men, ask them another question, and then walk to where Victoire was still standing at the counter with Chris.

The barman smiled at her apologetically, "I'm sorry but they were rather insistent. I think that they're going to keep on with this if you keep refusing to drink it. If it helps I made it a light one."

Victoire nodded thankfully at the barman. He gave her one more flirtatious smile before moving to help another customer.

Victoire picked up the shot glass and looked down to the group of men. Four of them already turned their heads and were trying to strike up conversations with other women that looked to be in their twenties. But there was one man who was still watching her; he smiled when he saw that she was holding the shot glass. She smiled at him and then turned her back on him so that he couldn't see what she was doing.

Chris looked surprised at her hand as it held the shot glass, "You're not actually going to drink that, are you?"

Victoire frowned, "I don't want to, but if I don't they'll just keep sending me more. I watched the barman make it, he did make it a light one."

Chris considered her for a minute before reaching out and taking the shot glass from her, "I'll drink it and then maybe they'll leave you alone."

Victoire smiled brightly, "Thank you Chris. Although I doubt that I'd have to twist your arm too much to get you to drink free alcohol."

Chris grinned, "It works well for the both of us." He downed the shot and then grabbed his beer from the counter. Victoire grabbed her own drink and they took a few steps from the bar to allow others access to the counter.

Victoire and Chris finished their drinks and looked at each other.

"I'm tired. I think I'll go find Ally and Xavier and call it a night," Victoire said as she placed her empty glass down on the nearest empty table.

Chris set his empty down next to hers, "Maybe you should walk back with Kyle and Sandra instead."

Victoire looked at him puzzled and answered, "Um, no thanks. They were practically necking when I left them. If that's what they're doing when I'm at the table, I really don't want to know what they're doing now that the alcohol has had a chance to make more of an effect."

Chris rolled his eyes, "I'll walk you back then."

"Why can't I go find Xavier and Ally?"

Chris smirked and pointed to a small table in the corner of the room. Sitting at the table, in one chair, was Ally and Xavier. On a regular day, the fact that they were sharing a chair would be enough to cause Victoire some surprise, but she was absolutely shocked when she saw that they two of them were entwined tightly around each other; snogging.

"Looks like their eating each other's faces, doesn't it?" Chris asked with a smirk.

Victoire actually had to pinch herself to make sure that she was seeing what she was actually seeing; Ally Weasley and Xavier Wood, kissing. Not just kissing, but full on making out.

Victoire let out a low whistle, "They're completely wasted, aren't they?"

Chris nodded, "Totally smashed."

"They're not going to remember any of this in the morning, are they?"

Chris shrugged his shoulders, "If I'd consumed as much alcohol as Xavier did, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't."

Victoire thought about this. _Well, I'm not going to interrupt them then. If they're not going to remember this in the morning, then I'm not going to go in and ruin any fun they could have now._

"I can walk you back though, I'm ready to go," Chris said looking at Victoire.

She smiled but shook her head when she saw a group of people approaching the door, "Thanks, Chris. But I already know that you're a chivalrous Gryffindor. However, Belle Wembley over there could probably benefit from having a nice young man escort her back to the Castle."

Chris followed her line of sight to where a group of three students stood near the door. The two girls were from Ravenclaw, and the boy was from Hufflepuff. When he spotted Belle in her Ravenclaw blue cloak, he blushed.

"But, um . . . you shouldn't be walking back by yourself," Chris said as he shot a glance back to the bar. The group of five men seemed to be entertaining themselves for the moment, but the fact that they'd been so adamant to give Victoire a drink worried him.

Victoire rolled her eyes, and patted his arm, "I'm not going to be walking back by myself. I'll find my own chivalrous Gryffindor."

Chris looked at her confusedly, "What are you talking about-"

Victoire cut him off, "Just go walk Belle back to the Castle. I promise I'll be fine."

Chris would have pushed his point, but he knew better than to argue with Victoire Weasley. He said a quick goodbye to her, walked to the door, and exited with the group.

* * *

Well, I hoped that you like it!

You may have noticed that the ending isn't as smooth as my normal ones . . . well, that's because someone went to write this and the character's took over and made it go in another direction. I got us back on track, but it ended up rather long. So, it's kinda cut in two. The update next week will start right where this leaves off, and I'll make sure to summarize what happened next week, so you don't have to come back and re-read this chapter if you don't want to.

I know many of you reviewed and probably saw this going in a different way, and trust me, I thought it was too. But then all the characters took over and it was all I could do just to get back in control . . . so, again, please review to tell me what you thought of it.

Now, I got sixteen reviews since yesterday, which was very nice for one day. But now that I've updated _**TWO**_ chapters in Two days. I was sort of hoping if everyone **_could give me a Graduation present for graduating high school?_**

You know what **I want?** **Reviews**. Lots of them. **Maybe one per person who reads?** _*please-please-please-please-fingers-crossed-please-please-please-please?*_

Thanks to everyone who did review/subscribe/favourited/or just enjoyed reading it! :)

An especially big THANK YOU! To:

**As the Robin Flies**, **brilliant incandescence**, **ginnyandharryluvr**, **nickybby**, **YukiLovestoWrite**, **Aj**, **killerbunny117**, **nifflerstorm17008**, **MuggleCreator**, **trainwreck**, **RoLouG**, **bia9692**, **can't be bothered to sign in**, **wish right now x**, **HopelessRomantic44**, and **IStoleYourCookie**.

Thanks for all the awesome review, and I really hope to get more? :) Please?


	48. Sandra's Advice

**A/N:** So here's the new chapter! Also, Happy Independence Day to any of my American readers, and I hope that all my fellow Canadians had a fabulous Canada day on the 1st! :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of these characters . . . Except Professor Cooke, but I think Jilly's got a hold of him now . . .

**Summary from last chapter:**

_"I can walk you back though, I'm ready to go," Chris said looking at Victoire._

_She smiled but shook her head when she saw a group of people approaching the door, "Thanks, Chris. But I already know that you're a chivalrous Gryffindor. However, Belle Wembley over there could probably benefit from having a nice young man escort her back to the Castle."_

_Chris followed her line of sight to where a group of three students stood near the door. The two girls were from Ravenclaw, and the boy was from Hufflepuff. When he spotted Belle in her Ravenclaw blue cloak, he blushed._

_"But, um . . . you shouldn't be walking back by yourself," Chris said as he shot a glance back to the bar. The group of five men seemed to be entertaining themselves for the moment, but the fact that they'd been so adamant to give Victoire a drink worried him._

_Victoire rolled her eyes, and patted his arm, "I'm not going to be walking back by myself. I'll find my own chivalrous Gryffindor."_

_Chris looked at her confusedly, "What are you talking about-"_

_Victoire cut him off, "Just go walk Belle back to the Castle. I promise I'll be fine."_

_Chris would have pushed his point, but he knew better than to argue with Victoire Weasley. He said a quick goodbye to her, walked to the door, and exited with the group._

**Warning:** So . . . in this chapter Teddy and Vic get to spend a little time together . . . like mnay of you have asked for . . . so enjoy! :)

* * *

**Sandra's Advice**

Victoire turned on her heel when she saw that Chris had left and walked over to the other side of the tavern. She stopped at the table where Auror Donaldson and Professor Cooke had been sitting all night. She nodded at them both before looking at the third man and locking her blue eyes with his hazel ones.

"I'm ready to leave. Would you be a chivalrous Gryffindor and walk me back?"

The man rolled his eyes and then made a scrunched up face. Within seconds, he'd transformed from a stranger, into Victoire's Teddy; one with pale skin, sparkling sapphire eyes, and hair so dark a blue that it looked black in the dim lighting.

Teddy stood up and placed his hand on the small of Victoire's back. He turned toward Jilly and Professor Cooke and said, "Enjoy the rest of your night. Oh, and Jilly . . . you owe me three galleons."

He turned his back on them without waiting for her answer and quickly rushed Victoire out of _The Three Broomsticks_.

They began walking the trail back to Hogwarts Castle. They'd been walking a few minutes in silence before Victoire spoke, "Why does Jilly owe you three galleons?"

Teddy smirked, "I bet her that even if I used my _metamorphmagus_ abilities, you'd still be able to tell that it was me."

Victoire nodded, "So you were following me?"

He looked at the ground guiltily, "Jilly roped me into it. Apparently, Kingsley insisted that she go, and bring another Auror with her. Lassoder was the person who was supposed to be following you, but he was sick. So I was the only person able to go, because I was the only one who had the day off."

"So you didn't get to see Andromeda?" She asked frowning.

Teddy shook his head, "No, but she'll understand. She knows that you're important."

Victoire looked down at the toes of her brown leather boots, "She's important too."

Teddy looked around them at the road they were on. He didn't see anyone in the dark night, so he grabbed Victoire's hand and squeezed it gently.

"Yes, which is why over Christmas, since we'll both be staying at the Castle, on my next day off we can both go visit her."

Victoire looked up quickly. His face was bright with a smile, it was the kind of smile that made her smile back; "I'd like that."

Because of the Tri-Wizard Tournament's tradition of having the Yule Ball, Victoire wasn't going home this year for Christmas break. Teddy couldn't leave either, because he was working, and Victoire's siblings and cousins all decided that they'd stay also. The Yule Ball was only for fourth-years and up, unless they were people who were family of the Champions, so Louis and Baxter, who were in their third-year, are allowed to attend the Ball later in December.

"Sounds like a plan then," Teddy said.

They walked a few more minutes in silence before Teddy asked, "How did you know that was me?"

Victoire smirked, "You did bet Jilly that I'd know it was you, didn't you?"

"Yes I did, but I still don't know how you knew. I changed everything about me."

Victoire let go of Teddy's hand and moved hers to the back pocket of his jeans. She slipped it in between the cool denim fabric and pinched him.

Teddy jumped in surprise, stopped where he was and grabbed her wrist. "What was that for?" He asked his face turning red.

"I knew that it was you, because I could tell that it was your arse," Victoire said removing her hand from his back pocket.

Teddy's face and hair turned the maroon colour of her Uncle Ron's Weasley sweaters, "What?"

"Don't look at me like that Teddy. I'm not going to lie, I've spent some time looking at your arse before and I can spot it from a room away. Which was exactly what I did tonight," Victoire said smiling innocently at her boyfriend.

Teddy sighed and ran a hand through his dark blue fringe, "Actually? That's what set me apart?"

Victoire giggled, "Yup. I mean it was suspicious to start with because Jilly and Professor Cooke were there at The Three Broomsticks. I mean, Sandra was convinced that they were on a date before Kyle pointed out the third wheel at the table."

"Yeah, well it was actually supposed to be a date but then Kingsley turned it into a patrol. It worked out fine for them to start with because Jilly and Professor Cooke aren't actually allowed to date, but then she said there needed to be another Auror. So yeah, that's me, the third wheel," Teddy said grabbing Victoire's hand again and continuing their walk.

Victoire nodded, "Too bad. Professor Cooke and Jilly are cute together. I hope they enjoy the rest of the night."

Teddy nodded, that's why he'd originally jumped up at Victoire's offer. He knew that it would look weird for him to be the only one to escort Victoire back to the Castle, but he also knew that this was his chance to let Jilly and Professor Cooke have some time together.

"And don't feel bad about being a third wheel that was totally me tonight. Actually, I was more like a fifth wheel," Victoire went on babbling.

"Wait, what do you mean you were a fifth wheel tonight?" Teddy remembered seeing her with Kyle and Sandra, so that would account for her being a third wheel, but he didn't understand by what she meant about a fifth wheel, she wasn't with any other couples that he'd seen. She was with Xavier and Ally at the beginning of the night, and she was with Chris at the end, but he hadn't been with a girl until he left.

Victoire grinned, "Oh, you'll enjoy this. Guess who was eating each other's faces off when I left?"

"Umm, Sandra and Kyle?" Teddy asked. It was probable guess.

"No. Well, probably. But that's not who I'm talking about. I went to look for Xavier and Ally before I left, but decided not to interrupt them because it looked like they were _rather_ busy."

Teddy's eyebrows rose up his forehead, "No way?"

"Yes way. Sad thing is Chris and I agreed that they were probably both so drunk that they're not going to remember it in the morning," Victoire explained.

Teddy still looked shocked, "Wow. I mean, that's probably not the way either of them envisioned their first kiss, but at least they've got that over with . . . sort of."

"Yeah, you might not have liked me that way, and I might have forced myself on you for our first kiss, but at least we were both sober . . . actually, you know what, never mind. That sounds really bad," Victoire mused.

Teddy stopped them again. He grabbed Victoire's other hand in his and pulled her hands to bring her flush against his body. He let go of her hands and wrapped his arms around her waist. Her hands ended up against his chest and Teddy looked down into her eyes.

"Just because I was a blind idiot doesn't mean that that wasn't an amazing first kiss. Yes, it may have been a little more forceful than most girls would have tried, but hey, that's you. You know what you want, and you'll do whatever you have to, to get it. It's an admirable, if slightly Slytherinesque, quality," Teddy said kissing her on the forehead.

Victoire waited until his lips left her skin to slap him, moderately hard, on the chest, "You did _not_ just call me Slytherinesque."

He raised an eyebrow deviously, "It's a good thing you didn't have this kind of attitude when you were sorted, 'cause that along with the fact that you're a pureblood would have been enough to land you in Slytherin."

She gasped, "Don't ever repeat that again. Besides, I'm a Weasley, there's no way I would have ended up there. Plus, I'm not a pureblood, I'm part blood traitor, and part French. They're two different things."

He smirked, "It doesn't matter Vic. Bill's a pureblood, and Fleur's a pureblood. Sorry to break it to you, but a pureblood, and a pureblood, equal a pureblood. Even if there's some Veela, some Werewolf, and some Weasley in you; you, Dominique, and Louis are all purebloods."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Well then I guess it's a good thing that I was an adorable little girl when I was sorted, instead of the devious and evil girl you're trying to paint me as right now."

Teddy smiled and brought his face ever so close to Victoire's, "Sometimes I like it when you're devious."

Victoire's ocean blue eyes widened before she jumped at him. Her arms clasped around his neck, almost in a vise, her legs wrapped themselves around his waist, and her mouth crashed widely into his. Teddy was so surprised that he took a few steps back before standing his ground. _His_ arms wrapped around her, holding her up, and his mouth matched the wild tempo she'd started. Victoire bit down gently on Teddy's bottom lip, and pushed her tongue into his mouth when he groaned. Teddy slid his hands slowly from her behind, to the backs of her thighs and then eased his mouth off hers. Her lips turned themselves into a pout and he groaned, again, when he saw them plump, red, and swollen.

"Teddy . . ." Victoire whimpered. She really wanted him to continue kissing her.

Teddy sighed and closed his eyes. He decided that it'd be easier to talk to her if he didn't have to see her bright blue eyes, soft red cheeks, and bright red lips.

"Victoire, we can't do this right now."

His eyes were still closed but he was intensely aware of the feel of Victoire's cheek against his neck. She started to lightly, and slowly kiss the skin of his neck.

He took a deep breath, "Vic . . . I said we can't do this right now."

She continued kissing his neck and didn't answer him. He sighed and opened his eyes, hoping to implore her with his gaze. It was a bad idea, if he thought the feel of her kissing his neck was messing with his mind, it was nothing compared to what watching her lips kiss his skin, was doing to him.

"Vic, not now."

Victoire removed her mouth from his neck. Teddy was about to say 'thank-you', for listening to him, when she attacked his mouth again with her own.

She knew that it was rude to pretty much shut him up with her mouth, but she couldn't really find it in herself to care as she moved her lips against his. She pressed her mouth against his hard because she knew that it was only a matter of time before Teddy's reason came back to him, and would make him stop kissing her. To her surprise, he kissed her just as hard as she was kissing him. He used force and opened her mouth to his. Victoire moaned when she tasted him; it was sweet, and fresh, and wholly Teddy.

Victoire was the first one to break the kiss, seeing as she was getting light headed from the lack of air. She leant her forehead against his as she gasped for breath.

Teddy was also panting as he puffed out, "Can't do this here."

Victoire's eyes lit up, as she panted, "Not here. But that's not a not now?"

Teddy looked at her confused, for the first time that night he was wondering just exactly how much alcohol she'd consumed, "What?"

Victoire took a minute to catch her breath before answering, "You said that we can't do this here. But earlier you were saying that we couldn't do this, period. So did you change your mind?"

Teddy's heart hammered at the same speed that his mind was whirling at. Earlier he had said that they couldn't do this. But just a second ago, he did say 'not here'. So which one did he want? He looked at Victoire, her beautiful and youthful face looked so hopeful. How was it that he made her look like that? How was it that her happiness right now, rested on him? He didn't want that. He didn't want to be in charge of her happiness. Because he knew that what would make her happy, and what he _should_ do, were two different things. He could make her happy by taking her to a place where they could be alone and have some alone time. Where they could be in a situation where she wasn't injured and forced into bed rest. Where they could talk without having Kingsley in the room to influence them, or where they could talk about anything other than the Tournament or her accidents.

But what he should do, what he should do was take her back to the Castle, and walk her to the portrait hole. She had fainted a few days ago in class, and had been forced into bed rest the past two days; she must have been exhausted from the long day. Also, he knew that she'd drank tonight, and he was pretty sure that she'd want to get as much sleep as she could to sleep of the alcohol. Especially since, it was Sunday night, and that the next day she had classes.

He was just about to open his mouth and tell her that he was going to walk her back to the Castle, when a sparkle of light caught his attention.

It was a cold November night, but for some reason Victoire's brown leather jacket was unbuttoned, and open to show her plain white button blouse. She had a thick gold and scarlet Gryffindor scarf wrapped a few times around her neck. Between the wool of her scarf and the fabric of her white blouse, Teddy saw a glittering piece of gold. He reached out to her and grabbed it. He pulled the gold chain gently until the locket came out from underneath her shirt.

Teddy looked at the carved face of the locket and smiled. He looked back up into Victoire's eyes, and told her what he'd decided, "We can't do this here. Everyone else from Hogwarts will be walking back this way and anyone would be able to find us."

Victoire's face fell, "Oh, well if that's how you feel-"

"Vic," Teddy started. She looked into his eyes and nodded when he said her name.

"That's not a 'no', Sweetheart. That is a 'not here'."

A smile was starting to play around the corner of her lips, "Really?"

"But we need to find a place to go, and nowhere in Hogwarts is a smart idea . . ."

"I've got it!" Teddy ended up cutting off his own train of thought with his idea.

"Where?" Victoire asked excitedly. If Teddy wasn't going to stop them, she wasn't going to question his motives.

"Just come with me," Teddy said. He set Victoire down on her feet, and grabbed her hand. It was dark, so she couldn't see very well where they were going, but it seemed as though Teddy didn't have the same problem. He dragged her off the road and onto the hard, frosted ground. After walking a few minutes, Victoire noticed a large building up ahead.

"Really?" Victoire asked as a blonde brow rose up her forehead. She wasn't going to complain about the place, but she was curious as to what made him think of it in the first place. Heck, _she_ should have thought of it a while ago when they decided that they needed some privacy.

Teddy stopped them when they were at the door, "Yes really."

The door creaked as he opened it. He quickly ushered Victoire in out of the cold weather, as she started to look around. She hadn't been there in a long time.

"Hmm, the Shrieking Shack. We haven't been here since you came looking for me in fifth year after the April Quidditch game against Ravenclaw," Victoire mused looking around at the surprisingly cozy interior.

The Shrieking Shack had been a desolate place when Victoire's Aunts and Uncles had gone to school. After the Battle of Hogwarts, when the school was being re-done, it was looked over yet again, even though the underground tunnel still connected it to the Hogwarts grounds. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, on a whim, decided to clean it up. They fixed the outside so that it wouldn't cave in from Scotland's sometimes-harsh weather, but they left it looking like the deteriorating building it was when they started. The inside however, had been completely re-done. They went through every room, cleaned them up, and re-did them so that they looked presentable and liveable.

Harry had first shown the kids that the Shrieking Shack had more to it, than what met the eye, when they were seven and nine. He had let them know, that when they got to school, that if they ever needed a quiet place to think, that, in spite of its' name, the Shrieking Shack was a good place to choose. They'd used it a few times over the years, but none stood out more than the time when Victoire was in her fifth year, and Teddy was in his seventh.

_It was April and it was right after they'd lost a Quidditch game to Ravenclaw. Victoire was feeling terrible because she had felt that it was all her fault, and had left to go to the Shrieking Shack for some alone time. Teddy, knowing that she'd felt that it was her fault, had the Marauder's Map and checked it for Victoire's dot. When he couldn't find it, he realized that she wasn't on the Hogwarts grounds. So, he started to check all of the places not on the map, or the grounds. He checked the room of requirement first, and when she wasn't there, he took the tunnel below the Whomping willow to the Shrieking Shack. He found her there silently crying. He sat down next to her and held her while she cried, when she finished he talked to her until he had convinced her to believe that it wasn't her fault that they'd lost the Quidditch game. And that he wasn't angry with her, either as her Captain or her best friend, for not catching the snitch first._

They walked farther into the shack and into the room that would be considered the 'sitting room'. The walls were decorated in dark crimson with gold accents, the couches, chairs, and love seat were all of black leather, and there was a large marble fireplace sitting across from the loveseat. The similarities between the room and the Gryffindor Common Room were striking, but not surprising. Not surprising considering that the room was fixed up by a group of proud Gryffindor alumni. Victoire pointed her wand at the fireplace, and a roaring fire appeared and began to quickly heat up the cool room.

Teddy took off his dark cloak and tossed it on a chair beside the black loveseat. He turned to Victoire and gestured for her to turn around so he could help her with her Muggle coat.

She ended up arching a blonde brow saucily, "You're not trying to undress me; are you Mr. Lupin?"

Teddy sighed and closed his eyes. It was hard to convince himself that _not _taking her directly back to the Castle was the right thing. Especially, when she said things like that.

Teddy had his eyes closed too long for Victoire's liking. She quickly placed her palms on his chest and pushed him back until he sat down on the loveseat. She moved her hands gently down his chest for a minute, because she enjoyed the feel of the hard muscles under his shirt. Teddy opened his eyes, slightly widely, when he felt her hands moving over (kind of molesting) his chest and stomach.

He patted the seat of the couch beside him and she gave him a coy smile.

He gave her his sexy smirk in return, "Are you going to join me on this couch?"

She shook her head, but was eying him hungrily.

An eyebrow rose on his forehead at her response, "Well, where do you plan to sit then?"

She looked him up and down before swiftly moving forward and sitting on his lap. She was straddling his lap; one leg on either side of his, which caused her head to be level with his own so. She was so close to him that their lips were barely half a foot away.

"How about here?" She asked flirtatiously as she placed her hands on his chest again. She ran them on a path from his abdomen, to his pecs, up to his shoulders, and then down around to caress his biceps, she ended at his elbows before doing the same trail backwards.

Teddy smirked at her, and brought his mouth closer to hers'. Their lips were a hairsbreadth away from touching, "I don't think you're close enough."

She smiled before closing her eyes. A sigh escaped her as she felt him close the barely-there distance between their mouths. His lips were soft, gentle, and loving as they wrapped and caressed hers. She enjoyed the feel of his lips around, between, and against hers, but she missed the passion they'd had a little while ago. Victoire wasn't going to be satisfied with a slow but sweet kiss when she knew that Teddy could give her a kiss so passionate that it would leave her mind spinning, her lungs breathless, and cause her to crave more. So she captured his bottom lip in between her own lips, and bit down on it gently. Teddy chuckled when he felt her try to roughen their kiss. He grabbed her blonde hair and tilted her head so that her mouth could be closer to his. Victoire grinned at his cooperation and timidly licked his bottom lip with her tongue. He moaned and opened his mouth even wider to allow her better access.

Victoire shifted on his lap and threw her arms around his neck. He placed one of his arms' around her waist and squeezed her tightly to him so that her body was flush against his, while his left hand threaded in Victoire's long blonde hair. _Her _fingers attacked his hair, running through it, and pulling it frequently. As their mouths and tongues battled and twisted with each other's, Teddy's hands left her head and waist and travelled to the front of her body.

His hands grabbed the front of the cool brown leather of her jacket. He separated his mouth from hers and moved it to her ear.

Teddy's breathing was harsh as he went to whisper into ear, "Aren't you hot in this?"

Victoire nodded her blonde head frantically before shifting her face so she could capture his amazing mouth again. As soon as she got close enough to feel the skin of his lips against hers, she forced his mouth open with hers and tangled her tongue with his. Teddy groaned and quickly peeled the tight brown leather coat off her body. He barely had her wrists out of the sleeves before her hands went back to his hair; twisting and pulling at it.

Victoire sighed at Teddy's taste and shivered when she felt his hands begin to slide down the back of her thin blouse. She felt his hands come to a stop at the waistband of her jeans where her shirt was tucked in. His rough hands pulled the light white fabric out of its confines and he slid his hands up her soft skin, underneath the cool fabric of her shirt. His long fingers trailed up the soft bumps of her spine, causing her to shiver again, even though Victoire knew that her body was nowhere close to cold. In fact, she felt like she was burning; both from the warmth of his rough hands on her skin, and the passion of their kiss.

Teddy broke the seal of their lips so he could suck in a breath, but Victoire didn't stop. Her lips descended down his jaw and neck, and they continued moving until she got to the collar of his shirt. Her mouth moved back up his neck, planting wet sucking kisses until she got to a spot just below his ear. She knew she'd hit the special spot when she felt Teddy squirm slightly under her lips and body. She sucked on the skin there and smirked when she heard Teddy moan. She let the skin go, licked it, and then blew a warm breath of air on it. Victoire grinned when she heard his quick gasp of air from the breath of air she'd blown onto his heated skin.

She moved her face away from his neck so she could look him in the eyes.

He stared back at her, a little wide-eyed and shocked, "Did you just _mark_ me?"

Victoire gave him a sultry smirk. Her lips were swollen from their kisses and her eyes were dark, "Yes."

"As in, you just gave me a hickey?" Teddy asked still shocked.

"Yes."

"Okay," Teddy began; he ran a hand through his hair distractedly. He ended up messing it up even more than Victoire had when she had been twisting and pulling it, "So . . . you can give me a hickey, but I can't give you one?"

Victoire ran a hand gently down his cheek. She knew that this had been a hard topic of discussion before, "Now, that wouldn't be fair of me. Would it?"

Teddy's sapphire blue eyes sparkled as he listened to her, "Wait are you saying-"

"Teddy, just shut up and give me a hickey already!" Victoire complained closing the distance between their mouths again. He was taking way too long to understand her motives for her liking.

Teddy's eyes were still slightly wide, but he wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. Especially, if Victoire was actually giving him permission to mark her. Teddy kept his mouth locked onto Victoire's as he moved his hands to her neck. He grabbed the warm wool of her gold and scarlet Gryffindor scarf and unwrapped it from around her neck. Victoire grabbed it from his hands when it was gone from her neck, and tossed it somewhere behind her. When she was done her fingers went right back to twisting the locks of his hair.

Teddy's lips travelled from her mouth, down the smooth column of her neck. He gave her slow sucking kisses until he got to the collar of her white blouse. The first few buttons of her shirt were unbuttoned, so he used his nose to nudge the collar of her shirt away from the base of her neck, and out of his way. On the side of her neck closest to her right clavicle, Teddy began his work. He sucked on her skin and she responded by clenching her fingers into his short hair. She tilted her head back involuntarily to give his mouth better access. Victoire sighed with longing when she felt Teddy remove his lips from her overheated skin. The following sigh was caught in her throat when she felt his tongue peek out and lick the area he'd been sucking on. A low moan started in the back of her throat and grew louder when she felt him blow a breath of warm air onto her oversensitive skin.

Victoire moved her head away from Teddy's. Her mind was spinning and the only thing she could focus on was the humongous self-satisfied smirk on Teddy's face. She moved her fingers to her neck where he'd been sucking and she could feel a bruise already starting.

"That's going to be hard to hide tomorrow," Teddy commented; his eyes locked on the mark he'd just given her.

Victoire gave him a breathtaking smile, "Maybe I don't want to hide it."

Teddy's eyes lit up, "Really?"

Victoire nodded. She felt shy all of a sudden. Did Teddy want her to cover it up? Was he worried about what would happen if her Uncles or if Kinsley saw it? Was he re-thinking his desire to mark her now that they'd a chance to try it out?

"Really," he answered back as he stared at her lovingly.

Teddy moved his hands up to cup her face. His thumbs stroked her cheekbones as he started deeply into her ocean blue eyes, "I love you."

Victoire smiled back sweetly and placed her hands over his, "I love you too."

* * *

So, I hope that you guys liked that . . . um, I'd love some reviews to tell me what you think because this is the first time I've wrote something in detail for these two, and I REALLY need to know what you thought . . .

You should all also review because I've started work again and my days are long and it would really make me smile :D

Anyway, thanks to everyone who favourited/subscribed/reviewed/read/and enjoyed my story. Oh, and thank you for eveyrone who wished congrats on my graduation! :)

Oh, and next week . . . well Kyle's going to take a tally to see how many people are hungover . . . amoung other things . . . :)

**Big THANK YOUS to:**

**Yellowtomato**, **charlbo333**, **LiveLovePotter**, **xXSectumsemperaXx**, **Amara**, **Feather and Green Ink**, **Anonymous**, **nickybby**, **Anonymous** (#2),** EsaRavenclaw**, **xSuperNovax**, **mazzy24**,** Teddy Lupin Forever**, **brilliant incandescence**, **Istillwishiwasaweasley**, **MuggleCreator**, **kwidditch**, **confusednikki24-7**, **TedandVic4ever**, **aleir29**, **imsuchanut**, **YukiLovestoWrite**,** Aurordreamer**, **wish right now x**, **LOSTcharlie-claireLOST**, **nifflerstorm17008**,** RoLouG**, and especially **Neferit-12**! :D


	49. Repercussions

**A/N:** Well here's the next chapter!

**Warning:** This chapter contians some cranky and hungover Gryffindors, a very quick yet still somewhat slow Cecilia, a . . . touching? . . . Xavier and Vic heart-to-heart, and just a pinch of an embarrassed Teddy :)

Check out my A/N at the bottom!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own this, however, I hope that you all appreciate my work ;)

* * *

**Repercussions**

"Ugh! Why did I let you get me drunk last night?"

Victoire laughed as she watched Sandra pretty much slam her head down on the table in the Common Room. It was about eight o'clock in the morning, and they were just waiting for everyone else to come down so that they could get breakfast. So far, only Victoire and Sandra were up. If you could consider Sandra awake. She had a mother of all hangovers; she was pale, she said she had a pounding headache, and she had already tossed her cookies once this morning.

"I didn't make you drink last night. If anything, it was your lecherous boyfriend who was throwing drinks down your throat," Victoire joked to her best mate.

Sandra smiled deviously, "Hmm, I do remember something like that."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Really? So what else do you remember?"

"I remember talking about Teddy's fine arse . . . unless of course that was a dream . . ." Sandra mused.

Victoire snorted, "No that actually did happen."

"Okay, good. It would have been weird if it was just a dream," Sandra mumbled.

Victoire heard footsteps on the stairs, and turned her head to see Ally walking down them. Her school robes looked impeccable as always, but her long dark hair was something else. She spotted Sandra and Victoire and sat down next to her cousin on the couch. She looked about as good as Sandra did.

"How you feelin' Ally?" Victoire asked her cousin jovially.

Ally groaned and clamped her hands over her ears, "Not so loud Victoire!"

Victoire laughed. She knew that it was mean, but it was somewhat funny to see her cousin dealing with her first hangover, "So, did you have fun last night?"

Ally tried to smile, even though it looked a bit like a grimace, "What I remember of the night was fun . . . although I don't remember much of what happened later in the evening . . ."

Victoire put on a poker face. She wanted to know exactly what Ally remembered before she said anything about what _she_ remembered from last night, "What's the last thing you remember Ally?"

"Um, I was sitting at the table with you and joking about how you can drink so much without it affecting you; something -based on how bright-eyed and bushy-tailed you seem today- I see you were using to your maximum advantage last night. Then I remember Xavier coming by and bringing us each a new drink. You took yours, but I told him that I wasn't sure if I wanted it because I'd already had four, and that I thought that it would push me over the edge."

"And after that?" Victoire hedged.

"That's all I remember, so that drink _must_ have pushed me over the edge," Ally concluded.

Victoire tried not to frown. _That _was all she remembered, _really?_

"So, you don't remember when I left you and Xavier alone?"

Ally scrunched her eyes, "You left us? When was that?"

Victoire bit her lip, "It's not important."

Sandra looked between the two of them confusedly, "Victoire came to see us, like a three hours before everyone left. So are you actually saying that you don't remember anything after that?"

Ally shook her head. Her black hair was tangled in a huge mess, and she didn't have the energy to brush her hair thoroughly when she'd woken up a few moments ago. Victoire took pity on her cousin and conjured up a hairbrush. She gestured for Ally to sit on the floor in front of her, and Victoire began to brush her hair.

Sandra eyed the sweet familial tableau oddly.

"I remember doing this for you when you were experiencing your first hangover. Only I'm pretty sure I was holding your hair while you threw up in the bushes at a party," Victoire said eying Sandra back.

Sandra's complexion tinged green, "Don't remind me about that. Godric that was one of the worst nights of my life. Magical folk make fun of Muggle alcohol, but trust me, that stuff burns coming up; and not purposely like with firewhiskey."

"But that's not important," Sandra continued, "What's important is the fact that Ally just told us that three hours of her night is unaccounted for! Didn't anybody ever tell you the rule Ally? One is fun, two should make you blue, but three means that there is a lot left to see!"

Ally looked at Sandra confused, "What are you talking about?"

Victoire laughed. She finished getting the knots out of Ally's hair, so she began to plait it, "Ignore it. Sandra made up some stupid rhyme. Having one hour of memory loss is okay, two's not too good, seeing as there is a lot that you could do in two hours that you could regret. But, three, three hours is bad because that's a time frame in which you could do a lot of destruction and or damage. Usually the type you only remember after seeing it the next morning."

Ally groaned, "Can't you guys just tell me what I did?"

Sandra shook her head, "Nuh, uh. I'm almost as hung over as you are. Besides, I'm pretty sure that for the majority of the three hours that you have unaccounted for, I was snogging Kyle."

Victoire nodded enthusiastically, "It's true. She was. They were pretty much making out at the table when I was sitting there."

Ally sighed, "Okay, well then you must remember what I did Vic!"

Victoire shook her head. She didn't want to lie to Ally, so she said all that she could that was the truth, "I spent some time at the bar with Chris. I was trying to fight off all of the lecherous men who were trying to sending me shots left, right, and centre."

Ally frowned, "Really? So you drank all that, but I'm the one who's hung over?"

"At least you didn't drink so much that you're still drunk twelve hours later," Kyle commented as he jumped off the last step of the staircase. He came over to the girls, kissed Sandra on the head, and took a seat next to her on the couch.

Ally looked at Kyle perplexed. He looked good. Like, not drunk or hung over kind of good. Almost _Victoire-level _good, "You don't look drunk or hung over Kyle."

Kyle smirked, "Well thank-you Ally. But that's because I'm not. I was probably the most sober one last night."

"That's because you have a wooden leg like Victoire. You could drink twice your weight in hard alcohol and still be a smooth talking Git," Sandra complained.

Kyle laughed and whispered something into her ear that made her face light up. Victoire rolled her eyes; if she thought her friends were disgustingly romantic when they were drunk, it was nothing compared to when they were sober.

"Victoire's insane drinking abilities aren't because she's got a wooden leg, it's genetic," Xavier said coming down the staircase. He walked over to where everyone was sitting down and stood by the edge of the couch with his hands in his pockets. His sandy-blonde hair was in disarray, his white shirt was a little creased, and his gold and scarlet tie was off centre. He looked like he'd slept in his school clothes, but his face and eyes were bright and clear. Translation: he didn't look hung over, but his messy attire showed that there was something wrong with him.

"If it's genetic, then why is Ally so hung over?" Sandra asked confused.

Kyle laughed and kissed his girlfriend on the side of the head, "Baby, are you sure that you're not still drunk?"

Sandra glared at him and he just buried his face in her hair.

Xavier crossed his arms and answered Sandra's question, "It's not genetic; as in the Weasley's can handle a lot of alcohol-"

"Actually, they can. Have you seen my uncles' drink?"

Xavier raised an eyebrow at Victoire, silently asking her if she was finished interrupting him. She nodded and mouthed the word 'sorry'.

"Anyway," Xavier continued, "Victoire's able to handle more alcohol than others because of the werewolf blood in her. You might remember from our studies a few years ago, that a werewolf metabolism makes it almost impossible for it to get inebriated from alcohol."

"But what does that have to do with Victoire?" Sandra asked.

Xavier rolled his eyes, "It's in the blood and the genes. Every person's metabolism is different, but your metabolism can be affected by your genetics. The werewolf genes from her dad's side, add in the fast metabolism from the Veela side that almost makes it impossible for her to gain weight, and you have a very skinny Victoire that can drink more than triple _my_ weight in alcohol without feeling the effects."

Victoire nodded, "Xavier's explanation is actually pretty accurate."

"Oh," Sandra said, "Why haven't you told me this before?"

Victoire laughed and Kyle squeezed his girlfriend into a tight hug, "You're definitely still intoxicated. Victoire tells you this every time we go drinking. And every time you complain that you get drunk quicker than her."

Sandra pouted and everyone else laughed. Well, everyone except Ally.

"Really guys! Do you have to be so loud? I have an absolutely pounding headache!"

Everyone laughed harder, except for Xavier. He wouldn't look in Ally's direction.

Victoire noticed this, but she didn't comment, "C'mon Ally. The cure to your first hang over is always a good meal afterwards."

Everyone stood up and walked out of the Common Room. Once they got to the Great Hall, they took seats around the Gryffindor table and started grabbing food. Ally, who was sitting beside Victoire, groaned and set her head down on the table.

"What's wrong Ally?" Victoire asked as she filled a bowl up with porridge.

Ally looked green, "I think I'm going to get sick. I though you said the cure to a hangover was to eat. If anything I feel worse."

Victoire laughed, "I didn't say eating was going to help. I said having a good meal afterwards would. You'll either feel hungry and eat -which will help because then you'll have something in your stomach- or the smell of the food will make you get sick, and you can get all of the alcohol out of your system."

Ally stared at Victoire wide-eyed, "Seriously? That's how it's supposed to help me?"

Victoire's mouth was filled with a tablespoon's worth of porridge, so she just nodded. Her cheeks were filled like a chipmunk. Ally groaned again.

Kyle laughed as he watched the girls, who all looked rather worse for wear. With the exception of Victoire of course, "So, what's the tally for who's actually vomited yet today? I'm guessing that Ally hasn't, seeing as she's still green."

Sandra raised her hand, even though her mouth was full of pancakes. Kyle eyed his girlfriend; he was baffled as to what she was doing.

Victoire translated his girlfriend's actions, "Sandy was sick this morning, so she's number one."

Kyle looked at his girlfriend, "Really? Because I'm pretty sure that you're still drunk."

Sandra pouted, "I told you I'M NOT DRUNK! And even if I was, I could still do better in _Arithmancy_ class today than you."

Kyle smiled in spite of his girlfriend's slam, "Yes, I'm sure you will. You always do better in that class than me. Did you know that _my_ Mum actually brags about your marks in that class, and ignores mine?"

Sandra giggled.

"So, is our tally only at one?" Kyle asked again.

I looked across from me at Xavier and raised an eyebrow in question. Xavier swallowed a mouthful of tea and answered, "Fine. I didn't get sick this morning, but I did get sick last night before we left."

"So we're at two then . . . we know I didn't. Ally hasn't . . . yet," Kyle said examining Ally's complexion. She wasn't green anymore, but she seemed to be taking a long time to finish her cup of tea, "What about Chris? Does anyone know how hung over he is today?"

"I haven't seen him yet today, but when he left last night, he seemed pretty good. Buzzed, but not drunk. He shouldn't be too bad today," Victoire answered.

Kyle nodded, "That leaves you Vic."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Of course I got sick Kyle. I've been sick three times already today! Like clockwork remember?"

Sandra considered Victoire, "But I don't remember you getting sick last night, and if you're like clockwork, you should have gotten sick, like at least five times."

Victoire grimaced, "Yeah, well apparently, alcohol is the one thing that doesn't actually make my body feel the urge to vomit acid or venom."

Ally looked at her cousin surprised, "Really?"

"Apparently, your Mum stopped by the Hospital Wing Saturday after the Quidditch game. She told me that if I were planning on drinking -which she was certain I would- that drinking the alcohol actually wouldn't make me be sick. I guess the burn of the alcohol, especially the firewhiskey, rather cleans my bloodstream while it's in it. I don't feel the need to get sick, to get rid of the venom, because the alcohol is killing the venom and replacing it with itself in my bloodstream," Victoire explained as she thought back to the words her Aunt Angelina had used when explaining.

All of her friends were quiet for a minute before Kyle spoke out, "So, drinking is actually good for your health in this case?"

Victoire laughed, she hadn't thought of it that way, "In a way yes. But then there are all the problems that come with drinking too much, along with the fact that letting the alcohol and the venom fight in my system is hard on it to begin with."

Victoire's friends nodded at her statement and they all went back into their breakfasts. Or, more Victoire, Kyle, and Sandra were all eating their breakfasts, whereas Ally and Xavier were sitting staring into their half-empty cups of tea. Ally picked up her teaspoon and started to stir her lukewarm tea. Her dark eyes skimmed her friends' faces at the table. She was glad that it sounded like they'd had fun last night, even if some of them were still feeling the effects. She just wished that she could remember more of her night. What she'd heard from Victoire, Sandra, and Kyle sounded nice . . .

Ally's dark eyes lit up as a thought came into her mind. She looked up and across from her to the top of Xavier's messy blonde head, "Xavier, did you have fun last night?"

Xavier's hazel eyes looked startled. Ally hadn't said anything directly to him yet that morning, and he was wondering if things would stay that way.

"Umm," He began as he fiddled with his cup and saucer, "Yeah. Last night was fun, good memories, good company . . ."

Ally smiled brightly at him, "Well, if you remember your night, do you think you could tell me what happened in mine?"

Xavier had picked the wrong time to try to finish off his cup of cool tea. He choked on the liquid as it went down his throat, and had to spend a few minutes clearing his throat before he tried to answer her.

He put on an expressionless poker face and locked eyes with Ally, "Are you saying you don't remember what happened last night?"

She shook her head, a few pieces of her black hair falling out of the braid Victoire had pulled her hair into after combing it through for her, "No. The last thing I remember is when I was sitting with Victoire, and you came back and brought us each a drink. At that point, I'd four drinks, and I thought that the new one you brought me would push me over the edge. Since I don't remember anything after that -and Victoire tells me that she left us soon after that to go sit with Kyle and Sandy- apparently that drink did do me in."

Xavier's eyes were wide as he watched Ally's expression minutely, "You don't remember anything after I bought you that drink?"

Ally shook her head again, "Nope. I've been trying to piece it together, and apparently you're the last person I remember being with. Mostly what I'm asking is if you remember me doing something really stupid that I should regret."

Xavier swallowed thickly and looked down into his now empty teacup, "No. I don't think you should be worried about regretting anything."

Ally nodded and smiled brightly, "Thank goodness, I was so worried."

Xavier nodded back woodenly, "Yeah . . ."

Victoire watched Ally and Xavier's exchange anxiously. What she got from it was that Ally didn't remember any of it, but based on the look on Xavier's face, he must have remembered enough. She was about to open her mouth and say something when Cecilia came running up to the group, and squeezed onto the bench beside her brother.

Even though Cecilia sat next to Xavier, she looked directly across the table to Victoire, "Where's Louis?"

A perfect blonde brow rose up high on Victoire's forehead, "Do I look like his keeper?"

Cecilia laughed, "No that would be Xavier since Louis is a Gryffindor. But seriously, has anyone seen him?"

Cecilia looked from Victoire, to Ally, then to Sandra, Kyle, and lastly Xavier. She narrowed her eyes at her brother when she saw him, "Xav, you're tie is absolutely horrible. Here, I'll help you."

And she reached out and grabbed a hold of his skewed tie. Xavier tried to stop his sister from touching his tie and his shirt collar, but she was too quick. She had a hold of it and was pulling on it to straighten it, "Really Xav, you've been tying a tie since you were, like eleven. And one night with some alcohol makes you resort to this, tsk, tsk- OH MY GODRIC!"

Xavier pulled himself and his tie away from his little sister's hand and tried to turn away from her. However, Cecilia Wood was a force to be reckoned with and she grabbed her brother's shirt collar again and tried to move it out of the way to see if what she thought she saw was true.

"Merlin Xavier! Is that, it that actually a hickey? Where would you have gotten a hickey from . . . oh Merlin's pants, _who_ would you have gotten this from?" Cecilia was practically yelling from her spot next to her brother.

Everyone within hearing distance twisted his or her head in Xavier's direction. Both Victoire and Ally's mouths were open, and Kyle (who was on Xavier's other side) grabbed his friend's collar to try to get a look for himself.

"Really? A hickey?" Kyle asked as he looked for the bruise.

Xavier slapped his friend's and his sister's hands away, but it was too late. The damage was done, and even from the distance Victoire sat away from him, she could see the galleon sized bruise that had developed at the base of Xavier's neck. He ended up buttoning up his collar, and fixing his tie in front of it, but by that time, everyone had seen it, even Ally and Sandra.

Xavier's face was red. He knew he had to say something before his sister asked him again about it, but in an even louder voice, "Yes, it's a hickey. But it's not a big deal people. Kyle and Sandy have been covered in hickeys before and you didn't react like this!"

"But Kyle and Sandra have been dating forever. You're a practically a monk, I didn't even think that you'd kissed a girl before!" Cecilia commented.

Xavier frowned at her, "Listen, it doesn't matter. People get drunk and make out with people all the time at parties!"

"Yeah but you're not a normal person Xavier!" Cecilia almost yelled.

Victoire started to break in before it got to loud, "Calm down Cecilia. Xavier is a grown man and he can kiss a girl without everyone making a big deal out of it."

Cecilia rolled her eyes, "I know that Vic. What I want to know is what girl was drunk enough to _want _to kiss him."

Xavier's face turned red and he tried to look everywhere but at someone's face. Cecilia poked him in the side, "C'mon Xav! I want to know. Who was it?"

Xavier shook his head, and Victoire came to his rescue once again, "Drop it Cecilia. Xavier's a gentlemen and he's not going to kiss and tell."

Cecilia sighed but conceded to Victoire's persuasions. She wasn't happy about it though, so she crossed her arms across her chest and pouted, "Fine. I won't ask anymore. But I am upset Vic. I thought you'd be on my side and want to know who it was . . . that is, unless you know who it was!"

Cecilia eyed Victoire specifically, "You know who it was, don't you?"

Victoire shook her head quickly, her blonde hair flying out around her in a mess, "Nope. But everyone here's tired or hung-over and it would probably be more entertaining to get back to this when we're all feeling better."

Cecilia nodded and started picking at the plate of toast in front of her. Victoire ended up getting her hair caught in her mouth when she had shaken her head at Cecilia. So she spit it out, collected all of her hair up in her hands, and placed it all over her front left shoulder and out of her way. She pulled her shirt collar away from her neck because she was getting hot, and went back to her almost-empty bowl of porridge.

Cecilia seemed to have fast eyes today, because she spotted something out of the ordinary with Victoire as soon as she moved her hair.

"OH MY GODRIC VIC! YOU HAVE A-" She was cut off my Xavier's hands as they shot up to cover her mouth.

The damage was done though, because Sandra and Ally's eyes went directly to where Cecilia had been pointing to; the base of Victoire's neck, near her right collarbone.

Sandra's eyes lit up, "Victoire! You have a hickey too!"

Victoire's face didn't go red, but her feet started to tap underneath the table, "Um, yeah. Yeah I do."

Cecilia licked Xavier's hands so that he would remove them from her mouth. When she was free to speak, she looked at Victoire, "What are the chances? You and Xav both have hickeys . . . Wait-"

Her eyes went wide and she glanced from Victoire to Xavier, then back to Victoire, "You guys didn't-"

It was Xavier and Victoire's turn for their eyes to go wide when they realized where her train of thought was going.

Victoire opened her mouth quickly, "Oh_ hell_ no Cecilia. _Don't_, you even entertain that thought. Mine and Xavier's . . . activities last night were not connected in anyway."

Xavier was nodding along with everything Victoire was saying. He couldn't find his voice, but he needed his sister to know that she was pairing him up with the wrong Weasley.

Cecilia looked at them skeptically, "Then maybe one of you wants to explain exactly who they got their hickey from."

"Are we really having this conversation?" Victoire asked trying to change the subject.

Sandra got tired of listening to them babble endlessly, so she decided to fill in some of the blanks, "Well, it's obvious that Victoire got her hickey from Ted. I even remember trying to explain to her last night why letting him give her a hickey would be a good idea, unless of course that was a dream also . . ."

Xavier looked from Sandra to Victoire oddly, "You took romance advice from Sandra?"

Victoire sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Looking back now however, I was probably too drunk to be listening to any crazy thing that Sandra said."

Cecilia looked from Victoire to Xavier one last time before saying, "Fine, I believe Vic. However that is one -most likely crazy- girl unaccounted for, who snogged Xav."

Victoire could tell that Xavier was getting tired of his sister's incessant questions, so she changed the subject, "Hey Cecilia, I think that's Louis over there at the back of the Great Hall."

Cecilia stood up so she could see where Victoire was pointing to better, "Where? I don't see him."

"He was with a group of girls from Beauxbatons, he might be blocked from view by them," Victoire answered back flippantly.

Cecilia's face went red with anger, she mumbled something about 'stupid-hormonal-teenaged-boys', and briskly walked away from the table without as much as saying goodbye.

Victoire laughed as she watched Cecilia pace away, "I love your sister Xavier."

Ally spoke for the first time since Cecilia joined them, "Yeah, everyone loves Cecilia. I'm going to go to class now." She grabbed her schoolbag and pretty much ran away.

Xavier looked at her empty spot with wide eyes; Victoire rolled her eyes at him, leaned over the table, and grabbed his ear.

"_Ouch!_ Vic what are you-"

"Follow me," She told him before spinning on her heel and walking out of the Great Hall.

She stopped walking when she got to the top of the stairs of the entrance hall, and leant against the wall, waiting for Xavier to get his butt over to where she was standing.

He stood in front of her and crossed his arms, "What do you-"

"Just shut up and listen to me," Victoire told him darkly.

"You're about to ask me what my issues are, and I'll tell you. Ally just walked away because she is upset that you have a hickey. She is upset that you have a hickey because she thinks that some floozy girl gave it to you, and that you like said girl. She is upset about this because _she _doesn't remember that _she_ was the one who was making out with you last night, or that _she_ gave you that hickey. She _did_ give you the hickey, right?"

Xavier frowned; it hurt him a little that Victoire thought that he'd make out with both Ally _and_ another random girl. Because of this, his voice was harsh when he answered her, "Of course it was Ally that gave it to me. Just because _she_ doesn't remember doesn't mean that _I_ don't!"

Victoire nodded. At least she could be certain of the fact that Ally was the only girl Xavier kissed last night, "Good. But back to the point, she doesn't remember last night. Ergo, she's jealous. She's jealous because she doesn't know that you like her, even though you were supposed to tell her last night!"

"That's the thing Vic! I did tell her last night! I was so worried that I thought I was going to be sick, but then I told her, and I kissed her and it was amazing! But she doesn't remember!" Xavier whispered harshly.

Victoire sighed, "Then tell her again, only this time make sure that there's less to no alcohol in her system!"

"But what if she doesn't like me?"

Victoire gave Xavier a look that said 'I-can't-believe-how-much-of-an-idiot-you-are', "I'd say a good indication that she likes you is the fact that she was okay with you having your tongue down her throat for half of last night."

Xavier grabbed a handful of his sandy-blonde hair, "But she was drunk! She might have said that she liked me back and she might have snogged me when she was inebriated, that doesn't necessarily mean that she likes me when she's sober."

Victoire's eyes blazed and she took a step closer to Xavier. Her advancement made them become so close that their noses touched, "Get you head out of the sand Xavier. You told her that you liked her _once_, so saying it once more should be a breeze. If you need alcohol in your system to be brave enough to do it, then go ahead drink some liquid courage, just make sure that Ally's sober when you tell her so _she_ can remember it this time."

Xavier's expression went from angry to defeated, "But when can I do that? Yesterday was a perfect opportunity, and it's wasted."

Victoire sighed and took a step back so they could have their own personal space again, "The Yule Ball will be on Christmas Eve. If you haven't got the guts to tell her how you feel, you could at least ask her to the ball, and then work your way up to it."

Xavier nodded, that was actually a good idea, "Okay. I think I'll do that."

"Good."

" . . ."

" . . ."

"So," Xavier started, "You let Ted give you a hickey last night?"

* * *

"Ted, can I talk to you for a minute?" Harry asked his godson as he scanned the sheets of parchment in front of him.

Teddy, who was going over some paperwork, left his stuff on the table and walked over to where Harry was standing.

Harry smiled at him, but then turned to Auror McKenny, who was beside him, "These are done, but they still need to be signed by the Aurors who were on duty."

Auror McKenny nodded and walked away to do what Harry asked of him. After he was gone, Harry walked toward the back of the room to the larger office. Teddy followed him. He closed the door behind him and sat down in a chair in front of the desk that Harry had taken a seat behind.

Harry smiled evilly at his godson, "So I heard you had to re-schedule your visit with Andromeda.

Teddy nodded, "Yes, Jilly needed me to back her up on her assignment yesterday."

Harry nodded; he knew this, "I also heard that things were pretty calm last night. Victoire didn't end up in the Hospital Wing so that must have meant that the night went well . . ."

Teddy nodded again.

"However, I'm still wondering if she got injured somehow."

"What? She was fine last night, nothing happened," Teddy said quickly. He didn't understand why Harry would think that something happened to Victoire.

"I know nothing happened to her. But Ron was confused. You see, he saw her earlier today, and he thought he saw a bruise on her neck. He was worried that she'd injured it somehow, and wanted to know if you'd told me anything about how she could have gotten it," Harry's green eyes were sparkling with mischief.

Teddy swallowed thickly, "Um . . . it's not an injury . . ."

Harry smirked, "That's what I figured. But Ron didn't understand what I was getting at when I tried to explain it to him, so I thought it'd be best to double check with you."

Teddy looked down at his hands in his lap, and tried his hardest not to allow his cheeks -or his hair- to turn red, "Yeah, well, she's fine."

"So you're taking care of her then?" Harry asked smiling wickedly.

Teddy grinned a little; he wasn't used to having these talks with his godfather. Especially not about his godfather's favourite niece, "I didn't hear any complaints, from her that is . . . the opposite really."

Harry looked like he was done with him, so Teddy stood up to leave, he'd gotten to the door, and was just about to open it, when he heard Harry accost him thusly, "If Kingsley asks though, something hit her neck and bruised it."

* * *

Ally, Xav, why can't you two just be on the same page!

Anyway, I hope y'all liked it. I know that the Teddy part was very tiny. No, I didn't run out of space or ideas, I just wanted to keep it short and sweet. I know that I didn't need to add it, but I was missing me some Harry and Teddy heart-touching moments, and I thought that I could throw one in there . . . even if it wasn't very heart touching . . .

Thanks to everyone who reviewed/favourited/subscribed, or just anyone who's out there enjoying my story and characters :)

Next week: One of my absolute **FAVOURITE** chapters! I've had the idea for a long time and I was so happy that I was able to get to writing it, and that it turned out better than I hoped :D. Also, a little heads up. In the next chapter we'll be moving forward about two weeks. The day that this chapter ^ is set in is the first day of December (I gave Ally November 30th as her birthday), so the next chapter will ba a bit more Christamassy. So, crank up the holiday tunes if you want to get in the mood for the next chapter and we'll have a bit of 'Christams in July' :)

An especially big **_THANK-YOU_ **to to everyone who reviewed because I've gotton 500+ reviews now! *Eyes wide and mind boggled*:

**darling-everythingsonfire-x**, **VeelaBot**, **Aurordreamer**, **lucypotter13**, **mellypotter1223**, **Istillwishiwasaweasley**, **Anonymous**, **LiveLovePotter**, **xXSectumsemperaXx**, **TedandVic4ever**, **nifflerstorm17008**, **RoLouG**, **Teddy Lupin Forever**, **wish right now x**, **Anonymous** (#2), **MuggleCreator**, **Blueandgreen91**, **Anonymous** (#3), **EsaRavenclaw**, **brilliant incandescence**, and especially **Neferit-12** :)

**Neferit-12**: Sorry that I wasn't able to answer your last PM before the new chapter came out :( I won't go into to much detail here, but thatks so much again for the message, congradulations (for what you mentioned on the bottom :), I did read through this and I feel as though I used less commas . . . ;D, and if there was something specific from your last PM that I haven't asnwered back yet, please just ask me again in your next one for this chapter :) If you decide to grace me with another amazing review that is . . . ;)


	50. Mistletoe Mishaps

A/N: Well here's the new chapter, as I said before it is one of my favourites because I have had inspiration for this one for forever and I just needed to wait for the right part in the timeline to do this.

So, those of you out there (I know they're are a few of you who've mentioned this) who like Xavier so much that you'd start a fan club, well after this chapter I'd like to know if you are also considering starting one for Kyle too? ;)

Oh, also, if there are any mistakes in this, I did edit and upload this while watching Jeopardy (BEST SHOW EVER!) so if you see any mistakes you can blame my BIG obsession for trivia and my (only slightly) smaller obsession for Alex Tribec (Fun fact: He's a fellow Canadian! :) Oh, and read my A/N at the bottom of the chappie pelease!

Disclaimer:I do not own any of this . . . well, I actually did come up with every situation in this chapter and half the characters . . . okay, well anything specifically JKR isn't mine . . .

* * *

**Mistletoe Mishaps**

The day after Ally's birthday (which Victoire took to naming the day of 'Hickey Havoc'), was also the first day of December. Since that exciting day, two weeks had flown by for the student's of Hogwarts, and the Yule Ball (which was always held on Christmas Eve) was to be in ten days time. To get ready for Christmas, the Professors, Prefects, and Heads had spent three days decorating the castle. Xavier had been assigned to set up the everlasting icicles with Professor Cooke. They started out putting them up rather efficiently -but after four hours of boredom- they began an epic sword fight with icicles as their weapon of choice. They had gained quite a crowd as they battled in the Great Hall, but then they were shut down when Professor Linkwell showed up to check on their progress. Professor Linkwell ended up yelling at Xavier, and would have given Professor Cooke detention for starting the fight if he hadn't been a teacher (not that he didn't try). After their reprimand, Xavier and Professor Cooke agreed to keep their icicle battles on the down low. So they just decided to try to catch the other unawares instead. Prime times for their battles were in-between classes, or during classes once, Xavier had finished all of his in-class work.

Victoire, the other Professors, and the other Prefects and Heads, had enjoyed Xavier and Professor Cooke's show, so they were upset when they had been shut down. After a stop was put to their public war, everyone worked for several more dreary hours per Professor Linkwell's specifics. That was, until Lucy Weasley and Colton Knott (the two of whom were assigned to work together) discovered that the holly they'd been hanging around the school, was actually poison ivy disguised to look like holly. The two figured this out after they began to itch uncontrollably, and noticed that red spots showed up where ever they touched the holly. They were both yelling and crying (Victoire and Xavier were snickering to each other when they saw Colton in tears because the spots were ruining his complexion), and effectively gave everyone else a reason to stop for the night, they all decide to finish it the next. Colton and Lucy were escorted by Professor Linkwell to the Hospital Wing, and everyone else was left to go back to their Common rooms. Victoire and the two prefects from Gryffindor laughed as they walked behind Xavier and Professor Cooke in the halls. The two allowed their pride to get in the way, and were continuing their icicle battle in the halls. They stopped when they got to Professor Cooke's classroom, and planned to continue with their battle, and to see who won, the next day.

The next day as they continued with their decorating, and Xavier and Professor Cooke tried to catch each other unawares, Victoire was stuck using magical paints on the windows of the Great Hall. Paired with none other than the pompous Head Boy of Ravenclaw himself, Austin Pennington. Victoire was doing a good job of ignoring his inane comments and statements as she focused on painting cartoon penguins and polar bears that would come to life and dance and sing Christmas carols once she sprayed them with the magical top coat. She _was_ doing a good job that was, until Hagrid brought in the gigantic twelve Christmas trees. Everyone on the ground of the Great Hall was allowed to stop what they were doing so that they could help set up and decorate the trees, but since Victoire and Austin weren't actually on the ground, (they were using a magical lift to get to the tall windows near the roof of the Hall), they weren't allowed to help. With everyone else busy and not paying attention to them, Austin thought that he had a perfect chance to try to hit on Victoire again. What he didn't expect was that she'd gotten so tired of his arrogance and pretentiousness that she had decided that it was her turn to _hit_ him. In the face. With her bucket of paint.

After that incident, Professor McGonagall convinced Professor Linkwell that it was probably smart if they were to cease to put Miss Weasley and Mr Pennington together for decorating tasks.

The last day of decorating went much more smoothly since Victoire wasn't paired with Austin. Although at one point, she had been rather close to wanting to strangle her cousin Lucy with the silver garland Xavier and Shelly Alexander had been hanging on the trees. Lucy and Colton's poison ivy rashes had cleared up after a night spent in the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey and a tube of patented 'Itch Be Gone' ointment, but they were nowhere close to finding out who was responsible for changing the foliage. (They had all assumed that James and Freddie had had a hand in it to begin with, but then they found out from Professor Flitwick that they had been in detention with him during the time of the accident, because of an incident from the day before when they covered the entirety of Flitwick's desk in wrapping paper.)

Victoire and Lucy had been paired together because of Professor Linkwell's theory that Victoire wouldn't try to maim or injury a family member, a statement that made both Xavier and Professor Cooke chuckle at when they heard it. The two Weasley's had been in-charge of setting up the faeries lights, throughout the trees' branches. A job, which isn't usually fraught with danger, unless you had Peeves the Poltergeist trying to 'help' you. And by 'help', of course Peeves meant that he was going to try not to get caught as he attempted to stick the faeries with pins to try to get them angry, in hope that they'd set the trees on fire. He stopped though, when Victoire held out her hand and showed him that if she wanted to light the trees -or him- on fire that she could easily do that with her own Veela powers. After that little display, Peeves left them alone, and the group was able to finish setting up the Castle for Christmas.

The only thing that they hadn't set up was the enchanted mistletoe, but the students weren't allowed to touch that. Mistletoe was Professor Longbottom's job and his job only. It made it more fun when none of the students knew where it was going to be on the first day. Before they went back to their Common Room, Victoire and Xavier tried to wheedle the whereabouts of the mistletoe from Professor Longbottom. He told them that he wasn't going to tell them where he was going to put it; that they should go to bed, and just keep their eyes open the next day.

Victoire stopped at the foot of the staircase to the girl's dormitories and turned to look at Xavier, he still had a grin on his face, as of tonight, he was beating Professor Cooke in their icicle battle. Of course, that could all change tomorrow, but as of today Xavier was feeling pretty good.

"I can't believe Professor Longbottom won't tell us where the mistletoe will be," Xavier said conversationally. It had been hard work but they had enjoyed decorating the Castle, and neither wanted the night to end.

Victoire smirked at him, "I still can't believe that you haven't asked Ally to the Yule Ball yet."

Xavier's bright expression darkened, "Do you have to bring that up every time we're alone? This is the ninth time you've mentioned it this week."

"Yes, well you told me two weeks ago that you were going to ask her, and you haven't yet, so I think I'm allowed to bug you about it until you do. Especially since it's ten days away," Victoire reasoned as she crossed her arms against her chest.

Xavier raised a brow at her, "Well you're the Tri Wizard Champion, who's your date?"

Victoire floundered for a comment but she couldn't come up with one.

"Exactly, by tradition you need one, I technically don't."

She looked at her feet with a sad expression, "I know I can't take Teddy. 'Cause that would totally ruin our cover, but it still feels like I'm cheating on him anytime I so much as think about asking another guy."

Xavier nodded understandingly. He knew that Victoire had it worse than him. _He _just needed the guts to ask Ally to the Ball. _She_ needed the guts to ask some guy who would probably try to molester her all night, while her actual boyfriend was stuck watching.

"Let's make a deal Vic; once I ask Ally to the Ball, you'll have to work on finding yourself a date, deal?"

Victoire smiled and held out her hand, "Deal."

* * *

The next morning Kyle, Sandra, Xavier, and Ally got a good laugh as they watched Victoire attempt to dodge all of the overeager males who'd stationed themselves around the mistletoe sprigs in the various classrooms, halls, and corridors throughout the Castle. Kyle and Sandra were still laughing their heads off when they broke away from the group to get to their Transfiguration class, Victoire and Xavier, who had Charms, continued to walk with Ally, since her History of Magic class was on the way to theirs. Well, Xavier and Ally were walking; Victoire was dodging imagined pieces of magical mistletoe.

"Vic, I don't think Professor Longbottom made the mistletoe invisible, it would sort of defeat the purpose," Ally laughed as she watched her cousin's odd skip/jog down the corridor.

Victoire stopped where she was, a few feet ahead of Ally and Xavier, and turned around to face her favourite cousin. She placed her hand against her heart, and sighed dramatically, "Ally! How dare you make fun of my methods? I wouldn't have to be doing this anyway if Neville had just told me last night where he was going to put the mistletoe."

"Maybe he didn't tell you because he was afraid that you'd switch it with poison ivy," Xavier said.

Victoire turned her glare to him and placed her hands on her hips, "For the last time Xavier, I didn't have anything to do with that! I wouldn't do something like that to Lucy."

"But you would try to strangle her with garland?"

"Hey," Victoire defended herself, "She made fun of my faerie light placing techniques!"

Ally giggled but Xavier continued, "Okay, you wouldn't try to contaminate Lucy with poison ivy, but what about Colton?"

"I'm sure Knott deserved whatever was given to him," Victoire answered evenly.

Ally giggled again and Xavier smiled as he saw the laughter on her face. Victoire was about to make some excuse to leave -it seemed like as good an opportunity as ever for Xavier to ask Ally to the Yule Ball- when the three of them heard their names being called from behind Victoire. Victoire turned around, and Ally and Xavier followed her gaze, to see Cecilia and Louis jogging through the hall to get to them. They seemed like they had important news to share.

Cecilia and Louis were two metres away from them, when they suddenly stopped running. They tried to pick up their feet, but it was as if they were glued to the floor. Confusion was on their faces, until they both snapped their heads up to look above them.

Victoire burst into laughter when the looks of understanding, and horror crossed their faces.

"What are you laughing at Vic?" Ally asked. Both she and Xavier didn't understand what was so funny, nor did they understand why Cecilia and Louis both suddenly looked so pale.

Victoire pointed to a spot above Cecilia and Louis' heads and explained, "Mistletoe."

Xavier and Ally joined Victoire in her laughter when they spotted the small sprig of green foliage and white berries above the third-year's heads. It seemed that they ended up walking (more like running) right into one of Professor Longbottom's mistletoe traps.

Victoire, Xavier, and Ally, walked over to the two Gryffindors' whose feet were glued to the floor by the magical plant.

"Um, some help would be nice!" Cecilia said acerbically.

Xavier and Victoire just laughed harder, while Ally answered for them, "Sorry Cecilia, sorry Louis, there's not much the three of us can do, we're all related to you, there's no way any of us can kiss you to get you out of it."

Cecilia's face fell and Xavier laughed even harder at his sister's discomfort. His face was a nice shade of red by then; it matched the red stripes in his Gryffindor tie.

Louis sighed and ran a hand through his shiny golden blonde hair, "Well, I guess I'll just have to kiss you then Cee-Cee."

When Louis leaned in to kiss Cecilia on the cheek, he didn't expect the hard slap to the face she gave him.

"How dare you Louis! You can't just go 'huh, I'm stuck I might as well kiss the closest girl'! Don't you know how to be a gentleman?" Cecilia yelled at him in frustration.

Louis rubbed his cheek; she could put quite a bit of power behind her slaps, "What do you expect us to do then Cecilia? We're going to be stuck here until someone comes and kisses us and we need to get to _Herbology_!"

"Godric! You're such a -such a blind Gryffindor!" Cecilia shouted before grabbing the front of Louis' robes, pulling him close to her, and placing a hard kiss on his lips.

Louis' eyes widened comically, and Cecilia's lips left his almost as soon as they'd gotten there. With the spell broken, she quickly paced away. Leaving the stunned 'oblivious-teenaged-boy' that she was grumbling about, behind her as she eventually left their line of sight.

It took Louis a full three minutes before he realized what just happened. Before he realized that Cecilia had just kissed him on the lips to break the spell; even when all she needed to do was kiss his cheek. It took him another minute after he realized that the enchantment was broken, to figure out that he should follow her.

"Cecilia! Wait up!" Louis yelled as he ran after the tiny brunette.

The only of age Gryffindors left in the hall were all staring wide-eyed at the spot where the third years had been stuck.

"Did I just see what I thought I saw?" Victoire asked.

Ally nodded while Xavier spoke, "Um, if what you thought you saw was my little sister kissing your little brother, then yes. We did just see that."

"Wow," Victoire said, "Cecilia's got some guts."

Xavier frowned at Victoire's hidden message but didn't acknowledge it, "Well this is perfect. I guess Cee-Cee will get you as a sister in law some day after all Vic."

Victoire laughed, "That's if Louis doesn't do something to piss her off between now and the next eight years."

"I think Cecilia can handle him," Ally said smiling slightly.

The three Gryffindors shook their heads as they thought back to what they had just seen, and began to continue their trip down the corridor to their classes.

* * *

"I hate mistletoe," Auror-in-training Jilly Donaldson said to her partner as they patrolled the halls of the Castle. The Prefects, Heads, and Professors had decorated Hogwarts the night before, and as a result of that, they'd already had over a dozen mistletoe related mishaps. They weren't even halfway through the day yet.

Teddy didn't even bother to look at Jilly when she released her statement. He knew without looking what kind of expression she'd have on her face, "Don't be too mean, it's one of Professor Longbottom's favourite parts of holiday decorating. It's a tradition; he won't even tell the students who help decorate where he's going to put it."

Jilly narrowed her eyes at Teddy, she didn't like his defence of mistletoe, "C'mon Ted, mistletoe is more trouble than it's worth. You can't tell me that you've had more good experiences with it then bad."

Teddy grimaced as he thought back some of the . . . less desirable circumstances he'd been in with mistletoe. Most of them he'd only narrowly escaped because Victoire ended up walking by and would kiss him on the cheek and release him from the enchantment. She usually got there before the girl he'd been stuck with had a chance to get her claws into him.

"I've had a couple good times also," Teddy defended.

Jilly rolled her eyes, "You were one of those kids who grew up with enchanted mistletoe in their homes, weren't you?"

Teddy grinned, "Not a Christmas went by since I turned seven that Victoire and I didn't get stuck under the mistletoe together."

Jilly eyed him peculiarly, "Really? Victoire Weasley?"

"Yeah. She hates it also but that's only because she's like a magnet for that stuff. I was the only one at the Christmas get-togethers that wasn't actually related to her," he answered reminiscing, "That was actually how my first kiss happened."

"Under the mistletoe? Where? Here at school?" Jilly asked.

"No, at Harry's house. When I was seven; with Victoire. I just said that," Teddy responded.

Jilly stopped where she was and raised an eyebrow at him, "Victoire was your first kiss, when you were seven?"

Teddy shrugged, "George thought that if you were going to decorate, that you should do it properly. And apparently properly, means using mistletoe that won't release you unless you kiss the other person on the mouth."

Jilly whistled, "Wow, isn't that an awkward memory for you to have now that you're both grown up?"

Teddy put on a poker face and gave a nonchalant shrug, "Not really, we were just kids. And like I said, it's kind of a tradition now. We always end up under the mistletoe together, somehow. Last Christmas I spent a total of two hours at the family get-together and in that amount of time we ended up getting caught in the mistletoe, twice; even though Victoire tries to be vigilant about avoiding it."

Jilly nodded, she was about to say something else, when she was distracted by the sound of someone running down the corridor. As the footsteps became louder, Ally Weasley came into view running around the nearest corner. She was a few metres away from Teddy and Jilly when she came to a stop. The worried look on her faced brightened a bit, but it didn't change enough to look like relief.

"Teddy, thank Merlin. We've got a problem."

Teddy's expression turned professional, "What's wrong Ally?"

Ally looked over her shoulder. She apparently heard something that caused more worry to spread across her face, "It's Victoire and Xavier."

Jilly's face turned professional also, "What about them?"

"Um, it'd probably be easier to show you."

With that, Ally turned on her heel and jogged back around the corridor she'd just come around. Teddy and Jilly looked at each other before following her. They ran down the corridor a ways until they came to quite a large grouping of students. They slipped through the crowd until Ally came to a stop. Jilly and Teddy came to a stop when Ally did; they were close enough to see the problem now. Standing in the middle of the ring of students were two people.

One, a red-faced Xavier Wood, the other, a very pissed off looking Victoire Weasley; the former was staring helplessly at the sprig of red and green mistletoe hanging above their heads, the later was busy giving a scorching glare to one Austin Pennington. As said Ravenclaw stood close to the spot, the two Gryffindors were stuck in, arguing heatedly with Victoire.

Teddy's mouth opened in surprise as his eyes took in the scene, "What's going on Ally?"

Ally sighed, "We were walking to class when Victoire and Xavier suddenly stopped. I was confused until I realized that they were stuck under a piece of mistletoe. Vic laughed it off at first and gave Xavier a kiss on the cheek, but they still couldn't move. She looked up again, and realized that it was red mistletoe, and that she'd have to kiss Xavier on the lips if they wanted to get out of it. There was no way she was going to do that, and there was no way that Xavier was going to kiss her back. So they were stuck there waiting for other people to come by, when Pennington showed up."

Teddy's eyes flashed to where Pennington stood arguing with Victoire. He was holding a hand to his face, and even Teddy vantage point, even he could see the bright red mark across his cheek.

Ally continued, "He told her that Professor McGonagall wanted to see her right away, but she couldn't move because she was stuck under the mistletoe. Then he said something degrading, tried to kiss her, but she slapped him before he could. Now they're arguing, they've drawn a crowd, Victoire needs to go see McGonagall, and Xavier and Victoire still refuse to kiss each other."

Teddy tried to hold back a smirk as a plan quickly formulated in his mind. It would work out very well for all parties involved; he just needed to get rid of the crowd of students.

He turned to Jilly, "We need to all of these students to get to class."

Jilly nodded, she didn't know what he was thinking, but getting rid of the audience was a good first step. They easily shooed the crowd of students away, some argued, but then Jilly gave them a chilling glare, and they complied with her wishes. The crowd had cleared quickly, so quickly that Victoire and Pennington hadn't noticed the change, seeing as they were still arguing with each other. Well, Pennington was arguing, Victoire had slipped into French and was pretty much just swearing at him.

Teddy looked to Ally, "Would you mind helping me for a minute Ally?"

"Sure . . ." Ally answered slowly. She was a little confused, but she followed Teddy when he grabbed her arm lightly, and began dragging her over to the two trapped Gryffindors.

"What are you doing Ted?" Jilly asked as he began to walk away.

Teddy turned his head, and shot her a wink before turning back around and saying to her, "Tradition continues."

Teddy paced up to the two Gryffindor heads. He let go of Ally's arm, and gently pushed her into Xavier's chest. When he let go of Ally, he grabbed Victoire's arm, turned her to face him (She had been looking the other way because she was arguing with Pennington) and pressed his mouth against hers.

Victoire's eyes widened comically as her brother's had earlier. She didn't even have time to kiss Teddy back before he removed his lips, placed his hand on the small of her back, and guided her away from the mistletoe.

He smirked at the surprised look that was still on her face and said, "So, I heard you've got to go see McGonagall?"

She nodded her head woodenly.

"I'll walk you there." Victoire nodded again and let Teddy lead her down the corridor. Austin Pennington had watched the scene with his mouth open wide, but when he saw Victoire start to walk away, he remembered that he was supposed to go with her to see Professor McGonagall.

Jilly rolled her eyes as Teddy walked away. She sighed and turned around to finish her patrol duty.

With both of the Aurors, Victoire, and Pennington gone, Ally and Xavier were left alone under the mistletoe. They'd been looking at each other with wide eyes since Teddy had pushed Ally into Xavier's arms. He'd caught her as she fell towards him, and his arms wrapped around her waist of their own accord. For Ally's part, her hands -which had been sitting on Xavier's chest- traveled up his broad shoulders, and folded behind his neck. They seemed to do that without either conscious thought or effort.

They were looking into each other's eyes, hazel into brown, but neither wanted to make the first move.

"Um . . ." Xavier tried. He didn't know what to say. He knew that now would be a perfect time to either A.) Confess his feelings for Ally, and/or B.) Ask Ally to go with him to the Yule Ball. But he couldn't find it in himself to spill his heart again. He knew that she hadn't drank any alcohol yet today, but he was still irrationally afraid that he'd confess again, only to have her forget, again.

Ally looked shyly away from Xavier's eyes and swallowed thickly, "Uh, we can always just wait for some other people to come around-"

Xavier's face paled at the thought of someone else kissing her.

"I mean, I _know _that there's a girl in this Castle that you actually _want_ to kiss seeing as um . . . you know, from my birthday . . .," Ally was babbling now. She'd always thought that Xavier just didn't like anyone. But then he had a hickey on his neck the day after her birthday party, and she wasn't sure what to think anymore.

Xavier's eyes widened when he realized that she thought that he wanted to kiss someone else, "Ally, there is no other girl in this Castle that I would rather kiss."

Ally's eyes snapped back up to his face, "But, what about uh . . . what about the night of my party? I mean I don't remember it, but there must have been some girl there that you wanted to kiss. I mean you did let a girl give you a . . . you did let her mark you."

Ally's face was red, she was so embarrassed to have to be talking about the . . . incident . . . she really hoped that Xavier couldn't hear the jealousy in her voice.

The corners of Xavier's lips curled infinitesimally, _did she sound jealous?_

"Ally, you really don't remember anything from your birthday, do you?" he asked her.

Her eyes narrowed angrily; she was fed up with people (mostly Victoire) asking her that, "No, you know what, I don't remember anything. I don't remember anything because I was completely intoxicated by that _stupid_ fifth drink that I let _your stupid_ _voice_ and _stupid eyes _talk me into! I don't remember anything, and it's probably a good thing that I don't. Seeing that _stupid_ hickey on your neck the next day was enough to make me want to vomit from just the sight of it, it had nothing to do with the alcohol. But I'm glad that I don't remember that night because I think I would have vomited, right then and there, if I did remember seeing some-some heartless Tart sitting on your lap and eating your face off!"

She tried to move out of his arms, she knew that the mistletoe wasn't going to let her leave, but she still wanted to put as much distance between herself and Xavier as the mistletoe would allow. _Xavier _wouldn't allow it however, he had Ally in his arms, and he didn't want to let her go. He moved his hand and gently placed his palm against her cheek, forcing her to look at him.

"I love you," Xavier blurted out.

Ally's eyes widened, "What?"

Xavier swallowed thickly, _here comes the rejection, _"Ally, I love you. You've -you've been stuck in my mind for months now, I-I can't think straight when you're around, and when you're not around all I do is think about you. Hell, Victoire's come close to telling you all this herself several times over the last little while. The only reason she didn't was because she thought it'd be more fun to watch me torture myself as I tried to get the guts to tell you how I feel."

"You- you love me?" Ally asked quietly.

Xavier nodded, "Yes."

"And you've felt this way for months?"

"Yes."

"Wow. Cecilia's right, Gryffindor boys are oblivious," Ally laughed before stretching up on her tiptoes, and pulling Xavier's head close to hers.

Their lips weren't touching; Ally had left enough room to give Xavier the option to kiss her back, or to move away. She shouldn't have worried about Xavier rejecting her kiss. In a flash, Xavier's lips had captured both Ally's lips, and the gasp that left her mouth from his quick movement. As his lips caressed hers, Ally's hands moved from the nape of Xavier's neck, to the thick dark blonde hair that covered his head. One of Xavier's hands stayed at her waist, while the other moved up her back to twist into her dark hair, he used his hold on her head to tilt it so they could get a better angle on their kiss.

Ally's mouth broke their kiss as she moved her lips away to get some air. Her head was spinning; she couldn't believe that she just kissed Xavier Wood. She couldn't believe that he just said he loved her.

Her brown eyes widened as she suddenly realized her mistake. She looked sweetly at Xavier, "I love you too."

Xavier grinned and placed a kiss on her temple, "That's good to hear. And see? You're not a heartless tart."

Ally's eyebrows scrunched up on her forehead, "Who called me a heartless tart?"

"You did," Xavier answered as he laughed and ran his fingers through her hair. He used to pretend to vomit when he saw Kyle doing this with Sandra, but he felt very different now that it was he who was doing it. And with Ally too.

Ally's confused face turned even more perplexed and Xavier decided to let her in on his joke, "Ally. You might not remember anything from your birthday, but I do. And what I distinctly remember is you flirting with me when I gave you that drink."

She blushed, but was still puzzled, "Okay, but what does that have to do with me being a heartless tart, or I guess since you said that I'm not heartless, just a tart?"

"You flirted with me, and I flirted back, and all of the alcohol, made me confess my feelings to you. On your birthday," Xavier explained.

"But I don't remember it?" Ally asked.

Xavier nodded, "No, apparently you don't."

Ally frowned; she knew that it would take a lot of courage for Xavier to tell her how he felt about her. Even though she may have been sloshed, he apparently wasn't, so it must have really hurt his ego that she didn't remember it.

"But what about that hickey you had? You told me that you loved me and then you went and snogged some other girl?"

Xavier sighed exasperatedly, he was trying to push her towards finding out what really happened, as opposed to actually coming out and telling her himself, "Ally, I told you that I loved you, and then you kissed me. And then we continued to kiss, and one thing led to another and I ended up with a hickey."

Ally's eyes widened and her hands came up to cover her open mouth, "Are you saying that_ I_ gave you the hickey?"

Xavier smirked, "Yes. Yes you did."

Her face was as red as her little brother's hair, "Oh my Merlin. We snogged on my birthday, I gave you a hickey, and I don't remember any of it?"

"Apparently not."

Ally was shocked, she didn't think her subconscious could betray her like that, "Dammit! I can't believe we actually made out and I can't remember it! What is wrong with me?"

Xavier laughed, "Are you saying that you wished you remembered it now?"

"That depends, were you a good kisser? Or was it just one of those sloppy drunken things?"

"I thought it was good but I don't have very much experience," Xavier replied, "however, we could always try to jog your memory by trying to re-enact what happened that night."

Ally blinked, "Are you trying to seduce me?"

"That depends . . . is it working?" Xavier asked giving her his best 'roughish Scotsman' smile. It always worked for his Dad when he was in trouble with his Mum.

"Why do you have to be so darn cute?" Ally pouted.

Xavier's smile widened, "It's in the genes."

"I hate your parents."

"No, you love them."

"Yes, well now I hate them."

"Just shut up and let me kiss you again."

Ally blushed and leaned in until her lips touched his again.

They stood there kissing under the mistletoe, forgetting why they were standing there in the first place, and forgetting that they'd already broken its' spell.

* * *

"I hate you Colton," Victoire told Knott sternly as she glared at the side of his blonde head.

Colton turned and glared at the Gryffindor Head, "Well it's good that we can agree on something Victoire-"

"So you hate yourself too?" Victoire asked, grinning a little.

Colton glared at her and crossed his arms, "No. I was going to say that I hate you too, but at the moment I hate Professor Longbottom even more."

Victoire sighed. Usually she would defend Professor Longbottom, but she rather had to agree with Colton on this one, _if he weren't so obsessed with putting up his stupid mistletoe, Colton and I would not be in this mess!_

"I really wish now that I allowed Peeves to burn the box of mistletoe like he wanted when he got his hands on it last night," Victoire lamented.

Colton grumbled something else and tried to take a little step farther away from Victoire. He couldn't move. His feet were stuck. His feet were stuck well. He looked above their heads and glared at the sprig of red mistletoe. It would have been bad enough if they'd walked into the traditional white one, where only a kiss on the cheek was needed. That would have done enough damage to their prides. But _red_ mistletoe? The only option they had was to kiss each other on the lips, and they weren't going to do that.

"Stupid mistletoe, how is this stuff even allowed in our school? It can't be sanitary to go around and force students to kiss other random students on the lips. It's the twenty-first century for gosh sakes! If someone wanted to kiss someone specific, they could without the aid of some charmed piece of holiday foliage!"

Victoire rolled her eyes as Colton continued to complain. He really wasn't enjoying this turn of fate. It was bad enough that they had just spent two hours together with Professor McGonagall. They were going through the rules and protocol about the Yule Ball, that she wanted them to tell the students in their houses in preparation for the big event. After they finished they were released to go back to class. The class they would have had would have been A History of Magic, and they had that class together. So they walked quietly together through the corridors to get to their class. Halfway through their walk they both ended up stopping suddenly. Colton was confused at first, but Victoire's mind spun to the worst situation automatically. She had looked up above their heads and pretty much screamed aloud in frustration when she saw the red mistletoe.

"Just shut up already Colton. We're stuck in this situation until someone else comes along. So I'd rather not have to listen to you complain, seeing as we don't know how long we're going to be stuck here," Victoire told him.

He frowned at her but withheld from saying anything else.

They waited for another fifteen minutes before the heard a bell ring throughout the Castle. It was signalling the end of the period. On cue, the doors to the classrooms opened and students began to pour out into the hallway. The first few passed right by them, but soon enough they had an audience. No one in the audience offered to help, but they did stand there in hope that they would get a good show. Victoire Weasley and Colton Knott stuck underneath a sprig of mistletoe promised to be too good a chance of entertainment to miss.

Victoire frowned at every person who stood around watching them, until two familiar figures detached themselves from the crowd and walked forward to the two stuck Heads.

Kyle and Sandra had matching smirks on their face when they stopped a metre away from Victoire and Colton.

"Well doesn't this look cozy?" Kyle teased.

Victoire glared at him, "So help me Kyle if you don't get me out of this mess-"

"Is that usually how you convince guys to kiss you Vic? I'm surprised that it works."

Victoire exhaled loudly, "Kyle, please. This is not a time to joke."

"I disagree, this is a rather funny situation," Kyle shot back.

"Sandra!" Victoire implored to her best mate.

Sandra giggled but then whispered something into her boyfriend's ear. Something that caused a humongous smile to break across Kyle's face, "Really?"

Sandra blushed as she nodded her head.

Kyle's grin said that he was satisfied with whatever promise Sandra had made to him, "Okay. Sounds like a deal. Besides, I'm about to kiss Victoire Weasley, this should be fun."

Victoire narrowed her eyes at him. She was almost completely certain that he was about to make her regret asking him for help. She briefly wondered if kissing Colton would be worse than whatever Kyle was about to do, but then shook off the thought. Kyle might be a bit over dramatic, but it would be better than kissing a snake.

As if he read her mind, Kyle made his move very dramatic. He stalked forward, grabbed Victoire, and pushed her into a low dip. As she moved backwards, and down, Kyle's arms kept her from falling completely and he planted a hard kiss on her surprised mouth. In the same move, he brought her back up, removed his lips from hers, and gave her a huge boyish grin. Victoire waited until she had stepped away from the mistletoe to smack his arm.

"What was that for?" Kyle complained.

"You tried to put your tongue in my mouth!"

Kyle shrugged, "You can't just go halfway Vic."

Victoire stared at him in shock, and then walked over to Sandra, "You can't tell me that you were okay with that."

The blush that graced Sandra's cheeks was so red that it matched the scarlet and gold Gryffindor crest on her school robes, "Actually, that was sort of the deal I made with him."

"You told him he could put his tongue in my mouth?" Victoire asked surprised.

Sandra's shrug was a copy of Kyle's, "It's not like he's going to try it again Vic. Besides, he had to get something out of coming to your rescue. If that was Xavier he would have left you there with no other choice but to kiss Colton."

Victoire shook her head in amazement. Sometimes Kyle and Sandra's relationship _really_ confused her.

Kyle was still grinning as he came over to the two girls and threw his arm over his girlfriend's shoulders, he kissed the top of her head lovingly, "Are we good to go?"

Colton spoke up at that moment, still stuck under the mistletoe, "You can't just leave me here!"

Victoire looked at Sandra and Kyle. Mostly Sandra, who frowned, "Oh Hell no. I'd rather Kyle kiss you again Vic, than go kiss Colton."

Colton scoffed from where he was still stuck, "Why would I want a muggleborn to kiss me? I'd rather kiss the Giant Squid."

"Good," Sandra jeered back, "I'll go get him for you."

Kyle sighed and grabbed his girlfriend's wrist. She would actually go the Giant Squid it if it meant getting to Colton Knott.

"Sandy, please?" Kyle tried.

Sandra eyed her boyfriend cautiously, "Please what Kyle? You can't actually be asking me to go _kiss_ Colton Knott."

"Well . . ." Kyle trailed off. He felt bad about leaving Colton in this predicament. He always felt bad when his friend's did something to bug Colton. Not that Kyle thought that Colton didn't deserve it a lot of the time, because he knew that he did. There was always just a little part of him that felt bad when he saw how cold and mean Colton how grown up to be. When they were younger, before they went to Hogwarts, Kyle and Colton were actually best friends. Despite their parent's different outlooks on what the term 'pureblood' actually meant, Kyle and Colton had grown up together, and had thought that they were going to be best friends their entire lives. They thought going to Hogwarts was just going to be the next step in their adventure. But then Colton was placed into Slytherin, making his traditionalist parents proud. And Kyle was placed into Gryffindor making his liberal and unprejudiced parents proud -seeing as neither of them had actually attended Hogwarts when they were younger. Kyle met Xavier and Chris on the first night in the Gryffindor boys' dorm room, and thought that he could have new friends and keep Colton as his best friend. Colton had seen things differently. Kyle had been placed in Gryffindor, so that automatically made him a blood traitor. It made it even worse when he started to socialize with the Weasleys, the Woods, and when he started dating a muggleborn. Colton had broken off their friendship and never looked back. Yet Kyle's compassionate nature made him sympathize that what seemed like such a good friendship, could disappear as if it never happened.

Sandra sighed and pleaded with her boyfriend, "Kyle I can't do that. I'm sure he'd rather _you_ kiss him than a muggleborn like me."

Kyle's face turned into a considering expression. He walked slowly up to Colton and then gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

"Wha-What is wrong with you Kyle?" Colton yelled as he wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his robe.

Kyle was doing the same, "I was trying to break the spell for you, you Prat."

Colton glared at Kyle but stepped away from the mistletoe, "You Gryffindors are psychotic."

Kyle winked at him before Colton placed a disgusted look on his face, turned on his heel, and stormed away from his Gryffindor rescuer.

Kyle shook his head sadly and walked back to where his girlfriend and her best friend were staring at him with the exact same expressions; wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Kyle wrapped one arm around Sandra's waist and threw one arm around Victoire's shoulders. He pulled them into a tight group hug. When he let Victoire go, he wrapped his other arm around his girlfriend's waist and placed his head on her shoulder.

Sandra ran a hand through his short hair; she knew that he was joking, mostly, with Colton. But she also knew that Kyle regretted how things ended up with Colton when they were younger, she knew that he felt that it had been eight years of good friendship down the drain.

Victoire placed her hand on Kyle's arm. The motion was supposed to be comforting, but she also smiled wickedly at him, "Please, please, please tell me that you didn't try to stick your tongue into his mouth too."

Kyle smirked, "Why? Jealous because you thought you were special?"

"No, I'm worried that you caught a disease and that you're going to give it to your girlfriend."

* * *

There we go a nice long Chapter for you, so because it was filled with lots of stuff, I thought I'd make a little list of things I'll just comment on.

1.) Some of the decor I found on the HP Lexicon, but most of it I made up. My inspiration was one of my high school's traditions. Every year the gr.12 girls get to sleep over at the school close to Christmas (usually on a Thursday night) and we decorate a lot of the school. In our school's Atrium me have these HUGE floor to ceiling windows that we paint, and the area enclosing the front office is all glass windows, so we paint those too. Hence Vic and Pennington's painting the windows, it's one of the best decor jobs, and one of the most artistic and fun.

The 'icicle battle' is an amped up version of mine and my friends' epic 'empty wrapping paper tube' (you guys know what I mean?) battle that we did that night, after we'd finished most of the decorating and had used up all of the wrapping paper. James and Freddie covering Prof. Flitwick's entire desk in wrapping paper is actually spot on though. One of my friends' and mine's favourite teachers asked us if we could decorate his classroom for him (we're not supposed to go into classrooms and do that, but whatever) and I jokingly said to my friends that we should wrap his entire desk in wrapping paper. I'm actually the most sane of my friends . . . so needless to say, they took me seriously and that's what we did. He loved it, and the top layer of paper on the surface of his desk was this shiny stuff that threw off spots of light when light hit it, so he kept it on for a good month and a bit :)

2.) Well Cecilia and Louis didn't seem to end on the best note . . . are any of you wondering what's going to happen to them?

3.) Yeah! Ally and Xavier have seem to finally got it together. All it took was some magical mistletoe, and a devious Teddy

4.) Poor Vic, she really hasn't been having good luck with the mistletoe. And sadly, I can't say that this is the last of it . . . Mwah, ha, ha (I haven't done an evil laugh in a while so I thought that I'd throw one in)

5.) Kyle kissing Colton: This was actually also inspired by my schools decorating party/sleepover. Two of my friends had found a piece of green foliage (don't know from where) that_ looked_ like mistletoe, even though it wasn't (we go to a Catholic school so we didn't expect there to be any). They hung it up anyway, just for fun. The next day they both stood under it, with their lips close together, and gave their phones to one of the girl's boyfriend so that he could take a picture of it. He did, but then he ran over to them and bumped their heads together so that their lips would actually touch, and so that they would 'kiss'. He thought it was funny until I reminded all three of them that the one girl had had mono for the last three months, and that we weren't sure if she was still contagious or not. The other girl didn't get sick, but boy did she yell at her boyfriend for his stupid move!

Yeah, so I hoped you like. Next week we'll here from Cecilia and Louis, there will actually be a lot more Vic/Kyle banter (it just comes so natural when I go to write it) and it looks like Vic and Xav have to see who's held up their end of the deal so far . . .

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed/favourited/followed/read/enjoyed my story! Especially to those who review, it always makes my day!

**An especially BIG Thank-You to:**

**marmar8089**, **keshavi.j**, **Aurordreamer**, **Lauren Rees**, **wish right now x**, **RoLouG**, **xSuperNovax**, **Guest**, **xXSectumsemperaXx**, **YukiLovestoWrite**, **brilliant incandescence**, **AccioTeddyLupin**, **Teddy Lupin Forever**, **LiveLovePotter**, and an especially big THANKS to **Neferit-12**!

**marmar8089**: I'm going to try to keep it regular. Hopefully I'll get enough backlogged to keep me going.

**keshavi.j**: How was this?

**wish right now x**: Not this, week, but *spoiler alert* the next :)

**xSuperNovax**: How was Cecilia's reaction in this one?

**xXSectumsemperaXx**: Do you still think she's awesome? If not, wait for the next chapter!

**YukiLovestoWrite**: Aww, well thank you! And I'll keep writing if you keep reviewing :D

**LiveLovePotter**: Do you consider this well? ;)


	51. Dates for the Ball

**A/N:** Hey guys! Updating early today. Usually you guys will squeeze an early chap out of me because of your awesome reviews! But that's not the case this time (although your reviews were fantastic). This time it's an early update because I'm going to be busy tomrrow night, and the next, and the next, and I didn't want to update late for all of you lovely people out there. I'm working tomorrow, but after that I'm leaving for a four day camping trip with my friends. We're doing it as sort of a 'last Hurrah' beofre all going our perspective ways in September, since we all just graduated from high school. It should be lots of fun, but I didn't want you guys to miss out just because I'm going to be busy. Although, since I'm being nice, it would be nice to see that there were alot of reviews in my inbox for when I come home . . . _(*wink*wink*)_

Anyway, this chapter includes one more mistletoe scene, more witticisims from Kyle, and some big siblings stepping in to knock some sense into their little siblings. Oh, and ignore my spelling and grammar mistakes the best you can. I've only edited this chapter twice so far, because I wanted it up before I left.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of this . . . :)

Enjoy!

* * *

**Dates for the Ball**

Victoire had a hard time keeping the immense grin off her face. She should be upset right now, especially since it seemed like everyone was taking turns making fun of her. But she wasn't. It seemed as though everything was going well today. Despite the horrible luck she'd been having with the magical mistletoe, she'd had a pretty good day; she yelled at Pennington in French, she kissed Teddy, albeit briefly since he was just breaking the spell of the mistletoe, and when she kissed Teddy, it was right in front of Pennington, so that was fun. She had the privilege of watching Colton be kissed by Kyle, which was entertaining after her initial concern about Kyle catching a virus was done away with, and the best part, Ally and Xavier had gotten together!

Or, Victoire was assuming that they'd hashed everything out, seeing as they were sitting next to each other, and holding hands _on top_ of the table. They were cute Victoire thought, if in a slightly disgusting way. If Sandra and Kyle had died, Victoire would have seriously thought that Xavier and Ally were channeling their spirits. But since they were sitting across from Victoire, who sat beside the two newest lovebirds, she just assumed that once they declared that they loved each other that their prides and dignities had been thrown out the window. After all, there was no other appropriate explanation for why Xavier would be sitting there whispering (what Victoire had good reason to assume were) gooey romantic words in Ally's ear, just to see her blush. Especially since he always used to make fun of Kyle and Sandra when they did that.

"Vic, did kissing Kyle give you lockjaw or something? You're table manners are worse than they've ever been," Xavier commented when he stopped whispering Godric only knows what, into Ally's ear.

Victoire rolled her eyes as everyone laughed, "First, back off my table manners, I'm hungry! And second, it's not funny! I could have lived my whole life without knowing what Kyle's lips felt like."

"Vic, I thought you understood that that was a onetime thing. I'm sorry, I mean you're very pretty and all, and I'm sure when you're not on the spot that you're a good kisser -or I'd hope that you are for Ted's sake- but I'm not interested. I've got a girlfriend who I'm in love with, and you just don't do it for me," Kyle told Victoire seriously, as he used his knife and fork to cut the piece of Sheppard's pie on his plate.

Victoire picked at her plate of the same dish, until she found a large piece of celery, which she proceeded to throw at Kyle, "You're such a Git Kyle. And I'll have you know that my kissing is just fine thank-you!"

Kyle laughed at her, "It's okay Vic. Ted's an older, more mature man, maybe he doesn't care that kissing you is like kissing a piece of cardboard."

Victoire drew in a quick breath of air, "I'm really regretting asking you to kiss me right now. At this point I'd rather have kissed a snake."

"I don't think you could have gotten Colton to kiss you, even if no one else came along," Kyle replied.

Victoire took a sip of her drink and answered, "I wasn't talking about Colton. I would rather have kissed an actual snake. Heck, even the Basilisk would have been better than you."

"Just keep telling yourself that Vic. Whatever you need to do to get over my loss."

Victoire gave her best mate's boyfriend a heated glare and went back to her food. Supper was almost done when Xavier broached a subject, which Victoire had hoped that he would forget.

He smiled at Victoire almost evilly, "Now Vic, I do believe that there's a bet that we need to address tonight."

"Now what bet would that be Xavier?" Victoire asked playing dumb.

"The bet where if I asked Ally to the Yule Ball -which I did and beyond- then you would have to figure out who you're going to ask. After all, you are a Champion and the Ball is ten days away," Xavier answered.

Victoire swallowed thickly and set her utensils down, "I-I don't know if I can do this Xavier. I don't even know where to start."

Sandra reached across the table and placed her hand on Victoire's, "Hey, we can help you Vic. When we finish dinner, we can go to the Common Room and make a list of people that you can ask. The five of us can narrow it down until you figure out whom you should ask. The good thing about being you is that whoever you ask is pretty much guaranteed to say yes."

Victoire smiled, "Really?"

"Yup," Kyle said as everyone else nodded his or her head, "Although I'm going to suggest that you ask Pennington right now, because I for one would love to see Ted beat him up."

Victoire sighed; Kyle said that to try to make her laugh but he hit the nail on the head. Victoire was worried about whom to pick, because she knew none of them would be Teddy, and because she didn't want to pick someone who would give Teddy a reason to . . . make a scene . . .

"And that's exactly why I can't ask Pennington Kyle. Well . . . that and because I'd rather not spend the night dodging some Prat's wandering hands," Victoire explained.

"I'm afraid Vic, that you'll be dodging wandering hands no matter who you pick to be your date," Ally said sadly.

Victoire nodded in sad acknowledgement of Ally's comment. They finished eating, and everybody moved to stand up. Both Ally and Victoire, who were sitting next to each other, had just gotten to their feet when they were pushed back down. They looked at each and tried to stand up again. Again, they were pushed back down by some invisible force. After the third time Ally and Victoire had tried to stand up, they gave up.

"What is going on?" Ally asked exasperatedly as she sat back down on the bench.

Victoire joined her and frowned, "I have no idea, the only thing that could make us stay in one place would be mistletoe, but that's not possible-"

Both Victoire and Ally's eyes widened and they looked up, above their heads. It was there. A sprig of red and green mistletoe, hanging above Victoire and Ally's heads.

Victoire looked at Ally and swallowed thickly, "I love you and all Ally, but I'm not kissing you."

Ally's face scrunched up, "Thank goodness. Who knows what kind of cooties Kyle gave you."

"I resent that!" Kyle called in between his fits of laughter; both he and Sandra had found it hilarious that Victoire and Ally were stuck under the mistletoe together.

"Oh, and Vic, don't worry, I'm not planning on kissing you again. But I will go get you the Basilisk for you to kiss," Kyle said folding his arms across his chest.

Victoire groaned; _why is it only me whose comments come back to bite them in the arse?_

"Or, you could go get Teddy?" Victoire suggested. She wasn't sure what she'd do if Kyle actually did go get him, but figuring out how to deal with that sounded slightly better than letting some other random person kiss her.

Kyle shook his head, "Nah, that'd be mean to Ted, and I like him. At least with the Basilisk it probably deserves the torture of having you kiss it."

Victoire frowned at him, "Not helpful Kyle."

Kyle shrugged his shoulders. Victoire turned to Ally to see what she would suggest about how they should get out of their situation, when she noticed that Ally was no longer _in_ the situation.

It seemed that while Victoire and Kyle had been bantering, Xavier had decided to rescue his fair damsel from her distress. He was presently sitting on the bench next to Ally, snogging her senseless. A chaste kiss for a few seconds would have been cute, but Xavier and Ally were really putting on a show for everyone. Victoire decided that she'd seen enough, and cleared her throat when she saw Ally's hands leave the table and reach up to entwine themselves in Xavier's hair. She knew if she let _that_ continue, they wouldn't be leaving the Great Hall for _some time_.

"_A-hem_."

Ally and Xavier broke apart when they heard her, even though neither had the decency to look flustered at being caught snogging in front of their friends.

"Well, thank you for stopping, but I'm still stuck here under the mistletoe, and nobody wants to kiss me," Victoire complained.

Ally turned to look at Xavier and he sighed, "Fine." He sat down next to Victoire on the bench and kissed her lightly on the lips. When he moved his lips away, both he and Victoire had matching disgusted looking expressions on their faces.

Kyle was laughing again, and Victoire stood up and raised an eyebrow at him, "At least Xavier didn't have to kiss Colton Knott."

Kyle shrugged, "Would it bug you Vic if I told you that Colton was a better kisser than you?"

Victoire's hands flew up to cover her ears and she made a face, "La la la la la la la, I can't hear you!"

She removed her hands from her head when all she heard from her friends was their laughter. Victoire glanced around the room and her eyes narrowed when she saw Professor Longbottom standing near the back entrance of the Hall, he was talking to Professor Cooke. Victoire was still upset with how she kept being caught under the mistletoe, so she decided to go to Professor Longbottom and complain.

"Hello Miss Weasley," Professor Longbottom said jovially.

Victoire glared at him, "I hate you." Usually she wouldn't be so candid with Neville when there were other Professors present. However, seeing as his companion it was Professor Cooke -the man who had spent the better part of the last four days having a frowned-upon icicle battle with Xavier- she didn't really care if he'd reprimand her for her behaviour.

Professor Longbottom smirked, "Get caught under some mistletoe today did you Victoire?"

She folded her arms in front of her chest, "It's not funny. I almost had to kiss Colton Knott, and the only reason I didn't was because Kyle Line came by and kissed me instead."

Neville chuckled, "Calm down Victoire, it's not like you had to kiss several different boys on the lips."

Victoire looked at Neville oddly, "Um, yes I did, because the stupid mistletoe I kept getting stuck under was the stupid red ones."

Neville's facial expression went from one of teasing to surprise, "Victoire, I never put up any of the red mistletoe because it could turn inappropriate quickly, I only put up the traditional white ones."

"Well then how come I've been caught under three different strands of red mistletoe?"

"I'm not sure. Has anyone else you know been caught under red mistletoe today?"

Victoire thought back, the only other people she'd seen caught under red mistletoe, were the people caught with her. Cecilia and Louis were caught under mistletoe, but she remembered that it was white, because Louis had been moving in to kiss Cecilia's cheek before she slapped him. And she remembered Xavier and her being surprised when Cecilia kissed Louis on the mouth because she didn't need to, to break the spell.

"Well, not that I recall . . ." Victoire answered.

"Well, I know I didn't put up any red mistletoe. But that doesn't mean that someone else didn't," Professor Longbottom said.

"But who would put up red mistletoe that would just make _me_ become stuck . . .?" The answer came to Victoire before she finished her question. Her head whipped around. She inspected the Gryffindor table of the Great Hall very closely until she saw two boys sitting at a bench close to where she was standing with Professor Longbottom. They stood out because they were laughing their heads off.

Victoire glared at the two twelve-year-olds and then turned back to Professor Longbottom, "Well thank you for your help Professor Longbottom, but I've got to go and kill two of my cousins right now."

Professor Longbottom and Professor Cooke were laughing as she left them and started towards James and Fred.

* * *

"I think that was just a tad bit overdramatic Vic," Xavier chastised her as they sat down at a rectangular table that was pushed up against the wall on the far side of the Common Room. Sandra and Kyle sat on one of the longer sides, Xavier and Ally on the other across from them. Victoire sat on the shorter side in between both couples, directly facing the windows.

Victoire shrugged, "They deserved it."

Fred and James had tried to make a run for it when they saw Victoire coming after them in the Great Hall, but she'd been able to catch up to them. Once she'd scared a confession out of them -where they admitted that they charmed a piece of red mistletoe to follow Victoire around all day- she went about making them understand that they were never to do so again. She didn't tell her friends exactly what she'd said to the two, but she led them to believe that she had some sort of horrible blackmail on them that she'd tell their parents about if they tried to prank her with mistletoe again.

"Okay, well we're going to go past Victoire's fantastic blackmail skills, and focus on getting her a date for the Yule Ball . . . which is ten days away," Sandra said.

Kyle snorted, "If you want to get Vic a date you'll probably need her fantastic blackmail skills."

Victoire shot him a glare; he'd definitely lowered himself on her 'favourite people list' with all of the stunts he'd pulled today, "Very funny Kyle. But seriously, how am I going to do this?"

Ally could tell that Victoire was getting frustrated and she moved her hand across the table to place it on her cousin's hand, "How about this Vic, Sandra and Kyle will work as a team, and Xavier and I can work as a team. We'll start with a list of all the students at Hogwarts, and take out descriptors as you say, until we each have a list of guys -as per your descriptions- that you can pick from."

Victoire nodded her head, "That should work."

Xavier's eyes lit up, "And I know where we can find a list of everyone in Hogwarts."

He waved his wand and three very large rolls of parchment appeared in front of him, "Alright. So are we only going to focus on Hogwarts as of now? Or do you want to keep people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang in the running?"

Victoire thought about it. If she was having trouble thinking up of a person form Hogwarts to ask, there was no way she'd be able to come up with someone from the other schools, "Just Hogwarts."

Xavier nodded and moved the two, slightly smaller, rolls of parchment away from him. Both he and Victoire were given lists of every student in Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang, because they we're both Heads. Professor McGonagall wanted them to have lists of everyone in case they ever needed to take some form of attendance, or keep track of certain people.

Xavier pointed his wand at the larger sheet of rolled parchment that contained all of the names of every person who attended Hogwarts, and mumbled, "_Geminio_."

The spell caused another roll of parchment, identical to the first, to appear. Xavier gave the roll to Sandra and Kyle and looked towards Victoire, "Alright, first adjustment, I assume that you only want male names on this list?"

Victoire nodded. Both Xavier and Kyle waved their wands, and the roll of parchment shorted by half the original length.

"Okay, now age wise?" Xavier asked.

Victoire bit her lip, "I know it sounds kind of snobby, but I don't want someone younger than seventeen, even if they are in sixth-year. It would just seem weird that I'd be seventeen and my date would be younger."

Xavier and Kyle nodded and made the necessary adjustments to their lists, they shortened again. Now both were left with a list about a metre and a half long.

"Next?" Ally asked.

"Take away anyone who is in Slytherin, or on an opposing Quidditch team. There is no Slytherin I know that I'd like to date, or that Colton would even allow. Plus, Xavier would kill me if I dated someone from an opposing team."

Kyle and Xavier made the changes; the list became a little smaller.

"Now, take Pennington off the list right now," Victoire said looking specifically at Kyle, "And any of his creepy friends."

Both boys complied.

"Okay, now this is going to take a bit of scanning work for you guys. Take off anyone on the list who has tried to give me an inappropriate or degrading pick up line slash advance on me in the past three years."

Kyle and Sandra, and Ally and Xavier, took several minutes going down the lists and manually scratching off names. When they were finished both lists were only about twenty-five centimetres long.

"Good, now the last thing, take off anybody who is in a relationship at present, or who wouldn't be able to understand that this date would be a onetime deal."

They complied, but Kyle rolled his eyes when he gave Victoire his list for her to look at.

"You know that doesn't leave you many options," he told her.

She sighed, "I know."

She looked at Kyle's list and frowned, "Really? This list is blank Kyle."

"Well you kind of asked for the impossible Vic. If you actually wanted some names, you'd do better to take out the part about leaving out any guy who is in a relationship at present," Kyle told her.

Victoire groaned, "I'm not stealing some girl's boyfriend just so I can have a date to the Yule Ball."

"Think logically Vic. Not everybody who is in some sort of relationship at present is actually in a committed boyfriend/girlfriend relationship."

"He has a point, if you wanted a casual date that wasn't going to get hung up on you, someone who is in a casual relationship might work," Xavier reasoned. He hadn't given Victoire his list yet, because he wanted her to have more choices than what was available on his list. If she changed her specifications, he could give her a few more choices.

"Fine," Victoire said pulling her fingers through her hair, "Put back in guys who are in a relationship right now. I can take out the committed ones later. But keep the other part. I don't want someone who's going to stalk me, or expect something more at the end of the night."

Kyle frowned again, but waved his wand over the list. Xavier and Ally were taking a bit longer, so Kyle gave Victoire his list first.

She looked it over and frowned again, she shot Kyle an 'I-can't-believe-you-look', "Kyle, you and Xavier are the only guys on this list."

He nodded, "Yes, we'll we're the only guys, according to your specifications, that would fit."

"How so?"

"We're the only ones who wouldn't want something more at the end of the night."

Victoire sighed, placed Kyle's list down, and looked at Xavier and Ally, "Please tell me you have more people than you and Kyle."

Xavier scanned the list and smiled sheepishly, "While Kyle and I might be on the top of this list, there are one or two more, to my discretion, which would fit."

Victoire looked at Xavier's list, along with him and Kyle; there were half a dozen names on the list. She scanned them briefly, "No, Slytherin that you missed, no, oh Hell no -he tried to grab my arse once, and . . . and I'm left with Kyle, and . . ." Victoire squinted at the last name, "and Xavier. Well this is great."

Victoire groaned again and smacked her head down on the table. Ally sighed and patted her head gently, "Are you sure none of those guys would be okay?"

Victoire shook her head, "Two of them are ex-boyfriends, one's a Slytherin, one tried to molest me, and the other three have dates."

"It's a wonder that you have a boyfriend to start with Vic, seeing as you're so picky," Kyle said trying to tease her.

Victoire lifted her head up, and looked completely defeated, "How am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to find a date that neither myself, nor Teddy will try to kill, but it still be a person that won't make Rita Skeeter try to create some crazy story?"

"Are you sure you don't want some person that you don't know from one of the other school's?" Sandra asked.

Victoire shook her head, "I'd rather it be a person that I actually know. In case I need to intimidate them."

Ally smirked a little, but then looked thoughtful, "What about someone from the other schools that you do know?"

Victoire's eyes narrowed, "The only person I know from the other schools is Konstantin, and that would be just a lovely little field day for the press. I can hear Skeeter's degrading headlines now."

"What about the brother?"

Victoire frowned, "Konstantin's brother?"

Xavier nodded, "Yeah, his name's Valentin right? Rita could have some fun with that, but it would probably blow away over quicker than it would if you went with Konstantin."

Victoire thought about it and then sighed, "I still don't think it would work. Plus, he's only sixteen. I know age shouldn't make much of a difference, and if it was a real relationship, it wouldn't. But I'd rather Skeeter didn't make up a headline that involves calling me a 'cougar'."

Sandra giggled, "I'm sorry, but I'm picturing that headline, with you listed as a cougar, and it's freaking hilarious."

Ally, Kyle, and Xavier joined Sandra in her laughter. If it had been another subject, Victoire would have laughed, but she'd had a stressful day so far, and not being able to come up with a date for the Ball was really starting to put a strain on her sense of humour.

"I'm not a cougar!" Victoire defended.

"Who's not a cougar?"

Victoire and her friends' turned their heads so that they could see the newcomer. Chris was standing between Victoire's chair and Sandra's. He had dark circles under his eyes, but his complexion looked better than it did the last time they'd seen him.

"Victoire, but that's not important. How are you feeling Chris?" Ally asked as she examined him.

Chris had been in the Hospital Wing for the past two weeks. The day after Ally's birthday party, he'd been feeling horrible and went to see Madam Pomfrey. He thought that he'd just been hung-over, even though he hadn't thought that he'd drank much, and had just asked for a _Pepperup Potion_. However, when Madam Pomfrey took his vitals, she found that he had a high fever, and that his heartbeat was low. She'd advised him to stay in the Hospital Wing that day and night so she could keep an eye on him. It was a good idea too, seeing, as when the day was progressing, Chris had been getting sicker and sicker. He'd taken to vomiting up all of the contents of his stomach, and because of this, he became severely dehydrated and malnourished. Madam Pomfrey tried to give him potions to help him artificially, but those ended up coming back up too. With the vomiting, the pain, and the fever, Madam Pomfrey deduced that he had _Gravado-plaga_, a somewhat common illness that evolves from strain of the common cold, but can get worse from the addition of alcohol to the person's body. Usually Madam Pomfrey would give Chris a potion to cure it and send him on his way. But four hours into the potion, Chris was feeling even worse. Madam Pomfrey was confused as to what had made him feel worse until Victoire innocently suggested that Chris' allergy to hellebore -which she and Ally had discovered was a main component of the potion to cure _Gravado-plaga_- was probably adding more toxins to Chris' body and making him get sicker as opposed to healing him. Because he couldn't have the normal cure, Chris had to spend two weeks in the Hospital Wing as his body overcame the illness on its own.

This was the first time they'd seen him outside of their visits to the Hospital Wing.

Chris shrugged in response to Ally's question, "I'm feeling a lot better, but I'm dead tired. Nothing a good night's sleep won't cure though. So what are you guys doing?"

Victoire bit her lip and sighed, "I'm trying to find a date to the Yule Ball, but it's proving to be more difficult than I'd first thought."

"You don't have a date yet?" Chris asked in confusion. He'd thought that she'd be able to get a date quicker than Xavier would be able to say Quidditch.

Victoire shook her head, and Kyle answered teasingly, "Victoire might garner a lot of attention from males, but she's very picky in whom she wants on her arm that night."

Victoire frowned at Kyle but looked at Chris, "They're trying to help me narrow down a list of potential dates. But the best options I have are Kyle and Xavier."

Chris chuckled, "Well Kyle's taking Sandra, but you could always go with Xavier."

Victoire made a face but Xavier laughed. He held up his hand, the one that was entwined tightly with Ally's, "You miss a lot when you miss a day Mate."

Chris' eyes bugged out of his head before he controlled his expression and smiled, "Well that's brilliant! Congrats guys!"

Ally blushed and buried her head in the crook of Xavier's neck. He kissed the top of her head and grinned widely.

"Yes, we're all very happy that these two have decided to stop living in the land of denial," Victoire said grinning at Ally and Xavier.

Xavier stuck his tongue out at her, "C'mon Vic, we still need to find you a date."

Chris held his hand out to Victoire. She gave him the list and he looked it over. He frowned as he read it, "I'm not on this list."

Victoire looked at the list and frowned, "Yeah, but it doesn't matter because you're going with Belle Wembley right?"

Chris swallowed, "Actually, she's going home for Christmas Break. And you're a friend of mine so I doubt she'd have a problem if I was your date."

Victoire looked at Chris with wide eyes, "Are you sure? Because I wouldn't want her to get angry at you . . ."

Chris smiled, "She's knows that we're just friends. And I'm sure she wouldn't want be to be the only one of my friend's that doesn't have a date."

Victoire smiled brightly, "Okay then. That sounds great Chris. So we're going to the Yule Ball together?"

"Yup."

"And you do understand that you're going to have to be the centre of attention because we have to dance the first dance together?"

"Yes."

"And that there's more than likely going to be a bunch of fake news articles about our 'relationship' in the newspaper the next day?"

"Bring it on."

Victoire smiled brightly, jumped out of her chair, and hugged Chris tightly, "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!"

When she let go of him she glanced at Xavier and Kyle, "I can't believe you guys didn't have Chris on your lists."

"I must have accidentally forgotten to un-cross him after you made changes," Xavier said looking over the list he'd made.

Victoire looked at Kyle with a raised eyebrow. He gave her a gigantic and what he hoped was charming, smile, "I thought Chris was still sick."

Victoire turned back to Chris, "Thank you so much Chris. I owe you big time."

Chris smiled, "It's not that big of a deal Vic."

"Oh yes it is. You just saved me from having to ask someone that I would have a hard time trying not to kill."

Chris laughed, and Xavier looked down at his watch, "We should probably all be getting to bed now." Everyone nodded and stood up, they walked to the other side of the Common Room, where there stairs to the dormitories were. As they walked, Victoire looked around the Common room. When her eyes hit the couch closest to the fireplace, she stopped walking and reached out for Xavier's arm to stop him.

When he stopped, he looked at her questioningly. She gestured to the couch near the fireplace and he nodded to her. They said a quick goodnight to their friends, Xavier giving Ally a fast yet sweet kiss, and walked over to the couch. Sitting on said couch was Cecilia, two of her friends, and Louis. Cecilia was chatting with her friends with her back turned to Louis, who was desperately trying to get her attention.

"I think that it's about time that everyone got to bed," Victoire said eying the third-years. Cecilia's friends nodded and stood up. They were waiting for Cecilia to join them, but the look Victoire was giving her told her that she should stay put. So, Cecilia bade her friends a goodnight, and stayed on the couch next to Louis.

Victoire and Xavier were standing in front of the two third-years. Xavier crossed his arms over his chest and began, "So, how are you two doing?"

Louis mumbled out a quiet 'fine', while Cecilia just glared at her brother and asked, "Can I please go to bed?"

Victoire eyed her warily, "Sure, but aren't you going to say goodnight to Louis first?"

Cecilia frowned and stayed where she was on the couch. She still refused to look at Louis, but she was definitely glaring for some reason, "What do you two want?"

"I want to know why Xavier and I just watched as you and Louis sat next to each other, yet didn't speak to each other. Even though Louis was trying to get your attention?" Victoire was speaking to Cecilia specifically.

"What? Do you expect Louis and I to be attached at the hip or something? Do we have to do everything together?" Cecilia asked angrily.

"We just thought that you'd at least want to talk to Louis seeing as you kissed him earlier in the day," Xavier said narrowing his eyes at his sister.

Cecilia's face went red, "We were stuck under the mistletoe!"

"White mistletoe. Louis tried to kiss you on the cheek but you stopped him. And then you kissed him on the mouth," Victoire said.

"What I'm not allowed to make mistakes in my life?" Cecilia asked.

Louis, who had been quiet during the beginning of the conversation spoke up, "Did you just say kissing me was a mistake?"

Cecilia still wasn't looking at him, "For me it was a mistake. For you it probably wasn't anything new or different. It's what you expect of any girls that are stuck under the mistletoe with you right? That they'll just fall over themselves to kiss you!"

Louis looked at her angrily, "What girls? I've been with you the whole day and I haven't kissed any girls!"

"Not for lack of trying huh?" Cecilia shot back.

"What are you talking about?" Louis asked confused.

Cecilia sighed, "Nothing. I just want to go to bed."

She stood up to move, but Louis grabbed her arm gently, "Cecilia . . . I'm sorry if I offended you, but we were under the mistletoe and there's no other way to get out of it other than kissing the other person. You're right I could have asked but I thought that we were on the same page. I thought that you found it kinda funny and that you wanted me to kiss you."

"UGH!" Cecilia groaned, "This isn't about the stupid mistletoe Louis!"

Louis looked at her blankly, "Then what the Hell is it about?"

"Godric you're so, so . . . ugh! Are you sure that you're part Veela?" Cecilia asked in frustration.

Louis blinked, "Yes, but I still don't see-"

"And that's the problem Louis! You don't see! You don't see it even though it's right in front of your face!" She complained.

Louis ran a hand through his silvery blonde hair, "Well if you know everything, than why don't you tell me what I don't see!"

Cecilia growled in irritation, "Louis, if I hadn't been ignoring you all day, what would you have said to me?"

"Excuse me?" Louis asked bewildered.

"If I hadn't been ignoring you all day. What would you have said to me? What were you planning on asking me?" Cecilia asked again.

Louis narrowed his eyes at her, "I was going to ask you to the Yule Ball, but how did you-"

"It doesn't matter how I knew, although, FYI, James and Fred would not be the first people I'd have chosen to confide within. But that doesn't matter. Why were you going to ask me to the Ball?"

"Why?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well," Louis started still puzzled, "I was going to ask you because I knew you wouldn't be able to go because you're a third-year, and the only reason I can go is because Victoire's my sister . . ."

"So you were going to ask me to the Ball because you felt bad that I wouldn't be able to attend on my own. You didn't even think that maybe a fourth-year would ask me?" Cecilia asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Louis swallowed thickly, "Well . . . I mean I'd have fun if I went with you too . . ."

"Is that really why you'd ask me then? Because you'd have 'fun'?" Cecilia asked. She was finally facing Louis, her eyes narrowed on his expression.

His expression was defeated; he had no idea what Cecilia wanted from him, "Why else would I ask you?"

Victoire and Xavier both sucked in a breath of air. Louis did _not_ handle that one well.

"Why else? WHY ESLE? Louis did I kiss you today under the mistletoe?"

"I thought you said that this didn't have anything to do with the mistletoe?"

"Just answer me!"

"Okay, okay. Yes you kissed me."

"And did it ever occur to you to wonder _why_ I kissed you on the mouth when a kiss on the cheek would do?"

Louis was almost pulling his hair out of his head at this point, "Cecilia I don't know! Why did you decide to kiss me?"

"BECAUSE I FANCY YOU, YOU PRAT!" Cecilia yelled at him as she stood up and over him.

Louis' face went white, "What?"

Cecilia was breathing heavily through her anger, "I said that I fancy you. I don't actually know why seeing as you're such a stupid, oblivious boy, but I do. The worst part is that even though I know that I like you I also know that I'm just one more in a long line of girls that do. And I was okay with that, I was okay with that until Fred and James spilled to me that you told them that you were going to ask me to the Ball. And that you were going to ask me to the Ball, because you knew that _I_ wouldn't be able to go any other way!"

Louis was still looking at her in a wide-eyed daze, "So, you fancy me?"

Cecilia scowled at him; she was still standing in front of him, "Yes! I just said that you imbecile! But you obviously don't feel the same way or you wouldn't have been planning on asking me to the Ball for anything other than a pity date-"

Cecilia's tirade was quickly cut off by Louis. Louis' lips to be specific. He had stood up near the end of her speech, grabbed her face and planted a kiss on her lips.

Victoire and Xavier were watching their siblings' interaction with surprised faces.

Cecilia placed her hands of Louis' chest and pushed him away from her to break the kiss. Louis took a few more steps back, because he recognized the look she had on her face. It was the same one she'd had earlier in the day when she'd slapped him.

"I'm sorry," Louis told her sincerely.

Cecilia frowned at him, "What are you sorry for?"

"For kissing you without permission again," Louis said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Louis, I don't want you to apologize for kissing me. I want you to apologize for thinking that you felt nothing towards me besides friendship!" Cecilia complained.

"What are you talking about?"

Victoire could tell that Cecilia was about to lose it again and decided to intervene before she injured Louis for being so stupid, "Louis. You're pulling a Teddy and a Xavier here."

Louis looked at his sister oddly, "What?"

"You're being an oblivious Gryffindor boy who doesn't realize that a pretty girl is throwing herself at him."

Cecilia pouted, "I'm not throwing myself at Louis."

"Cecilia you _were_ throwing yourself at Louis. But that's nothing to be ashamed of; these Gryffindor boys are really a breed of their own."

Victoire turned back to Louis who had an odd expression on his face, "Now Louis, we're going to skip past the part where you tell Cecilia that you fancy her back, because you're attempt to kiss her was probably your way of saying that you like her back. So, we're going to go to the part where you ask her to the Ball properly, so she can say yes, and so that Xavier and I can now go to bed without having to worry about having a sibling come crying to us tomorrow morning, okay?"

Louis rolled his eyes at his sister, but looked at Cecilia, "Cecilia I really like you, and I would really like it if you would go to the Yule Ball with me."

Cecilia eyed Louis cautiously before breaking out into a small smile, "Okay."

Louis grinned at her and leaned in to kiss her cheek, "I'm going to go to bed now. I'll see you in the morning?"

Cecilia nodded. Both her and Louis went their separate ways and walked up the stairs to their dormitories.

Victoire looked at Xavier, "Well, that's two oblivious Gryffindor boys whose worked through their girl problems today. Not a bad record."

Xavier smirked at Victoire, "Yes. But I swear to Merlin that if you tell my parents, specifically my Mum before I have a chance to see if this is going to work out, you're going to regret it."

Victoire grinned, "Whatev Xavier."

* * *

Well, I hope that you liked! Cecilia and Louis finally seem to be seeing eye to eye. And Vic going to the Ball with Chris? Virtual hands up if you did (or I guess didn't) see that coming.

Anyway thank you to everyone who reviewed / favourited / followed / read / and enjoyed this story! :)

Next week: Finally the Yule Ball . . . or at least the first part . . . I split it into 2 because there was so much, I think you'll enjoy it though!

An especially **HUMONGO-GINORMOUS** THANK-YOU to:

**onedirectionlover98**, **Guest**, **Guest (#2),** **brilliant incandescence, MuggleCreator, LiveLovePotter, darling-everythingsonfire-x, Guest (#3), RoLouG, Aoife xxx, crazyninjachick, xSuperNovax, mellypotter1223, YukiLovestoWrite, and especially Neferit-12!**

To **YukieLovestoWrite** and **Neferit-12**, I absolutely love your reviews and PM's as always and I would love to write you very long PMs in response, but as you no doubt read above I am very pressed for time so I will just publicly tell you here how much I appreciate the time you guys always take to review and how I love both of your's enthusiasm for my story and characters, it means soooo much. Readers like you are the reason why I write (Not that I don't appreciate everyone else), thank-you again, and if you had any specific questions to ask me, please ask again in your next review and I will definietly answer it this time. Thank you again :)

**onedirectionlover98:** Why thank-you :)

**brilliant incandescence:** How did you like Louis and Cee-Cee's scene then?

**MuggleCreator:** Have Louis and Cee-Cee gotten their stuff together do you think?

**LiveLovePotter:** Did Vic get stuck with who you thought she would?

**darling-everythingsonfire-x:** Do you love Kyle even more? Or less now that he's teasing Vic?

**mellypotter1223:** I didn't actually think that there were that many stories with the same plot, but I haven't really looked so their could be. I'm glad you like it though. I wouldn't have used the plot if I thought it was over-done, but I could see how reading poorly written stories about this would get tiresome. I'm glad that you like mine though :)


	52. Of Balls and Insecurities

A/N: Well here's the next chapter right on time! Thank-you to everyone who wished me a good camping trip. It was lots of fun, even though it poured rain non-stop one day. I had lots of fun with my friends and a few of us even did a 10km hike in 3 hours and 45 min, which we were all very proud of.

If any of you are watching the Olympic games (which I am as I type) I haven't really noticed the large time difference between Canada and London before. Based on the time difference, I could get medal results before the event is even showed. Very confusing, but something which I'll attempt to get through. If anyone's keeping count, as of the moment I'm uploading this, Canada has 5 medals and we're in 13th in the standings. Not the best, but I'm pretty proud seeing as in the Beijing Olympics it took Canada a week to earn one medal, so the events are still rather young. Congrats to all the other medal winners from other countries, and I hope that everyone is enjoying themselves (watching the olympics or not).

So, the beginning of this chapter is kinda . . . well rather girly. But it is the Yule Ball, I am a girl, so yes it's girly.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this, not even the dresses. While some were of my own design, some I took from real-life ideas.

Enjoy! :)

* * *

**Of Balls and Insecurities**

Victoire was groaning as she leant over the toilet in her dorm's lavatory. She was really starting to get tired of vomiting up green venom multiple times a day. She was even considering grabbing some alcohol so that she'd be able to make it through the night without having to run off to the lavatories to get sick. She knew that that wouldn't work, seeing as the Yule Ball was about to start in two hours, and that if she drank before it, Sandra would kill her. If only because Sandra wouldn't allow Victoire to drink by herself. Victoire figured that she had at least a good four hours ahead of her before she would have to leave to get sick again, and was hoping that she would be able to go back to the Ball after getting sick in four hours' time.

When Victoire finished getting sick, she went to the sink, washed the light sheen of sweat off her face, and brushed her teeth. When she came out of the bathroom, she noticed all of the eyes in the room trained on her. Sandra was looking at her with concern, but the rest of their roommates -Pamela Mace and her friends- were looking at her crossly.

Victoire felt the urge to speak because of all of the eyes on her, "Um, what I can do for all of you?"

Pamela walked up close to Victoire, "Do you always have to be the centre of attention?"

Victoire looked at Pamela confusedly, "What are you talking about? You guys didn't have to stand there and listen to me vomit."

Pamela rolled her eyes and sneered at her.

Sandra opened her mouth to explain when she was cut off by the door to their dorm banging against the wall as it opened. Dominique Weasley came strutting into the room carrying four dark black garment bags, with Ally trailing behind her as she carried a large navy blue box.

Dom looked at Pamela and her friends, "I thought I told you guys to scram. We've got some work to do in here."

Pamela went from glaring at the blonde Weasley, to glaring the redheaded one, "You can't just kick us out of our own dorm room! We have to get ready for the Ball too!"

"Trust me Pam, any guy that would ask you to the Ball, isn't concerned with your hair or you're make-up. They're probably just desperate for a date in general," Dom scoffed.

Pamela frowned at the younger girl, "Yes, because a fifth-year like you knows _all _about what men like."

Dom opened her mouth to retort when Ally broke in, "Pamela, I know that my dorm room is empty because everyone else either went home for Christmas break, or they went to another friend's room to change. You could go there and get ready. There would be a lot more space."

Pamela turned her glare from Dom to Ally. She hadn't been the happiest camper when she'd found out two weeks ago that Xavier Wood had asked Ally Weasley to the Ball, seeing as he was one of the guys on her list that she'd hoped would ask her. She especially wasn't happy when she found out that Xavier hadn't just asked Ally to the Ball so that he'd have a date, but that he was actually _dating_ her.

"Whatever, I guess it'd be best to get changed elsewhere. That way we don't have to try to steal bathroom or mirror time away from Victoire. After all, she takes forever to get ready," Pamela said talking mostly to her friends.

Victoire had opened her mouth to tell Pamela exactly who spent the most amount of time bathroom to get ready, but was stopped when Sandra covered her mouth with her hands. Pamela and her friends barely spared them a glance before grabbing all of their things and leaving the room.

Once they were gone, Dom directed Ally to place the navy box on the bed and turned to her sister; "Okay, now are you going to be difficult tonight? Or are you going to do what I say?"

Victoire took an automatic step back from the scary look on her younger sister's face, "What are you talking about?"

"Are you wondering why Mama isn't here right now trying to direct you on how to dress or how to act tonight?" Dom asked raising an eyebrow at her sister.

Victoire thought for a minute, "Uh . . . no, am I supposed to wonder why she's not here?"

"You actually think that Mama would just let you go to the Ball the way you are?" Dom asked.

"Okay Dom, that was mean. What's wrong with me?"

"Well let's start with the fact that you were planning on wearing flats tonight," Dom said crossing her arms over her chest angrily.

Victoire shot Ally a glance. For her part, Ally was looking everywhere but at Victoire. _Damn Ally! Why'd I tell you that? I know you can't keep a secret from Dom, she always wheedles it out of you!_

Victoire looked at her sister, "So?"

Dom's eyes widened, "So? So! How about because you're about to be the centre of attention for this Ball and that if you don't measure up and look good, you're going to be embarrassed."

Victoire scoffed, "I'm part Veela Dom, what you see is pretty much what you get, but it's enough for me."

Dom sighed, "But we can always enhance that!"

Victoire sighed and started to rub her temples, "Fine, whatever. Do what you want."

Dom squealed happily before getting to work. She enlisted the aid of both Ally and Sandra as they attempted to charm curl Victoire's long blonde hair around their wands. Halfway through Victoire's hair, Ally had gotten tired of catching her fingers on the end of her wand, and the tail end of the curling spell, and left Victoire's hair to Sandra and Dom. But once Ally's fingers had stopped tingling from the contact of the curling spells, Dom instructed her to start 'putting on Victoire's face'. This caused Victoire to _make _a face. Ally went into the navy box that Dom had made her carry into the room and started pulling out jars, tubes, and bottles filled with Victoire-really-didn't-want-to-know-what. Victoire had eyed them warily before reminding her part-Veela sister that she also, was part Veela, and that make-up wouldn't do well for her. Dom had pulled Victoire's hair a little harder than necessary to curl the next piece, while simultaneously telling her that it was just a bunch of moisturizing and 'primer' creams and potions (or that's what Victoire thought she said), and to just shut both her mouth and eyes, and let her work.

Half an hour of curling charms, moisturizing potions, and two bottles of Muggle hairspray that Sandra had convinced Dom would be needed if they expected the wild ringlets they'd charmed into Victoire's hair to stay all night, Victoire's hair and face were done. Dom had placed the dress that she and Fleur had picked out for Victoire to wear to the Ball (a small concession on Victoire's part seeing as she wasn't a very dressy person) in the bathroom while they were still doing Victoire's hair. Dom had brought it in, in a garment bag, and neither Victoire, nor Ally and Sandra, had seen it yet. She instructed Victoire to go into the bathroom to dress, because she wanted Victoire's dress to be a big reveal. While Victoire was getting the dress on, Sandra, Dom, and All would begin getting ready themselves.

Victoire walked into the bathroom expecting to take a total of three minutes to get into the dress. However, she was still in there half an hour later when the other girls were almost finished getting ready themselves. Ally was the first to notice that Victoire hadn't come out of the bathroom yet.

"Vic, is everything alright in there?" Ally asked after knocking lightly on the door.

"I'm fine," Victoire's quiet voice called from the other side of the door.

She had tried to play if off coolly, but Ally, Sandra, and Dom had all heard the trepidation in Victoire's voice when she spoke to them. They each shared a look and then looked back to the door.

"Can we come in then Vic?" Ally asked quietly to the door.

"Fine," was the monotone response they received.

The three girls opened the bathroom door, and were surprised to see Victoire still in her dressing robe, leaning against the counter top, facing the unzipped garment bag as it hung on the shower curtain rod.

"Is there something wrong with the dress?" Dom asked quietly. It's not as if it would be the wrong size; Dom knew all of Victoire's measurements.

Victoire nodded her head but wouldn't elaborate.

"Is it the colour?" Ally asked hopefully. That would be a somewhat easy thing to change. The colour of the dress was a bright and stunning crimson red. It was a fitting colour for the Hogwarts' Champion from Gryffindor house, but they would understand if the colour was a little too outgoing, even for Victoire Weasley.

"Mama and I thought that red would be a fitting colour. She was certain that Noëlle's dress would be a powder-blue colour to represent Beauxbatons, and that Konstantin would probably be wearing burgundy and grey dress robes for Durmstrang. So we thought that it would be appropriate for you so do crimson with gold accessories, but we can change the colour if you don't like it," Dom explained.

Victoire shook her head, "No. I love the colour, it's nice and bright."

Sandra tried next, "Is it the shape of the dress? I mean, you've got a great body but it does look like it'd be clingy, not to mention that the neckline and straps are a little _different_ . . ." The crimson dress was made of silk and looked like it would cling to every part of whom ever put it on. It had an empire waist and the skirt fell straight to the floor. The neckline was a low sweetheart that looked even lower because of the flimsy two-inch thick, off-the-shoulder straps.

Victoire shook her head again, "No, I like the straps and the silhouette. It'll be kinda different from everyone else's."

Dom tried this time, "Is it the slit in the side of the dress? I thought you'd like it but I'd understand if you thought it was a little too much." The dress had a slit on the right side; it went from the bottom of the dress all the way, to what would be Victoire's mid-thigh if she were wearing it. Truthfully, Dom thought that Victoire would enjoy the slit; she thought that her sister would like it as a little funky detail.

Victoire shook her head again, "No I like it. It's cute."

Ally, Sandra and Dom looked at each other confusedly. Dom decided to be the one to speak, "Then what's wrong?"

Victoire sighed and waved her hand. With a flick of her wrist, the dress turned on the hanger and everyone was looking at the back. The dress had a band of crimson fabric that would land across the shoulder blades of the person wearing the dress, and a section missing from below the two-inch thick band to the lower back.

Dom looked sadly at the dress, "You don't like the back? You told me that you've always wanted to wear a dress with little back."

Victoire sighed, "Yeah, well that was before I got attacked by that stupid Manticore."

Everyone looked at her puzzled.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Dom asked.

Victoire sighed and untied to fabric of her dressing robe, she moved it until her sister and friends could see the dark scar that ran from below her chest to an inch above her bellybutton. The scar from the Manticore's stinger was like a jagged circle and was about six inches in diameter. It had been an acid green colour when she first was attacked, but as the venom drained from her system, it started to darken to a reddish-brown colour. There was still some greenish tinge to it because she had only been recovering for about a month and a half, but it looked better than it did when she had first gotten it. She turned around so that her friends could see the identical scar on her back, directly across from where it would have been on her front. The scar was in the exact spot where the fabric of the dress _wouldn't_ be, if Victoire were wearing it.

"Vic, don't worry about that. It's just a little scar," Dom tried to soothe.

Victoire's eyes went wide and it looked like she was going to cry, "But it's not just some little scar! It's an ugly blob that no glamour charms or amount of magical or Muggle cosmetics are going to fix!"

Ally looked from the Victoire's near meltdown to the back of the dress, "Okay. Well, if you don't want to show your back off Vic, even though I don't see a problem with it, we could always try to transfigure the dress and cover the back up."

Victoire frowned at the dress across from her, "That would work, but knowing Mama she put a charm on it that wouldn't allow me to change anything about it." She gave a pointed look Dom.

Dom looked down at her newly painted toes, "She did, but I might know said charm, and I might even know said counter-charm."

Victoire looked at her sister, "Really?"

Dom nodded and waved her wand. The fabric of the dress glowed a bright yellow, before going back to the crimson it was before. Ally then took her wand and waved it. The fabric on either side of the opening of the dress seemed to knit together, and when the spell was done, the back was filled with silk, up to the original band at the middle of the shoulders.

With Victoire's dress dilemma fixed, they girls quickly finished getting ready. Ally had put on a strapless ice-blue A-line dress that ended up flowing around her ankles. It was of looser fabric than Victoire's dress, and the bodice of the dress had sequins sown throughout the fabric, making it sparkle when she moved in the light. Her long dark hair was done up in a simple French twist, and her make-up was light at the eyes, but dark at the lips. She had on a pair of strappy silver stiletto sandals (that Dom had forced her to wear) and her jewelry was silver and sparkly. Sandra had squeezed into a tight one-shouldered tea-length plum coloured dress that had a light line of ruffles on the shoulder and the bottom of the skirt. Sandra, who hated heels of any kind, was forced by Dom into a pair of three-inch plum coloured peep-toe suede wedge heels. Her jewelry was the matching pearl drop earrings and necklace that Kyle had gifted to her the last couple Christmases. Her hair was in her natural tiny dirty-blonde ringlets, and tousled. Dom had put on a gold corseted dress that flared out into a fluffy, ballerina-esque crinoline skirt that barely came to her knees. The gold fabric was bright and shiny, and the back of the dress was bare where the corset laced up. She was wearing a pair of four-inch black leather peep-toed ankle boots, which had a gold chain across the top as decoration. Her jewelry was a chunky black necklace and matching bracelet, with medium sized black hoop earrings. The top half of her long red hair was pulled back with a large black flower hair clip, and the rest was charmed in messy curls. Her make-up was as dramatic as she could make it considering that it would probably disappear in a few hour's time; her whole look screamed edgy, yet somehow classy at the same time.

Victoire's finishing touches came after she slipped in the soft silk dress. It fit like a glove, and she loved the neckline, and the slit on the side. Dom forced her into a pair of uncomfortable heels also, only these were two-inch tall gold stiletto sandals, which ended up tying around her ankle in a golden silk bow. Her earrings were long, dangly, and gold. She a matching thick gold barrette was placed on the right side of her head -after Dom instructed her to keep the curls they'd placed in her hair on her left shoulder for the rest of the night. Dom had wanted her to wear a gold choker necklace, but Victoire passed over it for the gold locket that Teddy had given her. The chain was usually long, so she shortened it so that it lay above the neckline of her dress.

When all of the girls were happy with their outfits, they left the dormitory to make their way to the great Hall for the Yule Ball.

* * *

Victoire stood around the corner of the top of the stairs leading to the entrance of the Great Hall. Her sister, cousin, and friend had left her there so that they could find their own dates. Victoire and the other Champions were to enter the Ball after everyone else, and then open it up by dancing the first dance with their dates. Victoire was to walk down the stairs by herself, and then meet up with Chris at the bottom. So she stood out of view, at the top of the steps waiting for everyone else to get to the Ball. After standing there for a few minutes by herself, Noëlle joined her. Dom had been right when she predicted that she would be in a power-blue coloured dress. Noëlle's dress was a long halter necked ball gown, with symmetrical cut-outs on either side of her body, below her ribcage. The front was simple, with a little beading around the neckline, but the back was something else itself. The dress was almost completely backless, except for the two small pieces of power-blue fabric that crisscrossed across the small of the open back of the dress. She was wearing a pair of sky-high silver heels that Dom would have drooled over, and a frosted silvery set of earrings, with a matching necklace and bracelets. Her make-up was rather dramatic and her blonde hair was done up in an elegant bun, with some curly tendrils left to frame her face.

They stared at each other quietly, and Victoire attempted a compliment, "You look really great tonight Noëlle."

Noëlle looked Victoire up and down before answering, "And of courze you look belle ez alwaz."

Victoire figured that that was as good as she was going to get so she smiled and the two went back to silence. Thankfully, Konstantin joined them a few minutes later.

Victoire smirked as she realized that Dom had been right again, as far as clothing choices were concerned; he was wearing burgundy and grey dress robes.

"You look very handsome Konstantin," Victoire said winking at him.

He chuckled and even blushed lightly, "Fank vou Vic. Bovf ov vou look vervy nice too."

Victoire and Noëlle both thanked Konstantin softly, and then the three stood in silence. About ten minutes later, Victoire could hear a quiet hush take over the crowds in the entrance of the Great Hall. She was certain that their grand entrance was about to start, and her suspicions were confirmed when Professor Cooke, and Noëlle's teacher Professeur La Croix, came into view from around the corner of the staircase.

Professor Cooke winked at Victoire before speaking to all three Champions, "Okay, so you all know how this is going to go. You'll each go down separately, Miss Varens, Mr Krum, and then Miss Weasley. When you reach the end of the staircase, you will meet up with your escort, then you will all walk into the Great Hall, and the three of you and your partners will begin the traditional first dance. Any questions?"

Victoire started to raise her hand slowly.

Professor Cooke saw her hand moving and smirked at her, "No, Miss Weasley, there is no way that you'll be able to get out of it now. If you didn't want to dance in front of everyone you should have faked a broken ankle."

Victoire frowned, crossed her arms against her chest and mumbled, "Don't worry, going down the stairs in these shoes will definitely cause me to _actually_ break an ankle."

The only evidence that Professor Cooke had heard her was a slight tug on the corners of his lips, "Okay. Time to get started."

Noëlle gracefully glided away from the group, held her head up high, and practically floated down the staircase. Once she was halfway down, Konstantin started his descent. And once Konstantin was halfway down, Professor Cooke signalled Victoire to begin. She took a deep breath and stepped one foot at a time down the, staircase. (She had travelled up and down the staircase numerous times during the last seven years of her education, but she never really appreciated how large and tall the staircase was until now.) Victoire's head spun when she saw all of the people standing at the bottom of the staircase. Her stage fright, and hate of being the centre of attention, was coming on full force. She felt sick, and not just because of the Manticore venom that was in her system. She tried to search out her friends' faces in the crowd like Ally and Sandra had planned with her. They'd hoped that finding their faces and concentrating on them would help her get through the walk. But after a few seconds of fruitless searching, she couldn't pick them out from the large crowd of, slightly blurry, colours and blobs. She couldn't even pick Dom out with her sky-high heels, bright red hair, and edgy outfit. Victoire took two steps but paused when she almost fell. She was very close to either hyperventilating, tripping over her high heels, or both. She closed her eyes and tried to will herself to move, when she opened them back up, a movement at the very back of the entrance hall caught her eye. She took three more steps and what she saw came more into focus. Standing at the back behind the crowds and leaning against the walls, were a series of dark red Auror's robes. Victoire's eyes moved over the line of robes until she spotted the face that she was looking for. Teddy was farthest back, his hair was blue and his dark eyes were twinkling. His mouth was open as he watched her step down the stairs. His eyes followed her footsteps down, and then they travelled up her body until they got to her face. When they got there, they stopped. Victoire gained courage from Teddy's gaze, and she kept her attention on him as she continued down the staircase. When she came to the bottom of the staircase, she could no longer see Teddy over the crowd, but her hand was grabbed by the person closest to her.

Victoire turned and saw Chris smiling down at her from her side. He'd grabbed her hand and placed it on the crook of his arm like a gentleman. She gave him a small forced smile, and let him lead her into the Great Hall.

Chris leaned down to whisper into her ear as they entered the Great Hall, "Just follow my lead and we'll get through this."

Victoire nodded her head tightly. She looked down at her feet, and planned to keep her gaze there throughout the first dance. She didn't want to either A.) Step on Chris' feet, or B.) Trip on her dress or over her stilettos. The music started and Victoire felt Chris move to place one of his hands on her waist as the other grabbed her hand. She placed her other hand lightly on his shoulder and watched their feet as Chris began their dance.

After spinning, twirling, and bounding across the floor, the music stopped and Victoire was able to take a step back from Chris. A faster paced song began, and everyone else began to dance in the room. Chris placed his hand on Victoire's back and guided her over to a corner of the Great Hall. Waiting there was Sandra and Kyle, and Xavier and Ally.

Victoire's gaze skimmed over her girlfriends' face and went straight to Xavier, "Tell me the truth, did I make a fool of myself?"

Xavier let go of Ally's hand and he opened his arms up. Victoire walked right to him and smiled at the warmth she felt when she was wrapped up in his hug. Xavier whispered into her hair, "You were great. I thought that you might trip in those deathtraps that Dom put you in, but you didn't."

Victoire stepped out of Xavier's hug and looked at her other friends; they were all smiling at her. When she looked at Sandra, she noticed something on her wrist that hadn't been their earlier, a pearl bracelet that matched her earrings and necklace.

Victoire smiled, "I see you coerced Kyle into giving you your Christmas present early."

Sandra smiled and touched her bracelet with her other hand, "Yes. But Kyle said that my wrist looked bare and that he has more presents for me tomorrow, so that it's okay for me to get one early."

Everyone laughed and turned around to watch the crowd of people dancing as the next song began. Xavier inclined his head in Ally's direction, but she shook her head.

"I'm sorry Xavier. You know that I would love to dance with you but I just really, really hate this song."

Xavier nodded his head understandingly while Kyle snickered at him. Sandra eyed Kyle, "I don't know why you're laughing at Xavier, I hate this song too and I'm not going to dance with you."

Kyle rolled his eyes and threw his arm around his girlfriend. He pulled her closer to him, brushed her hair away from her face, and kissed her temple.

Victoire -who had been watching the crowd of people interestedly- suddenly exclaimed, "Why is Dom dancing with Valentin Krum?"

"Because he's her date," Ally answered her offhandedly.

Victoire's eyes went wide, "Wait. What? Why? How?"

"Apparently Valentin's a shy guy. Mamma and Viktor set it up so that Valentin would have a date without having to get too far out of his comfort zone and asking some girl that he didn't know," a voice from behind Victoire, informed her.

She turned around and took a step back in surprise; Louis and Cecilia had suddenly appeared next to her. Louis was looking very handsome in a neat looking set of black dress robes with red trim. And Cecilia was looking very pretty in a knee length orange silk spaghetti strap dress. Her dark hair was done up in a messy bun, she wore a pair of diamond studs in her ears with a matching diamond drop necklace around her neck and -she obviously hadn't been caught by Dom yet that night- because she was wearing a silvery bedazzled pair of flip flops that contained absolutely no heel whatsoever.

Since her brother seemed to know all, Victoire asked him the next question directly, "And Dom was okay with Mamma setting her up on a date tonight?"

Louis shrugged, "She said she was fine with it."

"Well of course she was okay with it! Valentin Krum in one _fine_ young man," Cecilia said moving her head slightly so she could pick out Valentin in the crowd.

Louis frowned at her and placed his hand at the small of her back. Cecilia rolled her eyes at Louis but she leaned slightly into his embrace. Normally Victoire would tease them about how close they were to acting lovey-dovey, but since she helped them get together, she thought she could stand a little sweetness from her brother and Cecilia. Especially since, she figured that Louis was tired of Cecilia slapping him and yelling at him for being obtuse.

Victoire chatted with her friends as they waited for the song to change. Once a fast-paced song that Ally and Sandra didn't hate came on, they all took to the dance floor. They danced to a series of Wizarding and Muggle rock, pop, and dancing songs over the next hour and a half. The play list of music was dotted every once and a while with a slow song. Three of the slow songs Victoire awkwardly danced with Chris, she was happy when each song ended because that meant that she had made it through the dances having only stepped on his toes an infinitesimal amount of times. The last slow song that Victoire had been caught in she ended up dancing with Kyle because he thought I'd be fun for them to switch partners. Chris and Sandra twirled elegantly around Victoire and Kyle, while Victoire attempted to not step on Kyle's shoes, and while Kyle tried to tickled Victoire's sides any chance he could. He was trying to get her to crack a smile . . . or at least that was what he'd told her.

When the song was finally done, Victoire stepped on Kyle's toe on purpose and said sweetly, "Try to tickle me again and that will be the last thing that you'll be able to do with your hands tonight."

Kyle yelped when Victoire stepped on his toe, "Ouch! Okay I got it hands off. Geez, did you have to use your stilettos on me?"

Victoire smirked at him and crossed her arms over her chest happily. Sandra came over to where Victoire and Kyle stood and looked at Kyle questioningly as he hopped on one foot, with his hands holding the other. She looked between her best mate and her boyfriend with a raised eyebrow, "Do I even want to know what happened?"

"Your boyfriend tried to tickle me," Victoire told her.

Sandra nodded only a little bit surprised, "Oh was that what he was doing? I saw him grabbing for you but I thought that he was just trying to feel you up."

Victoire raised a blonde brow, "And you were hypothetically okay with him trying to feel your best mate up?"

Sandra shrugged and kissed Kyle on the cheek, "We already know that he thinks that snogging you is like kissing cardboard, so I don't think that you're that much of a threat Vic."

Kyle laughed and threw his arms around Sandra's waist. Victoire shook her head at her friend's actions but couldn't completely stop the small smile from curling at the corners of her lips.

"You might not be a threat in Kyle and Sandra's relationship, but I can see someone who could be a threat to yours," Ally whispered in Victoire's ear as she came up behind her with Xavier.

Victoire turned her head in Ally's direction and whispered back, "What are you talking about?"

Ally surreptitiously nodded her head to the right of her. Victoire's ocean blue eyes scanned the area for something of interest; _Hmm, Shelly Alexander and another Hufflepuff dancing . . . a bunch of fourth years gossiping . . . Cecilia and Louis talking to Baxter and Danielle Reed -Note to self, ask Cecilia about the Baxter-Danielle situation, that looks like some good gossip- . . . Dom pretty much glued to Valentin as they danced too closely . . . Pamela Mace near one of the walls flipping her hair, fluttering her eyelashes and flirting with the blue haired Auror standing nearest to her . . . Wait! What?-_

"SHE IS NOT-" Victoire began to yell before being cut off by the pressure of Ally's foot on hers.

Sandra, Kyle, Chris, and Xavier (Who was listening in on Victoire and Ally's conversation) looked to Victoire. The former three were surprised, and the latter was imploring her with his eyes not make a scene. Before Victoire could babble out some half-hearted excuse for her near shout, the dawdling and sensual rhythm of a slow song began to echo throughout the room.

Once again, Ally saved her favourite cousin, "Hey Xavier, Chris, how about we switch partners for this song, yeah? Okay, good," without waiting for a response from Chris -Xavier understood her plan immediately- Ally grabbed Chris' arm and dragged him two metres away until they were lost in the crowd of people that was quickly pairing off.

Xavier placed one of his hands at Victoire's waist, and grabbed her hand with the other one before spinning her away from where they had been standing and closer to the wall where she'd seen Pamela.

Xavier and Victoire spun in slow circles once they'd gotten closer.

"She better not be doing what I think she's doing," Victoire whispered harshly to Xavier as their turn brought Pamela and the Auror in her direct line of sight. From what Victoire could see Pamela was wearing a _very_ short and tight dress, and was getting _very _close to the tall Auror.

As their spin continued, Xavier's turn to be in direct view came. He shuddered visibly as he saw Pamela wiggly her body slowly in time with the music, no doubt trying to get the Auror to _look_ at her.

Victoire didn't miss Xavier's shudder, "What? What is she doing?"

They were halfway through their spin, so Victoire pushed Xavier faster so she could see again. When she saw what Pamela was attempting, she tried to shuffle both her and Xavier closer so she could hear what Pamela was saying to the man.

"Maybe it's not actually Teddy," Xavier suggested as they slowly moved closer to the couple. They had been a slight distance away so his suggestion sounded probable to him.

"Do you know any other Aurors with blue hair?" Victoire asked him seriously.

Xavier nodded, "Touché."

When Victoire and Xavier had gotten close enough to the pair to hear what they were saying they began their slow spins again. Their movement and the dark room would help mask the fact that they were eavesdropping on the conversation. Victoire's gaze locked onto Pamela and Teddy.

Pamela was twirling her hair and fluttering her eyelashes as she smiled up at Teddy, "Would you like to dance?"

Teddy barely bestowed upon Pamela a glance, "Um, I'm kind of working right now . . ."

Pamela smiled brighter and moved her body closer to Teddy's, "Well then, we could always do something later when you're not working, and we can even go somewhere more private where no one can see us."

Teddy's eyes widened but they were in fear instead of interest, "Uhh, listen. I'm sure that you're a nice girl and all, but I _have_ a girlfriend-"

As Teddy tried to explain to Pamela that he was already taken, Kurt Williamson (whom Victoire hadn't noticed was in the room until she saw him standing uncomfortably next to Teddy) snickered at Teddy's awkward situation.

Xavier had been on the closer side to the couple as they spun in a circle, so once Victoire was able to get closer enough to hear, she missed the beginning of what Pamela was saying. However, she _did _catch the end.

" . . . can work around that. Listen, I'm not looking for a relationship. So what I'm offering is something that nobody besides the two of us need to know about-" Pamela was saying as she traced a finger down Teddy's chest.

Victoire saw Teddy frowned and catch Pamela's hand as it travelled to his stomach. He pushed her away from him and looked at her seriously, "I'm sorry, but I don't think you understood me. I. Have. A. Girlfriend. She is the most amazing person I've ever met and I love her very much. So, I. Am. _NOT_. Interested. And that includes _anything_ that you have to offer."

Pamela stepped back with her mouth open wide; she hadn't expected to be shut down so completely. Teddy took a few more steps away from her and glanced at Kurt. Kurt, whose amused expression had turned to one of contemplation as he listened to Teddy's heated defense, cleared his throat loudly and looked at Pamela.

"Miss I think you should get back to the Ball now." Pamela, pouting because she hadn't gotten her way, turned and walked away slowly, making sure that she was wiggling her hips as she went.

Victoire and Xavier had stopped moving as they listened to the conversation. Because of this, Pamela ended up brushing against Victoire as she moved away.

She glared at Victoire as she passed, "Graceful much Weasley?"

Victoire stared opened mouthed as she watched Pamela strut away. When she was out of her line of sight, she looked back to Xavier. He was grinning slyly at her; it was a look that worried her.

"What?" She whispered.

Xavier turned her slightly so that she was facing where Teddy and Kurt were, and nodded his head in their direction. Victoire looked to where he was gesturing, and almost blushed. Teddy had his eyes locked on her as she stood there swaying slightly with Xavier. The hand that was on Xavier's shoulder unconsciously went to the locket she was wearing around her neck. When she touched it, Teddy smiled sweetly at her. Victoire smiled lovingly back, and he winked a second before the slow song that she was moving to ended. Victoire looked back at Xavier as they let go of each other and took a step back. When they had separated Victoire quickly looked back to find Teddy, but when she did, she saw that both he and Kurt were gone.

* * *

Now, I know that this seems as almost an abrupt ending, but trust me, the next chapter will pick up exactly where this left off.

Comment on what you think of Pamela. And please review with what you thought about this chapter :)

Thank-you to everyone who has reviewed / followed / favourited / read / and enjoyed!

Next week we will see some Vic/Teddy interaction, we'll have many more reasons to love Kyle, and we will also see that Vic just can't catch a break :D *cue evil laugh*

An especially** big thank-you** to:

**AzNeRd, VW18, HeartVacancy, HawkeyeIII, marmar8089, onedirectionlover98, PotterLover25, As the Robin Flies, wish right now x, RoLouG, meeee, nifflerstorm17008, Teddy Lupin Forever, confusednikki24-7, nickybby, brilliant incandescence, MuggleCreator, YukiLovestoWrite, LiveLovePotter, abt, **and **darling-everythingsonfire-x.**


	53. Can't Catch a Break

**A/N**: Okay! Here's the next chapter . . . I just hope that you guys don't hate me at the end of it ;)

And stay to the end for my A/N

**Warning:** A bit of violence in this chapter. It's not gory or anything but this is rated T so I thought that I'd let y'all know.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of this. JKR owns all!

* * *

**Can't Catch a Break**

Victoire had stood near Xavier for a good five minutes as she tried to see where Teddy had gone. Only after Xavier's entreaties that they go back to where the rest of their friends were no doubt sitting, did Victoire stop her persistent search. Xavier's words had been right, when they found their friends they were all accounted for and sitting 'round a table. Xavier sat down next to Ally and quickly grabbed her hand. She raised an eyebrow at him and silently asked him a question.

Xavier rubbed his thumb soothingly over the back of her hand as he answered, "Crisis averted."

Ally smiled brightly and they sat their staring into each other eyes. Victoire mimed vomiting and sat down in-between Ally and Sandra. One of Kyle's long arms was resting across his girlfriend's shoulder. So when Victoire sat down next to Sandra, he reached out and lightly ran his fingers across her bare shoulder.

Victoire shivered and slapped his hand away playfully, "You're really touchy-feely tonight. I don't know whether to laugh good-naturedly or be disturbed."

"You should definitely be disturbed," Sandra said as she looked at Kyle and ran a hand down his cheek.

"Yet you love me anyway," Kyle commented, giving Sandra a quick kiss on the lips.

Victoire's eyes widened and she began to gag again.

Ally, Xavier, Kyle, and Sandra all rolled their eyes, "Okay Victoire we get it. You don't have to keep pretending to vomit."

She stood up quickly and placed her hand over her mouth, "I'm not pretending."

Victoire didn't even have time to listen to her friends' responses before running out of the Great Hall and to the nearest lavatory. She entered the closest stall and proceeded to vomit. After she was finished (and after a few minutes of dry heaving) she sat down on the floor of the stall, and laid her head against the stall wall. After a minute or two of silence, she heard people enter the lavatory.

"Victoire?"

"Vic?"

Victoire took a deep breath but didn't answer. She took another minute to collect herself, and then stood up and walked out of the stall. Standing in front of the sinks and the mirrors -with extremely worried expressions on their faces- were Ally and Sandra.

Ally stepped forward, grabbed Victoire's hand, and squeezed it gently. Sandra grabbed the other and asked, "Eleven-thirty heave?"

Victoire nodded and sighed, "Like clock-work. Bloody Manticore venom."

Ally and Sandra smiled slightly at her expression and let go of Victoire's hands. She moved to the closest sink and turned the water on. After she washed her hands and splashed some water on her face, she looked up at the mirror in front of her. There were red circles under her eyes, her face looked gaunt and pallid, and her skin was still slightly sticky from the sweat she had broken when she regurgitated. _Well don't I just look gorgeous? I need to remember to tell Xavier about this. I found the one thing that I can do and actually look horrible after. I guess Veela magic doesn't actually cover everything._

When Victoire pulled her gaze away from her face and looked at the wider image in the mirror she groaned, "Ugh, Merlin! Look at my hair!"

Even though she usually didn't care about how she looked, Victoire was unhappy with what she saw in the mirror. Her blonde hair (which had been in beautiful curls at the beginning of the night) hung limp and wavy, all traces of the ringlets gone. Her large gold barrette was askew on the side of her head, and the hair on the side of her head that she had lent against the wall of the stall was completely flat.

"Dom's going to kill me," Victoire lamented as she pulled the gold barrette out of her hair and tried to figure out how to fix the flat side of her head.

Sandra came up behind Victoire, took the barrette out of her hand, and begun to set her hair, "Don't worry Vic. I don't think Dom's going to come up for air long enough to notice how your hair's fallen."

Victoire gave her best mate a puzzled look, "What?"

Ally giggled and conjured up a glass of water so Victoire could clean her mouth out, "When we left the Great Hall her mouth was plastered to Valentin's."

Victoire sighed again, but this time at her sister's fickleness, "She's really not helping him with his shyness. I bet she'll have made out with at least two other people before the night is out."

"Well if she can get it, more power to her," Sandra said as she finished setting Victoire's hair. She had combed through it as best as she could with her fingers, and changed the part slightly so that the hair fell more naturally on Victoire's bare shoulders. In addition, she had adjusted the barrette so that it actually held some of Victoire's hair back on the side -instead of just being used for decoration in her hair, as it was when Dom had put it in her hair earlier.

"How's that?"

Victoire smiled, her hair looked a lot less like a mess now, "Perfect. Thank-you Sandy."

Sandra smiled brightly.

"Everything okay in here?"

Victoire and her friends turned around, and she was surprised to see Jilly Donaldson standing in the lavatory wearing her dark Auror's robes.

Victoire nodded her head, "Yeah, just my regular vomiting schedule."

Jilly smiled sympathetically, "Alright then. The Ball's going to continue for another few hours, but if you're tired I could always find someone to escort you back to your dormitory."

Victoire shook her head slowly, "No, I should probably stay at least a little longer or else I'm going to be labelled as one lame Tri-Wizard champion."

Jilly nodded, "Okay. Well if you do choose to leave before the Ball is over, I thought that I'd tell you that Ted and Kurt are patrolling the outer courtyard for the rest of the night. It's not a very difficult task, so one of them could always walk you back to Gryffindor Tower."

Victoire was certain that Jilly's intention to share this information with her wasn't just so she'd know where to go to get an escort back to her room. Jilly nodded her head once more to the girls' before leaving them to themselves.

Ally turned to Victoire and looked at her sympathetically, "We'd understand if you wanted to leave and go find Teddy."

Victoire ran a hand through her hair, "Yeah, maybe later. I should probably spend a bit more time at the Ball though."

Ally nodded and the three girls left the lavatory and went back into the Great Hall. None of the boys asked about what had happened when the girls came back; they knew better to ask while Victoire was around. Therefore, Xavier planned to ask Ally the next time they were alone, and Kyle was going to ask Sandra when they danced next.

They group of six friends talked about nothing in particular for the next several songs. Kyle had just made everyone laugh by telling them that he felt bad for not buying Colton Knott a Christmas gift after they had kissed a week ago, when Victoire really felt her tiredness starting to weigh her down. She stood up and told everyone that she was going to call it a night, and said good night to everyone. She thanked Chris profusely for being her 'date', and walked away from the table.

She really was going to go back to the tower, but she had decided to listen to Jilly's advice and find Teddy first before she went to bed. She had exited the Great Hall and walked up the staircase that she had worried about going down earlier in the night, and was in the Entrance Hall.

If she went to the right, she would be going to the moving staircases, if she went to the left, she would be going out to the courtyard. For the Yule Ball, Professor Longbottom had created a small but beautiful winter garden space out of a series of evergreen hedges and other Christmas plants such as poinsettias and holly bushes, in the courtyard. From what Victoire and her friends had seen earlier in the day, the hedges and other plants were set up almost in a miniature labyrinth. If a person followed the path for a minute or two, they would end up in the large circular shaped heart of the labyrinth where a huge stone bench sat.

Victoire was about to move to the right (and go out into the garden) when she heard her voice being called from behind her. She stopped where she was and turned around. A surprised look came upon her face when she saw Chris coming up to her.

"Is everything okay?" Victoire asked suddenly worried that something had happened.

"What? Oh, everything's fine. A slow song came on so everyone paired up and went to dance," Chris told her.

Victoire looked down at her feet guiltily. She felt bad about pretty much ditching Chris -who had so gallantly agreed to be her escort- so early in on the night. However, she actually wasn't feeling very well and she was only going to say a quick 'hello/goodbye' to Teddy before going up to her dormitory.

"I'm sorry Chris. I know it's awkward to be the odd one out, but I really don't feel well. However, feel free to go ask someone else to dance. Trust me, I don't mind," Victoire told him diplomatically.

Chris put his hands in his pockets and shook his sandy-blonde fringe out of his eyes, "I don't want to dance with anyone else."

Victoire looked at him, "Oh, how stupid of me. I forgot that Belle went home for Christmas holidays."

Chris looked at his feet, "Well . . . yes. But that's not what I meant."

Victoire looked at Chris oddly. She was very tired and she didn't have much patience left to play guessing games, "Uh . . ."

Chris didn't need Victoire to answer him back however, because he continued with a new -in Victoire's mind, unconnected- question, "Vic, do you ever feel odd being the odd one out? I mean in our group of friends. I know that Xavier and Ally didn't officially get together until two weeks ago, but we all knew that it was going to happen. So I want to know how you feel about being the single one."

_Oh yeah. I never did tell Chris about Teddy and I dating. Aw, it's so sweet that he's worried that I feel left out because all of them have someone special in their lives. Well, I know that Teddy and I weren't going to tell many other people, but maybe telling Chris won't be bad, he does seem to be worried about me . . ._ Victoire thought.

"Well actually Chris-" Victoire's explanation was cut off quickly by Chris' next sentences.

"Because if you do feel lonely, I know how you feel. But maybe the fact that we're the two odd ones out isn't a bad thing. Maybe Ally and Xavier pairing off was foreshadowing something else. Maybe we're supposed to be the next ones to pair off."

Victoire's mouth popped open wide, _did he just say-_

It seemed as though Chris was cutting off even Victoire's thought process tonight. Only this time it was his lips, not his words, which stopped her. As he clumsily connected them to hers.

Victoire hadn't realized that she was close to a wall until she felt Chris gently push her back to it until she was trapped against it. He pushed his mouth hard against hers, and it seemed like he was trying to get a favourable response.

Victoire had been so shocked by his actions and words that she was stupefied for a moment, before she realized exactly what was going on. When her senses came back to her she moved her head away from Chris' lips and pushed gently, yet forcefully, against his chest.

Once he was off of her Victoire started in, "What the _bloody Hell_ Chris? What in Merlin's pants do you think you're doing?!"

Chris narrowed his eyes at her, "What the Hell? Vic you practically begged me to be your date for the Ball, you danced with _me_ all night, and you've been receptive to _every_ single signal that I've sent you tonight!"

"What bloody signals?" Victoire asked trying not to get too angry, _maybe this is just a really, really, REALLY, big misunderstanding._

"I got you something to drink, I held you while we danced, heck! I even put my arm around you when we were sitting at the table earlier!"

Victoire's eyes widened. She briefly remembered Chris doing all those things earlier in the night, but she never for one second thought that he was doing it for any other reason than the fact that they were friends and that he _was_ her escort to the Ball. As for him maybe getting touchy-feely, she usually didn't notice things like that as strange when her friends were doing it. Kyle had been jokingly touching her all night.

Victoire decided to try to fix whatever was going on, "Listen Chris, I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong idea-"

"Oh, no!" Chris started looking very angry, "You are not going to give _me_ some-some line Victoire! You've been encouraging me all night and now you've decided that you're just not going to go through with it. Nuh, uh, that's not going to fly. So listen Victoire, I like you a lot-"

"But what about Belle Wembley?" Victoire asked feeling as though she were grasping at straws.

Chris laughed humourlessly, "Oh, she's a nice girl and all, but you have to know that no girl's ever going to compare to you Vic. You're every bloke's dream. You're smart, funny, talented, feisty, and sexy as hell."

Victoire felt like she wanted to scream. The only person she enjoyed complimenting her like that was Teddy. When Chris described what he found attractive about her, she just felt horrid.

"'Sexy as hell'?" She repeated his words, "Chris . . . I don't think that you've thought this through. Yes, I'm prettier than Belle is, but that's just in the conventional way, and it's just the Veela magic! She's definitely much nicer (you know I have a wicked temper) -and she's a Ravenclaw so she probably smarter- and-"

The look of determination on Chris' face caused Victoire's words to become stuck in her throat, "Stop talking to me about Belle! The only reason I was flirting with her was because I thought that you were out of my reach. Even then I was waiting for you to see what was right in front of you!"

"Chris!" Victoire started shocked.

"Don't 'Chris' me Victoire! We've known each other for seven years and I've stood by quietly while you dated and kissed and flirted with all of those other blokes. But now it's my turn! Sandra and Kyle act as though they're practically engaged, and Ally and Xavier have only been dating for two weeks but they're still acting like they're soul mates. It's my turn. With you. We're the only ones left in our group who are alone. This step would make sense Victoire!" Chris tried to reason with her.

Victoire's hands went to grab her hair, (if she hadn't been so stressed about her current situation, she would have found it humorous that she was displaying the same nervous tick Teddy did when he was stressed), and took a deep breath. She spoke to Chris in slow, calm, and collected sentences, "Chris. I'm sorry; I didn't know that you felt this way. But I can't- I don't and I can't see you in that way. I'm sorry if you think that I led you on-"

"If I_ think_ that you led me on?" Chris repeated angrily, "You laughed at my jokes, you sat near me in class, you flirted with me every time we spoke, and you expect me to believe that you didn't do that on purpose? That it was just your Veela magic? That you were doing it unconsciously? That you don't have an interest in me whatsoever?"

Victoire swallowed thickly. When he laid everything out like that, she couldn't blame him for thinking that she had a thing for him. Realizing her mistakes wasn't going to change her answer though, "Chris I'm so, so terribly sorry. I-I didn't mean to make you feel this way. I'm sorry."

Chris' eyes calmed a bit but his face was still hard and angry, "Well, now that you know, what are you going to do about it?"

Victoire looked at him puzzled, "What do you mean?"

Chris took a step closer to Victoire. She consequently, took a step back; causing her back to become pressed against the cold stone of the wall behind her again, "What I mean is Victoire. Now you know how I feel, so what are we going to do about it? Everybody else is paired up, why can't we give it a try?"

Chris had moved forward and had begun to stroke her cheek gently with his fingertips. It bothered Victoire so she grabbed his arm to stop him, "Chris, I'm sorry, but I don't feel that way about you."

"I didn't say that you had to feel that way about me Vic. I'm a man who's confident enough in his own abilities to say that if you give me the chance I'm sure that I could make you feel the way I do. Even if it does take time," Chris said, his face finally softening.

Victoire gulped, "Chris I-"

Chris had gotten tired of Victoire's excuses. He placed both of his hands on the wall on either side of her head and crashed his lips down onto hers. Victoire's eyes widened again and she tried to push him off of her as she did earlier. Chris wasn't having it this time though, he was certain that once Victoire was able to get past the initial shock, that she would come around very favourably.

Victoire was pushing and pushing against him but all to no avail. She was a second away from trying to scream when she suddenly felt they press of Chris' body and lips leave hers. As soon as the pressure was gone, Victoire's knees gave out and her back slid down the stonewall. She was breathing heavily. When she looked up, she was surprised to see whom her rescuer was.

Kyle was standing a bit of a distance away, he had Chris pushed up against the wall and was currently arguing with him harshly.

"Kyle!" Victoire exclaimed shocked. He was giving Chris a murderous look, yet Victoire would usually swear that he was the most easy-going and non-violent man that she knew.

Kyle let go of Chris when he heard Victoire call out to him. Chris ended up sliding down the wall (a lot less gracefully than Victoire had) and was floundering around on the floor. Kyle barely spared him a glance before pacing the short distance over to Victoire, helping her up, and enfolding her into him arms.

Victoire didn't realize that there were tears falling from her eyes until she heard Kyle quietly whispering to her not to cry, and that Chris wasn't worth her messing up her pretty little face with tears.

"It's okay Vic. It's okay. I'm here. You're alright . . . you are okay, aren't you?" Kyle asked his eyes suddenly flashing with hate. He thought that he had just walked in on Chris trying to get Victoire to kiss him. However, Victoire's tears were starting to make him wonder if Chris had tried something worse before he'd shown up.

Victoire nodded into Kyle's silk dress robe clad chest, "I'm fine. He was just ki-kissing me."

Kyle silently thanked Merlin that Chris hadn't laid a literal hand on her. Victoire turned her gaze from the black fabric of Kyle's dress robes, to where Chris was on the floor trying to stand up. His legs weren't cooperating with him -it almost looked like there were no bones left in them- he was all floppy.

"_Jelly-legs jinx_?" Victoire asked Kyle, a slight smile forming on her lips despite the fact that she felt like she could still cry for a while.

Kyle smirked self-confidently, "Yup."

Victoire looked back to Kyle, "What were you doing out here?"

"I was dancing with Sandra, and looked back at our table and saw that Chris was gone. I mentioned my observations aloud and she said that he probably just left to find someone to dance with because we'd left him alone. I had a funny feeling about him leaving so soon after you'd left. Something just didn't feel right. Intuition I guess. So I told Sandra that I had to go do something, and I came out here and saw that Chris had you backed up against the wall and was kissing you," Kyle explained.

Victoire swallowed thickly, "He was trying to convince me that we should be together because all of you were together."

Kyle laughed humourlessly, "That might have been part of his motives, but it wasn't all of it. Chris has had a secret crush on you for the past year at least."

Victoire looked at Kyle open mouthed, "What- but- you knew?"

Kyle sighed, he was angry with himself for not mentioning Chris' crush before. He didn't think that Chris' 'innocent little crush' on Victoire would go this far, "I'm so sorry Vic. I didn't think that it would get this far. I thought it was more of a little crush than an infatuation. Although that was why he wasn't on my original list of possible candidates for you for a date, I knew that he wouldn't see this as an unattached date."

"If you knew that Chris liked me, why didn't you tell me when I asked him to be my date?" Victoire asked.

Kyle shook his head, "I couldn't just come out and tell you. _He_ didn't even know that I knew."

"Then how did you know?"

"Xavier sleeps like the dead, and so do our other dorm mates. I'm always the first person to wake in the mornings, and Chris talks in his sleep," Kyle clarified.

"How could you get that he fancied me out of his sleep-talking?"

"I got curious the first couple of times I heard his say your name. Then he started saying more . . . _things_ . . . and I deduced that he had the hots for."

Victoire sighed and closed her eyes, "Godric can tonight get any worse?"

Kyle patted her shoulder comfortingly, "You should probably go find Ted, and then have him walk you to Gryffindor tower."

Victoire usually argued when someone insisted that she had a person escort her to wherever she was going too. However, taking into account what just happened between her and Chris, she figured that Kyle's suggestion was a good one.

"Weasley! Line! What's going on out here?"

Victoire and Kyle turned and saw Colton Knott coming towards him. He was wearing a set of silver and green dress robes and Anastasia Greengrass (who was being dragged behind him by her hand) was wearing a strapless A-line floor length dress in a matching green. Victoire assumed that Colton and Anastasia had been enjoying themselves at the ball, but the look on Colton's face now screamed 'business' as he approached them. Obviously this Head Boy was about to get into his element.

"What's going on here?" Colton repeated as he looked from Victoire and Kyle, to Chris who was still struggling to stand quite a distance away from them.

Kyle smiled brightly, "I'm not entirely sure myself Colton. Vic, Chris, and I were just chatting, and the next thing we know Chris is acting as if he's been hit with a _jelly-legs jinx_. There was no one else around, so I assume that it was some sort of timed practical joke. Unless you've seen someone suspicious around?"

Colton eyed Kyle warily. He didn't have any reason to believe that Kyle had lied to him, but the look on his face scared him. It was the same 'poker-face' he'd put on before he'd kissed him two weeks ago to break the mistletoe's enchantment.

"No, I haven't seen anybody."

Kyle nodded, "Alright then, I guess it's still a mystery. However, now that you're here, would you help me get Chris to the Hospital Wing? It seems that whatever happened to Chris, the jinx was locked and the counter-curse won't work."

Victoire bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. Kyle definitely gave Chris a good jinx if he made sure that it was impossible to use the regular counter-curse.

"Can't Victoire help you?" Colton asked derisively.

Kyle laughed good-naturedly, "She was ill a little while ago. Therefore, I had suggested that she go out and get some fresh air from Professor Longbottom's winter garden. That's actually, where we were going before Chris was cursed. I still think she should get some air, so if you would be so kind Mr Head Boy?"

Colton sighed but nodded his head. He told Anastasia to go back into the Great Hall, and then walked over to where Chris was floundering on the ground.

Kyle mumbled something under his breath about how he didn't want to help Chris when he was the one who cursed him, but turned to Victoire with a smile, "Go get some _air_. Colton and I will deal with Chris."

Victoire smiled and hugged Kyle, "Thanks . . . you're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

"Vic, I don't know if I can keep something like this from them. I tell Sandra absolutely everything, and Xavier's my best mate . . ." Kyle began.

Victoire sighed, "Please? Tomorrow's Christmas, I don't want to worry them over the holidays. I promise that I'll tell them all soon. I can't keep promises from them very well either, but please, let me tell them when I think the time is right."

Kyle exhaled, "Fine. Now go."

Victoire smiled as Kyle gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. He watched her as she walked out into the temporary gardens in the courtyard.

The fresh, cold air was revitalizing to Victoire. As she scanned the gardens that Professor Longbottom created, she smiled slightly. The large evergreen hedges that created the labyrinth were everywhere, and just a few metres in front of her, between two large white poinsettias, was what she took for the entrance. A quick scan of the area around her showed neither Teddy nor Kurt anywhere to be found at the front of the labyrinth. So, she decided to take a walk through the hedges until she found one of them (preferably Teddy).

A few steps into the labyrinth, Victoire noticed that even though there was snow on the ground, the air around her was rather warm. Higher above her head she recognized the telltale sign of large-scale heating charms. The charms were exceptionally done, considering that the snow on the ground was still intact, so Victoire figured that Professor Flitwick must have aided Professor Longbottom in making the garden. Victoire walked through the winding labyrinth slowly, she wanted to see Teddy, but on the other hand, she was very nervous. She knew that no matter what look she plastered on her face he'd be able to see right through it in an instant. He'd quickly know that something had occurred and upset her.

As she tried to figure out exactly how she would explain to Teddy about what Chris had done to her, she heard a crisp _crack_ of a twig from somewhere behind her. Victoire turned around and frowned at what she saw.

"Please Austin . . . I'm really not in the mood tonight," Victoire said as she faced Austin Pennington. He must have been at the Ball, and decided to come outside to get some air because he was wearing a rich-looking pair of navy-blue dress robes.

Pennington didn't respond. He just paced closer and closer until he was a foot away from Victoire.

Her eyes widened in surprise and she took a few steps back to put some distance between them. Her hands came up as she moved, "C'mon Austin, we've discussed this before. I _like_ my own space, and I _do not_ want you in it."

Pennington continued to walk toward her in silence. Victoire had stepped back as far as she could until she felt the scratch of an evergreen hedge against her. She didn't need to look back to confirm that she'd just backed herself up against the wall of the labyrinth.

Victoire chose to ignore the tingling of fear that erupted within her. This was Austin Pennington she was facing; he might have been creepy and annoying, but she wasn't scared of him. She never was before, and she didn't plan to start then, no matter how incredibly peculiar he was being.

"Seriously Austin. Just leave me alone before I do something that you'll regret," Victoire warned in a steady voice.

Pennington was suddenly so close to her that his hands shot forward and grabbed Victoire's wrists. He moved them until they were up above her head, and pressed his body against hers. His face was only a few inches away when he taunted her in a rough and scratchy voice, "And how are you going to do something to me? You don't even have a wand."

Victoire was startled. She wasn't sure what surprised her the most, the fact that his voice was so . . . unusual, or the fact that he could tell that she didn't have a wand on her. Victoire was also inwardly cursing herself.

_Why didn't I figure out some way to keep my wand on me and wear this dress? Why didn't I make sure to bring my wand tonight?_

"It seems that you're at my mercy. And trust me this is going to be interesting." The wicked glint in Pennington's dark as night eyes truly frightened Victoire. He had exasperated and aggravated her to no end before, but right now, he was actually frightening her.

"Austin please, you know this is inappropriate. Trying to spike my morning pumpkin juice with a love potion is one thing, but right now you're actually forcing yourself on me!" Victoire tried to reason with him. He may be crazy, but he wasn't insane or stupid, he was a Ravenclaw after all.

Pennington's face twisted into a truly evil smirk, "Tsk, tsk little girl. You think this is about some little commonplace physical attraction. You have no idea what this is about, nor do you understand what you've gotten yourself into."

Victoire -who had been struggling to get her hands free from Pennington's grip- suddenly stopped all of her movement. _What in the name of Merlin's bloody pants, is he nattering about?_

"What the bloody Hell Pennington? Have you lost your-" Victoire's yelling was cut off. Pennington moved his grip on Victoire's wrists into one large hand, and then moved his free hand to cover Victoire's mouth. The rest of her flabbergasted exclamation was muffled by Pennington's large palm.

Victoire's eyes were wide and Pennington whispered to her harshly, "Be quiet you bint! What? Do you want people to hear us?"

Victoire glared at him harshly and then bit his hand. He growled out a string of swear words, removed his hand from her mouth, and then quickly grabbed his hand and waved it sharply. He stared at Victoire and tauntingly eyed her, "There, make all the sound you want now, no one will be able to hear you. Scream your lungs out it will make no difference. No one will be able to hear you through the muffling charm I've casted."

Victoire's ocean-blue eyes widened in shock before they narrowed at him. He still had her pressed against the hedge and one of his large hands trapped both of her small ones, "Let me go!"

Pennington moved his hand up and trailed the end of his wand down the curve of Victoire's cheek, "Oh Honey, you actually think that I'm going to let you go? That's not how we operate."

Part of Victoire's mind noticed that Austin had used the word 'we' when he spoke, but the larger part of her mind was stuck on the callous tone of voice he used. She had never, _ever_, heard him use that tone of voice, "What the _Hell_ is wrong with you?"

Pennington seemed to use up all of his patience; he put his wand into the pocket of his dress robes and raised his hand to Victoire's face. He gently ran his fingers across her cheek before moving his hand again and slapping her across the face, "Stop being such a brat and just shut your mouth. I'm in charge here and you're not to do any questioning, understand?"

Victoire's body didn't even register the pain of the slap. She couldn't. The shock of what had just happened was so strong that it left her numb. She stared at Pennington for a good two minutes out of shock and disbelief before the pain decided to set in. When it did, she began to swear profusely in a mixture of English and French. After a particularly lengthy string of choice French swear words, aimed specifically at Pennington, he glared at her and swore back at her in French.

Victoire was stunned again; she didn't think that he'd be able to understand her French cussing out, let alone know which words to use back at her.

He looked back at her with a smirk, "That's right _Princess_, I understood everything you just said. None of your little mumbles to yourself in another language is a secret. So if you want just go ahead and speak your mind, as long as you don't ask any stupid questions."

She glared at him, "Fine I won't ask a question. I'll tell you something. You can go ahead and intimidate me or slap me, or whatever you want to do with me; but if you think that you're going to scare me enough that I won't tell anyone what happened you're dead wrong. You picked the wrong girl to mess with. I may not be able to get back at you right now, but I've got connections and there's no way you're not going to pay for this."

Pennington laughed, it was very deep, gruff, and it sounded wrong to her ears, "That's so cute. You think that this is something that's just going to go away. Now let me tell you something-" The hand that he had grasped around her wrists pushed them deeper into the foliage.

Victoire's hands were 'tied' yet a good amount of her hand ended up being higher than the hedge that was behind her when they were stretched out. She could feel the air against her fingertips, and got an idea. As Pennington began to talk more (She thought that he was complaining about her but she didn't really pay much attention) she closed her eyes and concentrated. She didn't have her wand on her, but she tried to push all of her magical energy and anger into her fingertips.

"Look at me!" Pennington ordered her harshly.

Victoire opened her eyes slowly as she lost concentration from his sudden demand. She stared at Pennington evenly.

He was staring back at her with his teeth barred, "You will listen and look at me when I'm speaking to you, understand?"

Victoire stared at him in disbelief.

The look she gave him seemed to anger him even more. Victoire's eyes watched his face intently. It looked like he was shaking with anger.

_Wait? His face is actually shaking . . . no, not shaking . . . flickering? His face is flickering -it's not staying in place. Is his face . . . is his face dissolving?_

Victoire had been staring fixedly at Pennington's face, it was hard to see in the dark, but it was almost as if his facial features were flickering.

However, it seemed as though he didn't like the fact that she was looking at him, but obviously not listening. He raised his hand again and slapped her across the face on the same cheek as before.

Victoire closed her eyes to the pain, and channelled all of her anger from the slap and all of the power she could muster into her trapped hands and fingertips.

It only took a few seconds for a response.

Victoire's eyes were still closed, so she was surprised when she felt Pennington's body and grip leave her. For the second time that night, she felt her body slid down a wall and crumple onto a floor, this time it was in the labyrinth. Her ears were buzzing and she couldn't specifically pick out the words and sounds that were being yelled around her. She didn't notice anything until she felt a pair of warm and strong arms come around her. They offered her a cover of warmth, comfort, and familiarity. She should have been sensitive to someone enveloping her so completely in their arms, but she recognized them the moment that they touched her.

The buzzing in her ears slowly lessened and she was finally able to make out the words that were being whispered into her ear, "Shhh Vic. Everything's okay. Everything's going to be all right Sweetheart. You're fine, you're fine."

It wasn't until Victoire opened her eyes that she realized that she was crying. Her eyes had to take a minute to focus before they locked in on the pair of deep sapphire blue eyes that were looking intently at her.

Teddy was looking at her with such worry in his face that she felt the tears begin to pool in her eyes and fall down her face again. She let out a low sob, threw her arms around his neck, and then buried her face into the crook of his neck. She could feel herself being lifted up and being carried a short distance in his muscular arms. When she felt him stop moving she also felt him sit down on something, and cradle her into his lap.

Teddy whispered gently into her ear until she opened her eyes and looked at him. Once her eyes had dried up a bit, he began, "What happened Vic?"

Victoire took a deep breath but she wanted answers first, "Why are you here with me? Where'd Austin go? Did you just let him go?"

Teddy placed a hand on the back of her neck and gently rubbed his thumb against it, "Shhh. Calm down. I wouldn't just let him go after doing -whatever he did- to you. However, I couldn't just leave you there by yourself either. When we saw what was happening, and after we a _Revulsion jinx_ to get him off you, he ran. Kurt went after him and I stayed behind to make sure that you were okay. Don't worry, Kurt will get him, he wasn't that far behind."

Victoire nodded woodenly and placed her head into the crook of his neck again. Teddy moved his hands and ran them up and down her bare arms, "Please Vic. Tell me what happened."

"I was coming to find you. I had decided to leave the Ball early and I wanted to see you before I went to bed. I was looking for you in the labyrinth when I heard the crack of a twig. I turned around and saw Austin. I told him that I wasn't in the mood to deal with whatever he wanted, but he kept walking towards me until he had me backed up against the hedge. He began to say things that I didn't quite understand. Stuff about how I'm in over my head and how what he wanted from me had nothing to do with a commonplace physical attraction. I couldn't get much more out of him; he wasn't making much sense. How'd you find me?"

"Kurt and I saw your hands above the hedge. You used your Veela powers to light your hands on fire, didn't you?"

Victoire nodded, "I didn't have my wand on me because I didn't think to bring it with me to the Ball, and Austin said that he cast a spell that wouldn't allow you to hear me if I screamed, so it was my only option."

Teddy looked at Victoire closely before slowly raising his hand to her cheek. He didn't touch it, but Victoire could feel the warmth of his fingers ghost across her skin, "Did he hit you?"

Victoire bit her lip, "Yes. Twice. He didn't want me to ask questions and then he wanted to look and listen to him when he was speaking."

Teddy's hand curled into a tight fist and his dark blue eyes blazed with anger, "I can't believe that he _hit_ you."

"I can't either," Victoire said quietly. Tears began to cloud up her eyes again. He saw that she was about to break down and cupped he cupped her cheeks gently.

"You're okay Victoire," he told her softly again.

Victoire looked at him determinedly, "I know. But Teddy, hitting me isn't something Austin would do. He's and prat and an arsehole but he wouldn't hit a girl."

"What are you getting at Vic?" Teddy asked puzzled now.

"I don't think that that man was Austin Pennington," Victoire said explicitly.

"But-"

Teddy was cut off by Kurt's arrival. Kurt Williamson had come running around the closest hedge and stopped when he saw Teddy and Victoire sitting on the bench. He braced his hands on his knees and took several deep lungful's of breath.

Teddy looked at Kurt intently, "Where is he?"

Kurt -who was still breathing heavily- answered irritably, "I was about a foot away from him when he suddenly turned on the spot and _disapparated_! I don't know how the hell a seventeen-year-old would be able to somehow break through Hogwarts' anti-disapparation charms but he did."

Teddy was shocked at this information. He looked down at Victoire who was still in his arms.

She stared right back at him, "I stand by what I said."

Teddy peeled his eyes away from her to look at Kurt; he was standing there looking at him expectantly. His facial expression was clearly asking what he thought their next step should be.

Teddy took a deep breath before answering Kurt's silent question, "We need to go speak to Kingsley."

* * *

Okay, well I hope you guys enjoyed that!

**A/N:** I know, I know. Vic just can't stay out of trouble. I guess it's a good thing that she can think on her feet and that Kyle was there to help. I had given you a few chapters of normality, but you guys can't tell me that you didn't expect something bad to happen to her? This was a party after all, and there are more reasons why she hates parties besides the fact that she is always the centre of attention.

Some of you had asked me previously about when I mentioned that Kyle's parents never went to Hogwarts even though that were both purebloods so I thought that I'd explain. Kyle's mom attended Beauxbatons as a child. She wasn't French, but her family that thought that she could learn more 'lady-like skills' from the French school. Kyle's father was actually homeschooled, or home-tutored. His (Kyle's father) parents didn't want him to get caught up with all of the pureblood mania that was actually still presnet even a few years after Voldemorts fall (I estimate Kyle's parents to be older than Harry and the gang, more Bill and Charlie's age, so they would have been a few years old when Voldemort attacked the Potters). And because Kyle's father was home schooled he was able to go with his father to different countries while he was on his buisness trips, giving Kyle's fatehr first hand experience with the company he was about to inheirit. Because he was going to take his father's company after him, he didn't really need the exact formal education of Hogwarts. Though, Kyle's father was allowed to take the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s because his parents had pulled some string so he wouldn't be disadvantaged compared to other students who went to Hogwarts :)

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has **reviewed / followed / favourited / read /** and just **enjoyed** my story.

**Next week:** Teddy takes the lead and we see what Kingsley has to say about this whole incident.

**New topic:** Okay while I was writing a few chapters ahead of this one, I had to go back into some of my past chapters to get a fact about something that I'd written (nothing big, just something I couldn't remember) and looking back on my writing made me think. It's been a year and a bit since I started writing this, and even in that (relatively short) amount of time I've noticed that my writing style has improved (as it would after practice). Looking back on my previous chapters I was struck with the spelling and grammar mistakes that I saw. It wasn't much as compared to other fics I've read, but I'm sort of a perfectionsit.

**Anyway**, long story short I've decided to take the next bit of time to go through my previous chapters and adjust them. Fix spelling mistakes that I find, grammar errors, and in some places make it flow a bit better. I'm not going to change any of the major or even the minor parts of the stroy, I'm just going to make it easier and better to read. So, I'm not sure what's going to happen with the website, but if you guys get lots of e-mails saying that I've replaced a chapter that I've already written, well you'll know what I've done. You can ignore them if you like (that is if you get them) or you can re-read them if you like. I just thought I'd let you know that I wasn't doing any major changes with the story, and that you don't **have** to read them.

**Ending:** And a BIG HUGE THANK-YOU to everyone who reviewed, especially:

**nifflerstorm17008**, **trustxbelieve**, **RoonilFreakin'Wazlib**, **AzNeRd**, **LiveLovePotter**, **RoLouG**, **brilliant incandescence**, **marmar8089, wish right now x**, **Owlcity2013**, **As the Robin Flies**, **MuggleCreator**, **PotterLover25**, **darling-everythingsonfire-x**, **confusednikki24-7**, **Diamondgirl3**, **EsaRavenclaw**, **HopeLoveDreams**, **xSuperNovax**, **YukiLovestoWrite**, **Guest**, **potterhead1997**, **xXSectumsemperaXx**, X**oxMountainGirlxoX**, and **Dance Elle Dance**.

**nifflerstorm17008:** What? Awesome! What did you go see?

**AzNeRd**: There was some Veela fire in this one . . . not how you wanted it, but it was helpful . . . ;)

**LiveLovePotter**: Your review made me laugh because you weren't the first person to want some Veela fire to go against Pamela. I find it funny how my readers hate my charcaters so much that they want them physically hurt. I think it means that I was writting them properly. :)

**wish right now x**: Thank you. And. I'm jealous. What did you go see?

**Owlcity2013**: Thank you. And especially thank you for all of the reviews of the previous chapters. I know I didn't answer them, I would have today if you hadn't reviewed for this last chapter, but since you reviewed here, I thought I'd answer you here like with all of the others.

**YukiLovestoWrite**: I'm not sure if she has a heart. But she is actually a very couregeous person. She's not afriad of anything. That is because she's not very smart though, which is an example of why she's not in either Ravenclaw or Slytherin, and as for being nice and accepting in Hufflepuff . . . well Gryffindor might have been the only place that would take her ;)

**Guest**: I'm going to try to anwser everything briefly. Okay, so yes, this is going to be long. I didn't really expect it to be when I started but it is because my charcaters just like to get in the way with all of their drama. I'm expecting the second half to move faster than the first, because as of now I have multiple storylines that don't seem to connect at all. And, as any (I consider myself an okay one) author would know, you can't have a bunch of endless story lines in one story. So the second half will move fatser when everything starts to connect, and by the end (if you stay that long) you will see that even the chapters that didn't seem to have importance in the beginning, were there for a reason by the end. And don't feel bad, because you're not the first person to ask me the same questions. :)


	54. Investigations

**A/N:** Here's the next chapter, I'm updating a day early because the rest of my week is going to be a bit busy so I thought I'd get this out before I ran out of time.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of this, it all belongs to J. Rowling.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Investigations**

To say that Kingsley Shacklebolt was pissed would be an understatement. He was utterly and completely livid. He paced through the corridors of Hogwarts School rather quickly seeing as he was fueled by his anger. Two minutes and fourteen seconds ago, Kingsley had been contacted via floo, by Minerva McGonagall. She had said that Ted Lupin and Kurt Williamson had just entered her office with a much-disheveled looking Victoire Weasley and had told her that something serious had happened. McGonagall wouldn't tell Kingsley anything else because she needed him to be there soon, and because she knew that, he would prefer to hear all of the details from the kids themselves.

Once Kingsley had made it to the gargoyle outside of Headmistress McGonagall's office, he growled out the password to it and ran up the stairs. He whipped open the office door and stopped where he was when he took in the scene before him.

Victoire was sitting on a wooden chair near Professor McGonagall's office, in a red ball dress. Her hair was dishevelled, her eyes and face were red, and she was crying. Ted was kneeling in front of her chair and was rubbing her back gently as she cried into his chest. McGonagall wasn't sitting behind her desk like he had expected; instead, she was standing away from it, whispering to Kurt Williamson. Both of them had their backs to the two near the chair, giving them a little semblance of privacy as Victoire broke down further and sobbed even louder.

Kingsley cleared his throat loudly. Professor McGonagall and Kurt looked up to where Kingsley stood in the doorway.

McGonagall stepped forward, "Kingsley . . ."

Kingsley nodded to her but moved to go past her. He needed to get to Victoire, to console her. McGonagall placed a stern hand onto his arm and looked at him firmly, "You can't. This is now an investigation and you're not allowed to affect her. You have to be professional."

"But-" Kingsley began.

McGonagall stared him down, "No. Ted's taking care of it. Give him a few minutes; he'll get her to talk eventually."

Kingsley sighed, "Fine. But while we're waiting I want to know what _you_ know."

McGonagall nodded, "Wait a few minutes. Harry, Ron, and Bill are on their way."

Kingsley narrowed his eyes slightly, "You called her parents? I know they need to know, but if Fleur gets here it's probably going to be hysteria."

McGonagall nodded again, "That's why I contacted Bill only and specifically asked him not to tell Fleur the particulars until we found them out for ourselves."

At that moment, the fireplace in the room lit up with green flames and Bill Weasley appeared. He quickly jumped out of the fireplace, and right behind him Harry and Ron arrived. The three of them looked at Victoire as she was being comforted by Teddy, and then to where McGonagall stood with Kingsley.

"What's going on?" Harry asked cautiously. He and Ron were looking at Kingsley for a response, but his hand was holding tightly onto Bill's forearm. He understood that his brother-in-law wanted to go and physically comfort his daughter, but he knew that the procedure for any serious incident was to question the victim when the family wasn't in the room. Since that seemed almost impossible seeing as Victoire seemed to be related to half of the Auror department, keeping Bill where he was, was a close second to following the rules.

Kingsley shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea."

Harry looked confused, "Minerva didn't tell you anything specifically about the assault?"

Kingsley's eyes narrowed irately, "Assault? This was an assault!"

Harry's eyes widened in shock and he looked at McGonagall, "Oops?"

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at Harry, "Thank-you very much Mr Potter."

Harry looked properly shamed before Professor McGonagall turned to Kingsley and Bill, "Calm down, the both of you. Mr Williamson over here will explain what he knows, and by that time Victoire will probably be able to talk again."

Kurt swallowed thickly and began, "Ted and I were patrolling outside, in Professor Longbottom's winter labyrinth. We noticed some odd blue flames above one of the hedges close to the centre. I saw them first and pointed them out to Ted when I noticed that they weren't causing anything else to catch on fire. Ted seemed to recognize them right away as well, not normal 'magical fire' I heard him mutter. He took off running towards them and I followed. I guess that even from that distance he was able to recognize that they were Veela fire. I was a few feet behind him so he turned the corner of the hedge first. We saw a student in dark-blue dress robes pressed up against Miss Weasley who was in turn pressed against the hedge. He had two of her hands incapacitated in one of his hands, and the other was holding his wand, which was loosely beside him. Ted used the revulsion jinx to get the man away from her. The suspect got up as soon as he could, he fired a few stunning spells, and then ran off through the labyrinth. Ted and I moved to dodge the stunners, than split up. He told me to go after the culprit because I was closest, and he went to see if Miss Weasley was all right. I chased him a good distance through the labyrinth until I had almost caught up with him. I was certain that I'd be able to overpower him and cut him off. He had a moving shield charm around him so I couldn't send a spell at him. When I was about to get him, he turned on spot and disapparated. I was shocked because I thought that it was impossible to disapparate within Hogwarts grounds. I searched the area he had disappeared from, found nothing, and then left to go find Ted again. I found him sitting on the bench in the middle of the labyrinth with Miss Weasley; he was trying to get her to explain what had happened. After I told him about the culprit disappearing, he decided that we should contact Professor McGonagall, Shacklebolt, and everyone else."

Kingsley nodded. Kurt gave him the facts, and only the facts; that was good. He was trying to separate himself from the incident and explain in an unbiased way. Kingsley knew that he'd have to do that himself to find the underlying cause of the incident, "Thank-you Auror Williamson."

Kingsley looked at McGonagall, "We need to speak to Victoire now."

McGonagall nodded and they turned to look where Victoire and Ted were sitting. It seemed that Teddy had calmed Victoire down quite a bit. There were tearstains on her face, but her eyes were no longer leaking. He had her face cupped in his hands, but she wasn't hiding into his chest anymore, and she was looking him in the eye. He asked her something quietly and she nodded her head slowly. He nodded back and moved his lips to her forehead. He kissed her skin tenderly and then whispered something even more quietly into her skin. He kissed her forehead once more and then let go of her face and stood up. He held out his hand to her and she took it, and stood up. He let go of her hand and placed it at the small of her back. They walked over to where everyone else was standing.

Kingsley watched as Harry let go of Bill's arm to allow him to walk over to his daughter. He placed an arm over her shoulder, brought her close to him, and kissed her temple. Victoire was now bookended by Ted and her father. She looked to Harry and Kingsley and asked, "What do you want to know?"

Kingsley watched her face intently, "What happened in the labyrinth?"

She took a deep breath, "I got sick about an hour and a bit ago. I was feeling like crap, so I said goodnight to my friends and told them that I was going to go to bed. Ally suggested that I find Teddy out in the courtyard before going to bed -I think she was worried that I was feeling worse than I let on and thought that I'd tell him about it. I was halfway through the labyrinth when I heard a twig being stepped on. I turned around and saw him."

"Who was it?" Kingsley asked emotionlessly.

"He looked like Austin Pennington," Victoire said.

Kingsley and Harry shared a look, "He _looked_ like him?"

Victoire nodded and crossed her arms stubbornly across her chest. Kingsley knew that look. She wasn't going to explain, so he looked at Teddy.

Teddy sighed, "I was convinced that it was Pennington. At the beginning, she was convinced that it was he too, but a little ways through she wasn't so sure. Just get her to continue with the story and she'll explain."

Kingsley nodded he looked at Victoire, "Continue."

"I asked him to go away because I wasn't in the mood to deal with him at the moment. He hadn't said anything to me upon meeting me, but I still didn't want to talk to him. He kept walking closer and closer to me. I backed up until I hit the hedge. He came closer to me and pressed against me. He ended up grabbing my wrists and pressing them up against the hedge above my head. He did that after he taunted me about not having a wand-"

"You didn't have your wand?" Kingsley asked shocked. He definitely taught her better than that.

Victoire frowned and gestured to the tight red dress she was still wearing, "Where do you expect me to keep a wand in this outfit?"

Kingsley rolled his eyes, "Fine, we'll argue about the fact that you didn't have your wand on you later. Please go on."

"I'm not sure how he knew about my not having a wand, but I'm just going to guess that it was common sense. So he taunted me a bit and then said stuff to me and I didn't really understand where he was coming from. He said something about how what he was doing had nothing to do with a commonplace physical attraction; it was confusing. I tried to reason with him and tell him to let me go, but he said that that's not how they operate. He used the plural, which was also puzzling. He put his hand over my mouth to shut me up. I bit him so that he'd get his hand off my face. He swore out and then cast a spell that would muffle any sounds I made. He let my mouth go and I asked him what the hell was wrong with him. He slapped me then and-"

"WHAT!"

Victoire didn't know where to turn; both her father and Kingsley had yelled out in disbelief. Bill was closer so he grabbed his daughter's chin and moved her face until he could see her cheek properly. Kingsley could see the red marks from where he stood. When he'd first gotten there, he thought that Victoire's face was only red because she was so upset. Now that she wasn't hiding her face in Teddy's chest, he could see the distinct angry finger-shaped marks that adorned her cheek. Parts of which seemed to be turning bluish with bruising.

"He slapped me across the cheek, but that wasn't the weird part. I started to swear at him, and after a particularly long sequence of French swear words he answered back in French."

Teddy gave Victoire a look of surprise, "I didn't know that Pennington knew French."

"That's the thing I'm sure that Austin doesn't. But whoever hit me sure knew what I was calling him."

Kingsley nodded as he digested the information, "Is there more?"

Victoire nodded, "He began to say some more things that didn't make much sense, but I tuned him out when I realized that my hands were trapped, but my fingertips were above the hedge. I knew that I couldn't yell, or use my wand but I thought that if I got my hands to light up with my Veela magic, that I'd be able signal someone. I closed my eyes to concentrate but I guess he didn't like that, because he slapped me again on the same cheek and told me look and listen to him when he spoke to me. His slap gave me the anger boost I needed to jump-start my Veela powers. I closed my eyes again, felt his body go flying off me, and then Teddy was there trying to get me to stop crying."

Kingsley thought through what Victoire had told him before asking, "So what makes you think that it wasn't actually Mr Pennington?"

"Okay, I will be the first to admit that he's a creep, and that we don't get along, and that he usually says extremely inappropriate things to me, but he wouldn't assault me like that. Try to force me to kiss him, maybe; slap me multiple times just because I wasn't listening to him, no. I mean I've broken his nose at least two times over the past few years and he's never raised his wand or hand at me. He can't take no for an answer but he wouldn't do something like this. Besides, what he was saying made no sense, he used the plural term 'we'; he would never actually share me if he had me. He understood what I was saying to him in French, and I've cussed him out in French before and he hasn't understood a word of it. Also, there is no way that Austin would have the power to break through Hogwarts' charms and to disparate on the grounds . . . plus there was something else, I just can't remember it right now . . ." Victoire said trying to think back to the night; it was kind of hazy now that she was trying to come up with specifics.

"Victoire," Harry began slowly. He shared a look with Kingsley before continuing, "What you're saying, while it is a good recall, I just don't think that we can call this evidence. They're just things that you're saying-"

"Wait! I remember the weird thing now!" Victoire announced suddenly, "After he slapped me for the second time, his face started to, well it looked like it was rippling."

"Rippling?" Ron asked Victoire confusedly.

"You know how the surface of the water looks when you throw a rock into it? How it ripples yet it still looks similar and it will go back to the same? That's what his face did, his facial features rippled, then went back to normal," Victoire tried to explain.

"So would it look like someone was using polyjuice potion?" McGonagall couldn't help but ask.

Kingsley shook his head a second before Victoire did; he let her answer, "No. With polyjuice potion, the change would be a gradual fade. Besides I didn't see anything underneath it, it was almost as if the face was blank underneath the ripple. Plus he didn't drink anything that would be the potion taking affect; the ripple itself was only about a second long. I would say that it was a trick of the light, only there was hardly any light that could flicker. The closest thing I could think of to make it look like the face was rippling would be metamorphmagus powers, but I've seem Teddy morph hundreds of thousands of times and he's never done anything even close to what I saw. It takes effort to morph even the smallest part of the body and the ripple seemed to happen unconsciously."

Teddy nodded along with what Victoire was saying and echoed her words, "She told me a few minutes ago, and I tried to copy the effect she told me about. I've practiced with my morphing all my life and I know that it takes too much effort to morph than to accomplish what Victoire described to me."

Kingsley considered everything, "It could have always been an appearance charm or another potion of some sort but those would take forever to put on beforehand, and there are so many of them that it would take forever to try to go through all of them and test to see if they would make the same rippling effect."

"If you don't think that the person that apparated away was actually Pennington, then where is the actual Austin Pennington?" Ron asked.

Teddy answered, "I had the Marauder's Map on me, so when we left to come up here I gave it to Jilly Donaldson and asked her to look at it, find Austin Pennington, and then bring him in here because we needed to speak to him."

Almost as if they'd planned it, there was a knock on the door, and after McGonagall announced that the person could 'come in', Jilly Donaldson walked into the room with a confused looking Austin Pennington behind her.

McGonagall shared a look with Kingsley and Harry, she pretty much told them not to say a word and that she'd handle it, and then looked at Austin.

"It seems that we have a little problem here Mr Pennington. I need to know where you have been the past few hours."

Austin looked shocked at her question but answered readily, "Myself and some friends were at the Ball until about an hour ago. We got bored but some of them aren't Ravenclaws, so we thought that we'd go to the Room of Requirement to hang for a bit. We all decided to go leave about fifteen minutes ago."

"Which friends Mr Pennington?" Kingsley asked calmly.

"Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase of Ravenclaw, and Francis Crick and James Watson of Hufflepuff. Why? What is this about?" Austin answered eyeing everyone specifically.

"Can anyone account for your whereabouts for the last fifteen minutes?" Ron asked next.

Austin smirked lightly, "Um, you can talk to Dominique if you want. I just spent the last fifteen minutes lecturing her and another fifth-year about snogging in the hallways."

Kingsley didn't respond visually, but if the situation weren't so severe, he would have chuckled at the picture of Pennington berating Dominique for her flirtatious attitudes. He didn't know exactly what to ask next; so it was a good thing that Victoire took the next step.

She walked up to Austin Pennington crossed her arms over her chest, and frowned at him. She didn't say anything, but she didn't need to.

"What happened to your face Weasley? Did you walk into something? Your cheek's the same colour as your dress, and while that dress looks awesome on you, the red on your face isn't really doing you any favours," Austin said eyeing her skin. He hadn't looked close enough to realize that the mark was actually in the shape of a handprint, or that it was starting to bruise.

Victoire looked Austin up and down before moving forward and slapping him across the face. Everyone else in the room gasped quietly. However, Kingsley did see the corners of Teddy's lips curl up as he watched the shocked look on Pennington's face.

Austin blinked and then raised his hand to his cheek, "Okay, I guess I deserved that. And you know what you've slapped me so many times over the year that I don't even really feel it anymore."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "What, do you expect me to apologize or something?"

Austin shook his head, "If you apologized to me I would be really worried. If you want though, you could always kiss it better."

He moved his cheek in Victoire's direction.

Victoire pushed him lightly, "Il suffit de laisser votre secousse."

Austin winked at her, "I have no idea what you said. But man I love it when you speak French, so I'll just take it as a compliment."

"I told you to leave."

He sighed dramatically but then placed both if his hands on Victoire's shoulders, "Just remember when you're done playing hard to get, you'll know where to find me."

Victoire looked down at his hands on her shoulders and said in a monotone voice, "You have girl hands."

Austin moved his hands quickly away from Victoire's shoulders and put them in his pockets, "They are not girly . . . my fingers are just smaller and more . . . compact . . . wait, why am I arguing with you? I'm leaving."

He looked at McGonagall and left the room when she nodded at him. When he was gone all of the Aurors in the room looked at Victoire. Kurt was the first person to ask the question that was on all of their minds.

"What the heck was that about?"

Victoire rolled her eyes at him, "Assuming that you'll check with everyone he named and that you're still suspicious, I slapped him and he just laughed. I purposely provoked him and he didn't lay a hand on me. If he had really assaulted me, my random lash-out would have surprised him and his anger would have taken over. He wouldn't have had a reason not to hit me, even if you all weren't in the room, because I already saw him and could blame him for the attack. Second, I insulted him in French, and he really had no idea what I said to him. I was watching him closely, no spark of recognition even thought to enter his eyes; he wasn't faking that. And third, I looked at his hands when he put them on my shoulders; they were tiny in size. Whoever attacked me had big enough hands that he could incapacitate both of my wrists in one, and that he could cover my mouth with one hand. I'm ninety-seven percent sure that those girly hands wouldn't have been able to do that. Plus, I bit my attacker's hands. There was not even so much as a mark where my teeth would have been on his hands."

"So we can also rule out that whoever attacked you didn't use a polyjuice potion, because if they had -and they used Pennington's DNA- their hands would have taken on his small hand size," Teddy reasoned.

Victoire nodded, "Exactly. I know you still need to check his alibi, but I'm certain that it wasn't Austin. It had to have been someone who was using some other form of magic to look like him, so that he wouldn't look about of place. And also maybe so that I'd underestimate him at first."

"If it even was a 'he'," Ron added.

Victoire shook her head, "It was definitely a guy. The voice, now that I think about it, was different from Austin's also. It was deeper and gruffer, but not in a charm-your-voice-a-decibel-level-deeper kind of way, if you know what I mean. Plus, he was talking down at me rather arrogantly and was calling me pet names such as Honey and Little girl. Oh, and he also sarcastically called me Princess too."

Kingsley frowned angrily. Not only did some guy think that he could try to assault Victoire and get away with it, he also taunted her with _his _own special pet name for her.

"So we're basically back to square one?" Ron asked.

Harry sighed, "Not completely. There can only be so many ways that someone would actually be able to break through Hogwarts' protection charms -or most likely more than one someone. We can have people research any magical means that would make it even remotely possible, and maybe by then we'll have more evidence. We can also check with the Department of Magical Transportation to see if they noticed anyone apparating through Hogwarts' anti-apparation charms."

Bill frowned and spoke for the first time, "There isn't any way that you could find more evidence after what happened. Unless you're suggesting that we wait for another incident like this to happen to her."

Kingsley didn't like it either but it seemed to be the only option, "That's the best we can do right now Bill. I hate it to but that's _all _we can do, we can't get any more evidence from what we have. Hopefully this was a onetime occurrence and it won't happen to Victoire again."

McGonagall looked at Kingsley, Harry, and Ron, "Do you think that this incident has any connection to what happened with the Manticore?"

Kingsley closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I hadn't, and I'd rather not. The MO's look too different. This assault was specifically on Victoire, yet the Manticore attack couldn't have been for Victoire specifically, because there was no way to know if she was going to be in the forest and that she would be attacked. That was probably a case of wrong-place-wrong-time. Besides, the Manticore attack almost killed her or could have seriously injured her. This assault only got physical when he slapped her, he actually wanted something out of her -whatever that may be- instead of just trying to incapacitate her."

Harry nodded, "They seem to be unconnected. This one was mostly just threats it seems, unless of course there is something else that happened to Victoire that she hasn't said yet."

Kingsley turned to look at Victoire. Her eyes widened and she turned her head to look at Teddy. They shared a look and Kingsley was about to open his mouth to ask them 'what the Hell was going on' when he saw her face turn slightly green. Her eyes bugged out of her head a bit and automatically Teddy whipped out his wand and conjured up a rubbish basket. Victoire snatched it out of his hands, turned her back on everyone, and walked a few paces away before getting sick into it.

Both Bill and Teddy stepped forward to check up on Victoire. While they were taking care of her Harry and Ron looked at Kingsley, "It's late. It's Christmas Eve and Victoire said that she wasn't feeling very well before, and she definitely doesn't now. We can't go very much farther at all; I say we call it a night."

Kingsley nodded. When Victoire was finished getting sick; she, Bill, and Teddy joined then circle again.

"Can you guys promise not to tell anyone else about this? Tomorrow's Christmas and I really don't want everyone to worry. I don't want this to ruin the holidays. We don't have anything, and I highly doubt we will. The Department of Magical Transportation will be closed tomorrow and running on minimum people for the rest of the week because of the Christmas holidays, so you can't investigate there until they're all back. So, can we please just pretend like this never happened," Victoire asked Kingsley specifically.

Kingsley groaned, "Victoire we can't just pretend that this never happened. This was a serious occurrence."

"I didn't mean it like that Kingsley. It's just; this investigation is probably not going to go anywhere. I don't mean that we should just forget about it, I meant that nothing else . . . has happened so we should just not worry about it," Victoire responded.

"_If _anything else does happen, then you have to start taking more precautions," Kingsley said.

"So you're really just going to ignore this?" Victoire asked hopefully.

Kingsley frowned, "We're not going to ignore this. But I do agree that we can put this on a back burner while we celebrate the holidays. You were right, most of the Ministry will be running on few people during the holidays, and most of the Auror Department has it off also. Even the ones stationed in the Castle have holidays booked, and we don't have the manpower to run an investigation, and make sure that there are enough people doing their patrols at the same time. If this was a one-time thing like we guess we won't come up with anything anyways."

He turned to Teddy when he finished, "Make sure that she gets to her dorm safely."

Victoire sighed, crossed her arms, and spoke to her godfather, "Yeah, just go ahead and talk about me like I'm not in the room. Just one favour please? Please don't go supper crazy about my safety again, I'm being followed enough as it is right now."

"Yet you were still assaulted," Kingsley said matching her posture.

Victoire looked down at her feet, "So bedtime?"

The corner of Kingsley's mouth curled briefly. The innocent look on her face that she put on when she changed the subject made him want to chuckle, "Yes. Bedtime. Goodnight, and happy Christmas."

Victoire smiled and gave Kingsley a big hug, before hugging both of her uncles and her father. When she was finished, she left McGonagall's office, with Teddy trailing close behind her.

McGonagall wanted Kingsley to stay so that they could quickly go through the protection wards on the Castle to make sure that they were all in order, before he left for the night. She was worried that someone else would be able to apparate away from, or into the Castle grounds. Kingsley thought that while her fear was admirable, it was also unfounded. He still felt the power of the protective wards when he came into the school, and he knew that it would take someone with a lot of power either to break through them, or to destroy them completely.

However, Kingsley listened quietly while Minerva spoke to him. As he listened, a stray yet important concern about Victoire came into his mind; _what in the name of Merlin am I going to do with that girl?_

* * *

Hope that you liked!

**A/N:** I mentioned last week that I'm going through some of my earlier chappies and editing them. So far I've done up to chapter 3, and I'll do some more if I've got time. If you'd like to re-read them without the mistakes (all the ones I could find that is) feel free to.

**Next Week:** It's Christmas day and you all get to read about a Weasley tradition . . . :)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed / followed / favourited / read / and enjoyed!

An especially **big thanks **to everyone who reviewed! It means so much to me!

**trustxbelieve**, **RoLouG**, **As the Robin Flies**, **TedandVic4ever**, **Diamondgirl3**, **AzNeRd**, **RoonilFreakin'Wazlib**, **nifflerstorm17008** (twice ;), **LiveLovePotter**, **Aurordreamer**, **wish right now x**, **MuggleCreator**,** marmar8089**, **darling-everythingsonfire-x**, **brilliant incandescence**, **PotterLover25**, **xSuperNovax**, **Annaminadara**, **confusednikki24-7**, **YukiLovestoWrite**, **amortenTIANA**, **HarryPotterNut94**, and **istillwishiwasaweasley**.

A big big thanks to YukiLovestoWrite, I kow that I haven't answered your last review and I'm sorry. I typed everything out, then before I could send the internet crashed and I'm just too lazy to re-write everythign again ;P. I did read it though, several times so thank you.

oh, and P.S. fifthly is a word, but you don't need the 'ly' on it or any of the others even firstly or secondly. You can write it just as first, second, thrid, fourth, fifth, and sixth and it works the same grammatically :)


	55. Weasley Sweater Switch

**A/N:** Hey well here's the new chapter! It's nice and Christmassy and we get to see what the tradition is.

**Discliamer**: I do not own anything, JKR owns all!

* * *

**The Weasley Sweater Switch**

Victoire was having a rather lovely dream -all things considered- when she was rudely awaken by some sort of flying projectile the next morning. She slowly opened up her ocean-blue eyes. The first thing she saw was a pair of bright blue eyes staring back at her. She was very confused at this, even more so, seeing as she could feel the pressure of a body pressing down on hers. Not just any body either. The body was thick, solid, and distinctly male. Victoire looked at the face that the eyes belonged to in bewilderment.

"Kyle . . . why the hell are you lying on top of me?" Victoire asked idly.

Said Gryffindor male smirked at her and laid his head on her chest, "'Cause I'm tired and I want to sleep. Plus, you're really very comfy."

Victoire felt his body moving slightly against hers as he chuckled quietly, "Why don't you go sleep in your girlfriend's bed?"

"'Cause Ally and Xavier are already lying on her bed."

"Why are Ally and Xavier on Sandra's bed?"

"Because they're also tired."

"Well if you're all so damn tired then why are you all in my dorm room and not in your own beds in your own dorms?"

"Because my beautiful but nutter of girlfriend woke us all up so that we could all come here and open up our gifts together."

"What gifts?" Victoire asked as she poked Kyle until he at least rolled off her so that she could sit up in her bed.

When she sat up, she noticed Ally and Xavier sitting together on Sandra's bed; the one opposite hers. They both definitely had the 'I-just-got-woken-up-by-a-nutter-of-a-muggleborn' look on their sleepy faces. Victoire smiled at them both before looking around her room. She was surprised to see that Pamela and her friends were no longer there.

"Where'd the other girls go?" Victoire asked again. She didn't actually think that someone would be able to tell her where her roommates had gotten too, but she was still half-asleep and not thinking properly.

To her surprise Kyle had the answers to everything today, "They woke up already and left the room. Apparently, their noise woke Sandra, and she decided that it would be a good time to wake everyone else up. And as for 'what gifts'. It _is_ Christmas morning Vic . . ."

Victoire's eyes widened, she had actually forgotten for a minute what day it was, "Oh yeah. Well happy Christmas."

"Yeah," Kyle said watching her closely, "Happy Christmas to you too." He looked over at Ally and Xavier, whom were speaking to each other in hushed voices, and then looked at Victoire specifically, "How are you?"

She knew exactly what he was asking about. She gave him a reassuring smile and kissed his cheek, "I'm fine. Thanks to you."

After the kiss, Sandra walked in with a pile of presents in her arms. She dropped them onto the floor on top of an already large pile (Victoire guessed from the size that she had grabbed everyone's presents and placed them in one big pile) and looked at her boyfriend and best mate in bed together.

"Kyle, are you molesting Victoire again?"

Kyle pouted at his girlfriend childishly, "No! She's the one who tried to make a move on me!"

An eyebrow rose on Sandra's forehead and she changed her gaze from her boyfriend to her best mate, "Do you want to hex him, or would you like me to give it a go?"

Victoire snorted, "I'll leave it actually. He can consider my not hexing him a Christmas gift."

Sandra nodded and then turned to the other two people who were in the room. She shook her head when she saw that Ally and Xavier were pretty much asleep again. She walked towards them, grabbed her wand off of her bedside table, and then smirked evilly before performing a wordless spell.

Xavier let out a sharp '_yelp_', when the stinging jinx hit him, effectively waking Ally up along with him because of the noise he exuded. Sandra smiled at the sight of her simple plan working, met Xavier's grimace with a hard stare of her own that said 'just-listen-to-me-because-I-mean-business', and proceeded to dictate which, when, and how everyone was to open their gifts.

Even though everyone usually went home to celebrate their own Christmases, Victoire, Kyle, Xavier, and Ally were well aware of Sandra's love (Victoire calls it an obsession but Kyle always uses a sweeter term) of Christmas. Since it was one of the only holidays that was celebrated the same way in the Wizarding world as it was in the muggle world, it always held a large spot in her heart. Kyle had told them funny stories before about spending Christmas with Sandra and how she liked to organize who opened what gift and when. However, they had all thought that Kyle had been exaggerating Sandra's actions. It was a shock to Victoire, Xavier, and Ally to see that Kyle hadn't been exaggerating at all. In fact, Sandra had either gotten worse over the last year, or Kyle had been downplaying her actions.

Despite Sandra's particulars, the traditional gift opening section of the morning went rather smoothly. They each opened a series of gifts from family and friends that they were all very thankful for. After every piece of wrapping paper had been torn in some way, after every ribbon or bow had been pulled away and thrown aside, and -after Victoire had finished healing every single paper cut that Kyle had gotten (he seemed to be a magnet for paper cuts)- the Gryffindors sat around Sandra and Victoire's dorm looking and laughing at some of their presents.

"Seriously, what is up with this?"

Victoire (whom was just starting to put some of her presents away in her trunk) turned around to look at her friends. Ally, Kyle, and Sandra seemed to be laughing their heads off about something. When she inspected the scene closer, she saw that the 'something' was whatever Xavier was holding in his hands.

"What is it Xavier?" She asked wanting to be in on the joke.

Xavier sighed and fiddled with the bunch of fabric in his hands until he had it held out and Victoire was able to recognize it as a white t-shirt. Victoire was still puzzled about why a plain white t-shirt would be funny, until she noticed that the t-shirt _wasn't_ plain.

Victoire began giggling as she read the words that were printed on the front of the shirt aloud, "Best big brother ever? Really? Who got you that because I know that it wasn't Cecilia."

Xavier frowned, "No, it was a gift from Mum and Dad."

"Why would they pick now to inform you that they think that you're the best big brother ever?" Sandra asked, trying to speak through her giggles.

"I don't-" Xavier's sentence was cut off by the sound of the door to the dormitory being opened by a pair of third years. Said third-years walked into the room, both wearing a very interesting choice of clothing.

"Louis! How in the world did you get into the girls dormitories?" Victoire yelled at the blonde third-year.

The brown-eyed blonde rolled his eyes at his elder sister, "Calm down Vic. There are ways around every spell."

Victoire narrowed her eyes angrily at her brother and his casual answer.

Louis sighed, "If it makes you feel any better this is the first time I've ever been in the girls' dormitories."

Victoire frowned and crossed her arms across her chest, "That doesn't make me feel better."

"It makes me feel better though," Cecilia chirped as she walked into the room and sat down cross-legged next to her elder brother.

She grinned at the shirt in his hands, "I see that Mum and Dad got you and I matching gifts this Christmas."

Xavier frowned as he scanned Cecilia's shirt. Sure enough the white long sleeve t-shirt that she wore had the same blue font as that on his shirt, and said '_Best big sister ever!_'.

"Is Katie actually okay with you wearing that shirt right now Cecilia?" Victoire asked as she looked at the sibling pair. Xavier's shirt (while his friends found it hilarious) wouldn't raise much suspicion to those who saw it. But, Cecilia's would. Everyone who knew the Wood family (which was pretty much anyone in the Wizarding world who was obsessed with Quidditch) knew that Xavier and Cecilia were the only two children that Oliver and Katie have. Cecilia wearing that shirt would definitely hint to something else.

Cecilia nodded, knowing exactly what was running through Victoire's mind, "Mum and Dad owled me a few minutes ago. They're going to come to Hogwarts tomorrow and collect us because they're going to have a press conference tomorrow afternoon. It's getting harder for Mum to hide the pregnancy so they're going to announce it on their own terms instead of having stupid reporters getting everything wrong. They want us to wear these shirts, but they also said that we could wear them today. Of course, that was just Mum's idea, and you know how much she likes to mess with people."

Xavier nodded and Ally looked at Cecilia a little confused. Xavier and Cecilia had told everyone about Katie expecting the baby but Ally found it odd that the Woods would want to have a press conference just to tell the world about the baby.

"Your parents are having a press conference just about the baby? That's somewhat odd. I thought that Katie and Oliver preferred it when their private lives weren't in _The Daily Prophet_."

Cecilia nodded, "They usually do. But Dad also has to say-"

Cecilia was swiftly cut off by her elder brother's hand as it moved to cover her mouth. Everyone including his suddenly angry little sister was staring at Xavier. He cleared his throat and quickly spoke, "Dad also has to announce some things that have to do with the team that we can't tell you."

Victoire narrowed her eyes suspiciously and Cecilia gave her brother a look that only Xavier and Victoire were able to read as 'I-can't-believe-that-you-didn't-tell-them'.

Kyle didn't seem to understand what the silent argument between Cecilia and Xavier was about, but he always tried to help his best mate when it seemed necessary. This time he fulfilled his best friend duties by changing the subject, "Hey Louis, what are you wearing?"

Louis looked down at himself as if he'd actually forgotten what he was wearing. The warm woollen sweater was a very nice royal blue colour; however, the large 'L' on the front was in a shade of neon green and made the clothing piece almost painful to look at. Louis smirked very charmingly as he answered Kyle, "It is a wonderfully warm sweater that my Grandma Molly made me. You might have heard them called 'Weasley sweaters'."

Kyle's eyes widened as he moved his gaze to look at Victoire and Ally.

The former answered his questioning gaze, "Yes. We both got ones too."

Victoire dug through her pile to pull out a powder blue sweater with a shiny silvery '_V_', and Ally grabbed a bundle of purple fabric from her pile, that had a large orange '_A_'. Kyle looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or not. He decided on biting his lip as he tried to ask another question, "Do you guys get a new sweater every year?"

Ally nodded, "Yup. Even the same colours for everyone each year. But Grandmum always makes us all a sweater."

"Wow. That must take a lot of time," Kyle answered sincerely.

"It does."

"Do you not get tired of wearing the same colour of sweaters year after year though?" Sandra asked interestedly.

Ally and Louis smirked before looking at Victoire so she could answer, "Yes it does. But that's part of the reason why we began the 'Weasley Sweater Switch'."

Sandra and Kyle looked at Victoire confusedly. Xavier and Cecilia, who were aware of the tradition (for they'd spent a Christmas day or two with the Weasley family before), ignored their friends and were whispering quickly and quietly back and forth to each other.

Victoire looked at her friends in some sort of surprise. She had though that she'd explained this little family tradition beforehand.

"The 'Weasley Sweater Switch' is something we do every year on Christmas day. We throw all of our sweaters in a pile and we all grab a different one all at the same time. We have to wear whatever sweater we get for the rest of the day," Victoire explained.

"Yes, it gives us a chance to wear different colours for one day. Last year I got Lily's so mine still had an '_L_' on it," Louis said.

"How in the world would little nine-year-old Lily's sweater fit you Louis?" Sandra asked as she eyed the rather tall thirteen-year-old.

"We can add growing or shrinking charms as we see fit. The tradition's fun though. Sometimes people will go for a run with sweaters. Two years ago, I went three years always grabbing Lucy's sweater. The only person that has a higher record than that is Victoire of course," Ally explained.

"What's Victoire's run?" Kyle asked interestedly.

Victoire was caught off guard by the direction of the conversation, so her Veela blood actually allowed a bright Weasley brush to get through, "Um, fourteen years."

Kyle's eyes widened, "But you're seventeen right now."

"Yes, and we started this fifteen years ago."

"So you get the same person's sweater every year?"

"Yes."

"But who could that be? You would have been two when you started, and the only one close to your age would have been Ally but she only would have been one year old . . ."

"That's because she and Teddy started this tradition when she was two and he was four. And she's gotten his every year," Louis said in almost a bored voice. It was a statement of fact more than anything. Everyone in the family was aware of the fact that Victoire always ended up grabbing Ted's sweater, even when she didn't try.

"You always get Ted's?" Kyle asked raising an eyebrow at her.

Victoire nodded sheepishly, "Yes. I've tried to grab other ones. I swear. But I always ended up getting his."

Kyle shook his head and Sandra smiled sweetly, "That's adorable."

"No. It's weird," Louis countered.

Victoire rolled her eyes at her brother and then looked at the clock on the wall. She smiled brightly when she realized that it was one of her favourite times of the day; breakfast time. She laughingly shooed Louis, Cecilia, Kyle, Xavier, and Ally out of the room so she and Sandra could get dressed. Her parting words to Ally was to make sure that she threw on a t-shirt under her sweater so that she could participate in the 'Weasley Sweater Switch' which they would do after breakfast.

Victoire and Sandra quickly dressed. Victoire in a pair of black yoga pants, and tank-top, and her baby blue coloured Weasley sweater with the large sparkly and silvery '_V_' on the front, and Sandra in a pair of muggle blue jeans, a black tee and a new embellished white cardigan that her sister had sent her for Christmas. The girls walked out of the dorm and to the common room. Ally was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs in a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and her purple Weasley sweater with the large orange '_A_' on the front. Once the girls met up Ally and Sandra walked through the common room and out the portrait whole. A confused Victoire followed closely at their heels even though she kept throwing curious glances over her shoulder; expecting someone to show up every second and yell at them for not waiting.

They were halfway to the Great Hall when she finally asked, "Not that I really care. But why did we just leave without Kyle and Xavier?"

"Because I knew that they would be ready sooner than us. So I told them to go ahead and get us all some seats, and save us some of those candy cane donuts that you fancy so much," Sandra answered casually.

"Oh," Victoire nodded, "Good idea."

The girls were at the stairs to the entrance to the Great Hall (which had been one of Victoire's nemeses from the night before) when both Ally and Victoire stopped walking. Standing near the mouth of the Great Hall was a tall redhead. What had caught Ally and Victoire's attention was the fact that the lanky redhead was not wearing the forest green sweater with the yellow '_B_' on the front that he should have been wearing. Ally and Victoire shared a look before they went skipping off in the same direction of where the redhead and a few of his housemates were standing.

"Merry Christmas Baxter!" They said together as they ended on either side of their Hufflepuff cousin. They both punctuated their greeting with a synchronized kiss on both of his cheeks.

Whatever conversation their cousin had been having with his friends stopped as his friends watched the impromptu family gathering. Victoire grinned at the fact that her and Ally had caused Baxter's face to go as red as his hair when they pulled away from him.

To continue with their light teasing, Victoire asked Baxter, "Where's your sweater Baxter? It's Christmas day! We're supposed to do our Switch."

She thought that it would be impossible, but her cousin's face turned even redder, "Oh . . . are we still doing that? I didn't think we were since we're missing Lily and Hugo . . ." He hadn't so much as thought that they would stop as much as he had hoped that Victoire would leave off slightly on the family tradition because they were missing two of the said family.

Victoire shared a second look with Ally. It was the brunette's turn to tease their cousin, "Well most of us are here anyway. Lily and Hugo will just have to switch their own sweaters when they visit Grandmum and Grandpa today."

"Yes. So go to your dorm and get your sweater-"

"And then meet us all in the Room of Requirement in twenty minutes-"

"And you might want to get there on time or you'll be stuck with a really lame sweater too. Imagine having to wear Ally's purple and orange sweater all day!" Victoire finished dodging the half-hearted slap to the arm Ally aimed at her for her cheek about her sweater.

Baxter sighed but then drudged up a smile from somewhere deep inside him, "'Kay. I'll see you guys in a bit then."

Ally and Victoire watched Baxter walk away with his friends. Once he was out of view they continued to their original goal of the Great Hall; more specifically the top of the Gryffindor table where they could see Kyle, Xavier, and Sandra -who had went into the Great Hall when she saw that her friends had stopped to tease and embarrass their cousin. Ally skipped most of the way to the table and sat down next to Xavier on the bench. Before even glancing at the food that was on offer for their morning meal, she turned in her seat to face her boyfriend and gave him a light kiss on the lips. Victoire rolled her eyes, and instead of sitting down next to the two like she'd planned, she walked to the other side of the table, and sat down on the bench next to Kyle. The group of Gryffindors talked about what their plans for the rest of the day would be (after Victoire and Ally would participate in their Christmas tradition) as they had a quick yet tasty holiday breakfast. It had been decided that after the 'Switch', the group would stay in the Room of Requirement to play a game that Sandra wouldn't tell them about -yet insisted that they play since it was a tradition in _her_ family- until lunch was being served. After they had lunch, they would then go outside for a snowball fight consisting of a team of Ally, Xavier, and Sandra, against a duo of Victoire and Kyle. Kyle had grinned maniacally at the suggestion that he and Victoire be the lone pair and had agreed right away to the proposal. Victoire had missed the demented look that had graced Kyle's face when they had made the decision for them to be a team. Because she was too busy trying to steal the last candy cane donut from Xavier's teasing grasp, -he had claimed again that if Victoire didn't stop eating she was going to be too heavy for her broom when she would finally be allowed to play Quidditch again. She wouldn't have agreed to the plan, but they had decided it when she was at her weakest point (trying to save the donut from an unappreciative Keeper's grasp) and there was no way she was going to be able to change their minds after they'd decided on their plan.

After the frustration from being bested by her friends -both on the score of having to be paired with Kyle in their snowball fight and having lost the donut to Xavier's grubby hands- Victoire was the first to notice the time. She had to remind her friends that she and Ally needed to be in the Room of Requirement in ten minutes.

The group had just walked out of the Great Hall, and were going to go up the stairs to continue their way to the Room of Requirement, when Victoire suddenly veered off to the right. Her friends shared a look before she heard them following slowly behind her. She barely spared them a look besides the five-second one that she threw over her shoulder to make sure that they hadn't left her. Her gaze was stuck on the shape at the end of the corridor in front of her.

Her walking pace changed into a jog, and once she was close enough to the shape she called, "Teddy!"

Victoire didn't slow when she saw him stop walking and turn his body to her direction. She didn't stop her jog until she was a foot away from him, and even then, she was only considered to have 'stopped' because her feet left the floor when she jumped at him. In the back of her mind, she noted that it was a good thing that he was very strong and used to her abnormal reactions or her leap at him might not have gone off as lovely in person as it did in her head the minute before she decided to do it.

However, he was strong and Teddy was very aware of her sometimes-erratic behaviour. Therefore, he caught her with ease, brought her into a tight hug, and then quickly yet gently set her on the floor when they were done.

Victoire knew that they wouldn't be allowed to be too close to each other in the school as they were, but her lips still turned into an automatic pout as she felt Teddy's strong arms leave where they'd been around her.

She tried to hide her pout the moment she realized that her lips were in one, but she knew by the sad smile on Teddy's own face that he'd seen her frown. He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead that, to any on looker, could have been consider mostly platonic.

Victoire attempted to put a smile on her face for when she finally spoke, "Happy Christmas."

He gave her a dazzling smile back, "Happy Christmas Sweetheart."

Victoire looked down from his stunning face to his clothing. A frown crossed her face; one that was even larger than the automatic one she'd let slip when he had eased her out of his embrace, "Are you not doing the Switch today?"

She watched him carefully as he looked down at his clothing as she had done a minute ago. He was wearing a pair of black corduroy pants and a light grey short-sleeved t-shirt. He wasn't wearing his Weasley sweater.

Teddy grinned when he switched his gaze from his outfit to the disheartened look on Victoire's face, "Why? Worried that it might break you record?"

Victoire narrowed her ocean-blue eyes at him. That wasn't a proper answer to her question and he knew it. She ignored the sound of footsteps that signalled that her friends were finally joining the pair, and squared her shoulders as she looked up at Teddy, "That wasn't an answer to my question."

Teddy's grin grew wider. He reached into his pocket, grabbed his wand, and with a flick of his wrist a bundle of turquoise blue fabric materialized in his hand. He didn't straighten it out, but he held it out so Victoire could see it and placed a light (not as platonic looking) kiss to her left temple, "Does this answer the question."

Victoire sighed, "Why aren't you wearing it then?"

"Well it would look a little suspicious don't you think?"

"Suspicious? How so? Grandmum makes you a sweater every year."

"It would be suspicious because I'll wear this sweater in the morning and then in ten minutes you'll be wearing it for the rest of the day. If I was anybody else that would look very suspicious," Teddy explained as he waved his wand again and made his sweater disappear so he wouldn't have to carry it.

Victoire smiled brightly, "Good point."

Teddy rolled his eyes as he saw her attitude suddenly change now that she realized that he was going to participate in their family tradition, "Yes. Now are we going to get to the Room of Requirement?"

Victoire nodded brightly and for the first time she turned around to see her friends. They all gave her the same eye-roll that Teddy just had and turned their backs on her as they began to go to the Room of Requirement again.

The group of six were actually the first ones to make it into the room, but Rose and Al came in a few minutes later, and Baxter, Louis, and Cecilia showed up soon after. As they waited for more to come, Sandra, Kyle, Xavier, and Cecilia stood off to the side. They didn't want to get in the middle of the family tradition so they chatted with each other as the family members hugged, gave out Christmas wishes, and thanks for gifts. After a rather dramatic entrance on James and Fred's part (involving many magical lights, explosives, and lots of yelling on Victoire's part) Victoire ushered everyone into a tight group in front of her so she could take a headcount. Including herself and Teddy, who was standing very close to her right, she counted eleven people. Eight Weasleys, two Potters, and one Lupin. There should have been twelve people in total, and nine Weasleys. Victoire scanned her family members, the person who was missing jumped out at her once her blue gaze skimmed past Dominique and Molly.

"Where's Lucy?"

The question, directed at Lucy's two siblings (even though neither were in the same house as her), was met with a series of shrugs. Victoire sighed and brought her fingers up to rub her temples. She knew that Lucy was at the stage of her life where she didn't exactly recognize the importance of her family, but she knew better than to stand everyone up on their tradition.

"Okay. Who has _the map_ right now?" Victoire asked. She wasn't going to waste everyone's day waiting for Lucy to show up. If she weren't here on time then she would just go and find her cousin herself.

Teddy waved his hand and the _Marauder's Map_ appeared in his hand. He spoke quietly to Victoire as he handed it to her, "Had it from last night."

Victoire pretended not to hear even though she knew that Teddy knew that she did. She didn't bother to bring out her wand, instead opening up the map and whispering the magic words.

"_I solemnly swear that I am up to no good_."

Teddy was watching over her shoulder and whispered into her ear, "Are you ever?"

Victoire elbowed him gently in the stomach then went back to looking at the map. She was searching diligently amidst the hundreds of dots for the one that read her Ravenclaw cousin's name. She and Teddy had barely studied the map when the door to the room opened with a loud _creak_. A minute later Lucy Weasley came pacing in. She stopped just inside the room when she saw all of the room's occupants were staring at her. Her face flushed a red that was only a shade lighter than the colour of her hair.

Victoire noticed that she wasn't the only one who was giving their blushing cousin a devilish look of inquiry. Both of her part Veela siblings along with James and Fred were giving the Ravenclaw teasing looks. Moreover, as much as Victoire would enjoy embarrassing Lucy when the only people who would be around to see it would be her family, Kyle, Sandra, and the Woods, Victoire did realize that they were getting behind schedule and that her family members probably had previous plans with other friends to go to.

Therefore, she cleared her throat and -once again- caused everyone to look at her, "Since everyone is here now, how about we get this started. Everyone toss their sweater into the middle of the space there."

Victoire pointed to the floor in the middle of the loose semi-circle they'd created. They'd done this over several years and had tried it many different ways. The first few years they placed all of the sweaters on a table and then everyone just went for it and grabbed one. When they were younger, it worked well but as they got older, having a table in the middle of the bedlam got slightly more dangerous. The danger seemed to correlate with the older James and Fred got, incidentally. When Victoire was fourteen was the last time they had used a table. She had been trampled, crushed, and then somehow ended up with a concussion at the end of the two-minute mayhem. As a result, they no longer used any type of table anymore; they just threw all of their sweaters in a pile and went for it.

Some of them had just brought their sweaters with them, like Teddy and Lucy; while others wore theirs and needed to take them off, like Victoire and Ally. Ally peeled off her purple and orange jumper to reveal a plain white short-sleeved tee shirt. She threw it into the pile, Victoire's blue and silver sweater following it.

Once she felt her sweater fling off of her she heard a deep gasp and groan from behind her.

"Vic!"

She grinned to herself and turned around to wink at him.

Xavier was not amused, he crossed his arms across his chest and glared at her, "I thought I told you to stop wearing that!"

Victoire looked down at her white, blue, and yellow _Puddlemere United_ tank top. On the front bottom was a curvy signature that read _Oliver Wood_ and the back said _Katie Bell_. However, Xavier wasn't staring at his parents' signatures; he was staring at his own scrawny writing that graced the top part of her tank.

Victoire had to smirk at Xavier's reaction, "But I like this shirt."

He glared at her, "Just put something else over it."

She rolled her eyes at her fellow Head, "No I'm going to go walk around in this tank-top in the middle of December."

Ally decided to intervene before their –somewhat playful- argument got worse, "Let's just get this over with."

Victoire nodded and glanced at the large pile of sweaters in the middle of the group. She mentally calculated the number of sweaters and figured that everyone's was in heap. She looked up and saw Teddy had moved from near her side to across the circle from her.

He winked at her before saying, "Okay, on three."

"One . . ."

"Two . . ."

"Three!" Victoire, Ally, Louis, and Baxter joined in with Teddy before they all jumped into a quickly becoming fray of lanky builds, a lot of red hair, and plenty of freckles.

Sandra, Kyle, Xavier, and Cecilia watched the family with copious amusement and even a bit of worry. There were arms, elbows, and even a few swear words flying everywhere as the Weasleys' attempted to grab a certain sweater, or just one that wouldn't look weird on them. Sandra flinched as she watched Victoire get an elbow to the back from James -which seemed as though it was an accident. And Xavier grimaced when he saw Louis take a knee to the stomach. All of the spectators thought that is was a good thing that the younger children who were too young to come to Hogwarts weren't able to participate in this tradition. None of them would have liked to see little Lily potter or little Hugo Weasley getting roughed up in this innocent little 'Sweater Switch'.

A minute of battling later and Rose Weasley was the first person to escape the throng. In her hands, she had a pale green sweater with a large tawny 'M' on the front.

She walked over to the group who were watching the fray and smiled brightly, "Enjoying the show?"

Xavier frowned, "Has it always been this violent? I don't remember it being like this a couple years ago when I saw it."

Rose laughed, "On no. It gets more violent as we get older. Especially since Lily and Hugo aren't here, and all of us are old enough to use magic if we need to, to heal ourselves if something goes wrong. It's also a bit more vicious because James and Freddie are both trying to grab Teddy's sweater this year. They think it would be funny to mess with Vic since she gets it every year; especially now."

"Whose sweater do you have?" Sandra asked interestedly.

"'_M_' for Molly. I knew that it was hers based off the colours. Some of us have the other's colours memorized. It's helpful if you're looking for a certain sweater. The girls don't really care, but the boys don't want to be stuck with a sweater with pink or purple on it," Rose answered scanning the skirmish in front of her with a studious eye.

Another minute later and both Victoire and Lucy escaped the commotion. The laughter that was coming from Victoire wasn't surprising, but everyone else was a little stunned to see that Lucy's big brown eyes were filled with amusement and that her lips were stretched into a wide grin. They'd both reached the inactive group of people when Victoire reached out and began to do something to Lucy's –already messed up– red hair. Victoire played around with it before pulling her hand away and showing Lucy something in her palm. Whatever it was that seemed to cause Lucy to break out into giggles that caused Victoire to follow suit a minute later.

Both girls looked like they were about to collapse from the sheer hilarity they were feeling when Rose asked, "What's so funny?"

Lucy was busy taking the time to calm herself down with some deep breathing, so Victoire answered for the both of them. In between the giggles that were still affecting her of course, "Lucy had Dom's earring stuck in her hair."

Saying it aloud caused another round of –slightly more silent- giggles to take over the two girls. Victoire's friends looked to Rose as if the first-year could explain to them some reason why Victoire and Lucy would find such events so _hysterical,_ but she seemed to be just as confused as they were. Victoire could see the looks that her friends were sharing, and sobered up enough so that she could roll her eyes at them without breaking out into more laughter.

"Okay, were done laughing. Geesh, you guys don't have to look at us as if we'd lost our minds."

Rose looked from Victoire to Lucy eagerly, "Whose sweater did you get?"

Lucy held out a pink and purple striped sweater with a big black '_D_' on the front and said, "Dom's."

"You also ended up with her earring in your hair," Victoire reminded barely constraining a new set of giggles.

Lucy couldn't contain her laughter as well as her elder cousin and broke out into a smaller fit of giggles than before. Rose rolled her eyes and looked at Victoire, "And you?"

Victoire smirked and held up a turquoise blue sweater with a large hot pink '_T_' on the front, "Who do you think?"

* * *

Hope that you all enjoyed!

**A/N**: Something I forgot to add in the disclaimer, the candycane donuts weren't actually my creation. The inspiration fo them comes from _Tim Hortons_ candycane donuts that they sell at Christmas time around here . . . they are sooo good. Yum. Especially if you pair it with one of their hot chocolates (regular or candycane flavoured-it's like dirnking a melted candy cane . . . yum again ;)

A big thanks to everyone who reviewed / followed / favourited / read / and enjoyed my story!

**Next Week:** We get to see what Sandra's 'tradition' is and some secrets start to get spilled . . . Ohhh. . . . .

An especially **big Thank-You**! To everyone who reviewed, they always make my week, but they were especially good at cheering me up last week because later in the week I was rather sad because I had to say goodbye to my twin brother because he was leaving to move in to university (he had to start early for football camp) and he moved 15+ hours away. Anyway thanks to:

**RoLouG**, **AzNeRd**, **confusednikki24-7**,** LiveLovePotter**, **XoxMountainGirlxoX**, **brilliant incandescence**, **abzster98**, **onedirectionlover98**, **trustxbelieve**, **marmar8089**, **MuggleCreator**, **xSuperNovax**, **HarryPotterNut94**, **Lizaluvsdoggies**, **Aurordreamer**, **Alfredo412**, and **YukiLovestoWrite**.


	56. Exposed Secrets

**A/N: **Hey, well here's the next chatper. Please, please, please read my **A/N** at the end go the stroy because I'll be explaining some pretty importnat points . . . ok? And I apologize in advance for the spelling/grammatical errors, I didn't have time to edit this before posting because I wanted to get it up for you guys. So again, I'm sorry.

This chapter contains some fun family banter, Sandra's tradition, and several loose lips . . . enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything mentioned in here.

* * *

**Exposed Secrets**

An oblivious Xavier had answered Victoire's rhetorical question when he stated that it had to be Ted's sweater because he was the only one whose name started with a '_T_'. Victoire had rolled her eyes at her fellow Head, but nodded at his answer. They turned around to watch the rest of the Weasleys until the crowd withered down to an upset James who was stuck with Victoire's baby blue sweater with the bright sparkly silvery '_V_' on the front. Everyone laughed (except Victoire since she'd grown to like her sweater colours over the years) and then went on to adjust on their own sweaters. Ally expanded the mustard yellow sweater with the ketchup coloured '_F_' on the front until it would fit her properly, while Dom joked to her about her ending up with her little brother's sweater. She stopped halfway through her teasing however, when she realized that she herself was missing a new studded hoop earring.

Dom hadn't been able to find out the whereabouts of her missing earring until Victoire and Lucy were finished with the new set of giggles that attacked them –that had actually reduced them to rolling around on the floor laughing. Everyone rolled their eyes at the two and left them on the floor until Teddy decided to be the gentlemen and help both of the girls up. (Not without mumbling, something about them having drank a giggling potion first.)

Teddy had grinned and shook his head when he saw that Victoire ended up with his sweater again. James and Fred on the other hand, were calling for a 're-do' because they had been determined to break Victoire's streak (presently at fifteen years) and they were upset that she'd gotten past them. Everyone else just rolled their eyes at the two second-year's antics and continued adjusting their own sweaters until they fit.

The family members laughed and teased each other for a few more minutes before they began to gradually leave the room. Once the last of the other kids had left -Rose in Molly's sweater and Al in a shrunken version of Ally's purple sweater with the orange '_A_'- Xavier turned to speak to his sister who was still in the room because Louis was having trouble charming the sweater he'd ended up with.

"Cee-Cee did you get a letter from Mum and Dad saying when they were going to collect us for that press conference?" Xavier asked as he watched his sister deal with Louis and the shrunken sweater.

Cecilia stopped trying to pull the neck of the now-too-short sweater off Louis and looked at her elder brother, "No. Did you?"

Xavier shook his head but then verbalized his answer because he realized that Cecilia was too busy trying to help Louis get his head free to see him, "No I didn't. But that doesn't mean that they're not going to send us a note later."

Cecilia nodded as she really started to wonder how Louis was able to get the sweater past his head to begin with, "Very true. Merlin Louis! How in Hades did you get this on in the first place?"

Louis' answer was muffled because of the fabric covering his face but it seemed as though Cecilia got the just of it, "You know better than to try size charms anyway. You know that you're horrible at them. You should have tried to transfigure it instead. You're better at that. Whose sweater is this anyway, that you needed to change its size?"

Another muffled response but this time Cecilia was able to peel the sweater off, and Louis' answer was heard by everyone, "Baxter's."

Cecilia gave the small forest green sweater with the yellow 'B' a shocked look, "Why would you adjust the size of Baxter's sweater?! He's the same age as you!"

Louis looked down at his feet as the small brunette properly shamed him, "I'm wider through the shoulders, and I hate it when a smaller sweater pulls at the shoulders and makes the sleeves shorter. It looks like I've been through an awkward growth-spurt."

Cecilia huffed and rolled her eyes before taking out her wand and correcting Louis' disastrous charm-work. She threw the sweater back at him and folded her arms across her chest as she waited for him to finish. Once he was finally properly dressed, the two took their leave. One wearing a new shirt that said '_Best Big Sister Ever!_', and the other wearing his cousin's –now slightly larger- Christmas jumper.

Both Victoire and Xavier had let their siblings deal with their problem without stepping in. Either and any of the older students could have helped the third-years, but Victoire and Xavier found it interesting to see how their siblings interacted with each other, since their date at the Ball the night before. They weren't sure what they were looking for when they started, but they both smiled to see that –essentially- their attitudes toward each other hadn't changed.

With the Victoire and Ally being the only Weasley's left in the room, Xavier and Kyle took out their wands and started arranging the furniture that had materialized into the room, to get ready for the 'supper fun' game that Sandra had insisted they play.

Victoire saw that they boys had everything under control, so she went to say good-bye to Teddy before he left to go do his scheduled Christmas patrol.

"I wish you didn't have to work today," Victoire said burying her head into the royal blue coloured jumper that was his for the day. Gracing the front of the sweater was a neon-green 'L', and while Teddy was enlarging the sweater earlier, he had said that he was rather glad to have grabbed Louis' sweater. His last name started with an 'L' so wearing one on his sweater today while he patrolled wouldn't look as weird as if he'd ended up wearing Dom's stripped pink and purple one.

Teddy kissed the top of her head as he encased her in his arms, "Same. But I'll see you when my patrol's over, okay?"

"When's that going to be?"

"In a few hours. It won't be that bad, everyone was assigned a smaller patrol that way everyone would actually have more free time today."

Victoire sighed and frowned as she looked up at him, "You don't actually believe that that's going to work. Do you?"

Teddy looked down at her confused, "What do you mean?"

"You and the handful of other Aurors that are responsible will show up. But I bet you not many others will. They'll claim that they're either sick of that there's some sort of family emergency and someone like you will get stuck doing more patrols because you're dependable."

Teddy smirked at the sour tone in her voice, "So it's a bad thing that I'm dependable and that I keep my promises?"

"Today it will be," She answered sadly.

Teddy moved his hand so that he could use his finger to lift her chin up, "I promise that I'll see you later tonight. I still have to give you my gift after all."

Victoire smiled. They'd decided a week or so ago that they'd give each other their gifts themselves, instead of just magiking them to each other's rooms so that they could open them in the morning.

"Okay."

She moved up on her toes to give him a quick peck on the lips before stepping out of the circle of his arms.

He was startled by the kiss at first but he was able to give her a smirk and an eye roll when it was finished. He reached inside his robes and held out a red and white striped envelope with a big red bow on it, out to her, "Oh, I forgot. Kingsley gave me this to give to you this morning. I told him that I'd get you so he could give it to you, but he said that he had a pervious engagement to go to. He also said that you'd really enjoy getting this from me so . . . here."

Victoire took the envelope a bit surprised. She'd already opened a new pair of Quidditch gloves from him earlier in the morning from the pile in her room. She knew that Teddy wasn't lying that it was from Kingsley because the wrapping paper her gloves had come in was of the same pattern. She was just surprised that he'd given her two gifts. He'd done it in past years, but that was usually just when she asked for several small things and he wanted to get her more than one.

She opened up the envelope and read the small note that was inside.

"_Eeekkk!_"

The first thing to startle Teddy was the shriek Victoire let loose -she wasn't one to shriek. The second was the fact that -following the shriek- Victoire jumped at him, threw her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, and kissed his cheek.

Unlike this morning, Teddy was so shocked by her actions that he ended up taking several steps back until his back hit the wall behind him. He gently peeled Victoire off of him and set her on her feet. He knew that her friends were probably all watching them minutely but he needed to figure out what had gotten her so excited.

"What is it Victoire?"

Victoire's face was bright with undeniable happiness. Teddy still wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew that anything that made her look that happy couldn't be bad.

Victoire smiled brightly at him, "Kingsley didn't tell you, did he?"

"Didn't tell me what?"

"That you're my Christmas present!"

Teddy would have taken a step back if he wasn't already pressed against the wall, "Your Christmas present?"

"Yes," Victoire started handing Teddy the note Kingsley had given her so he could read it, "He's giving you the entire day off so that you can spend it with me! That's my Christmas present!"

He had to read the note over at least three times before he began to believe what was written there. Kingsley had written what she had basically told him. That Kingsley was giving him the day off and that he was expecting them to spend the majority of that time together. Not that he had to worry about that.

"Wow," Teddy replied as he handed Victoire back the note.

She smiled up at him with so much content and happiness that it made his mind scream at him to bring her closer and to kiss her. A few months ago, he might have ignored the urge, but now he was fully prepared to act on it.

Therefore, without much thought, Teddy grabbed Victoire around the waist and brought her body flush with his. He lent his head down and pressed his lips softly to hers. He grinned into her lips as he felt her arms come up and circle around his neck. She sighed into his lips and moved up onto her tiptoes so she could press her lips harder to his. His grin turned into a smirk as he moved his head away from hers.

Her lips moved right into a pout when she felt him move away. She opened her mouth to complain when she heard a chuckle from behind her.

Both Teddy and Victoire lifted their heads up and saw Kyle, Xavier, Sandra, and Ally staring at them. Kyle and Xavier were chuckling at the two, while Ally and Sandra were smiling at them.

Sandra spoke first, "So six of us today?"

Teddy grabbed Victoire's hand and she smiled up at him before nodding to her best friend, "Yes."

* * *

"I thought that I'd just let you know that I hate you Sandy," Victoire said conversationally as she frowned at the scary little piece of pale pink coloured confectionary that she held in the palm of her hand.

Sandra rolled her eyes as her boyfriend beside her went digging through a large box of _Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans_ to pick another sinister looking jellybean for Victoire to eat along with the pale pink one.

"I really enjoy this part," Xavier commented from his spot next to Ally on the loveseat that they shared across from Victoire.

She rolled her eyes at her friends, crossed her arms, and pouted.

When Sandra had first explained the rules of the game, everyone thought that it would be fun. However, here they were, two hours in, and Victoire was starting to get annoyed with it. The game itself was easy to grasp. Sandra had explained, before they went to play, that it was almost exactly like both muggle and magical 'Truth or Dare' just slightly adjusted. She had begun playing this game with her non-magical family a few years ago on Christmas, and now it was tradition. The game adjustments came on the fly when Sandra 'truthed' her little sister (only actually a year younger than her) to say the name of the boy she had a crush on. A trivial truth question to be sure but one that seemed to be the end of the world to an embarrassed twelve-year-old, who was playing the game with her elder cousins and younger brothers. Sandra's sister had pleaded to make her do something else instead of answering the truth, and one of Sandra's younger muggle cousin's innocently suggested that Sandra's sister be made to eat one of the 'yucky' tasting jellybeans that she had gotten for Christmas. Said jellybeans hadn't gone over well when Sandra went to share them earlier in the day because all of her muggle family members ended up picking out the bad tasting ones. Ever since then, anytime they went to play truth or dare, any time someone didn't want to answer a truth or go through with a dare, the person would have to eat two jellybeans of another person's choice to get out of it.

They had played a few rounds and the most recent round had Kyle asking Victoire a question that she decided that she really didn't want to answer. In response, Kyle was digging out another menacing looking bean to go with the first.

He knew that Victoire was getting antsy and that she just wanted to get this over with, so he told her to go ahead and eat the first one while he picked out a second.

Victoire eyed the pale pink bean doubtfully. Pink usually wasn't a scary colour, but since Kyle picked it she knew that it must be something disgusting. He had an uncanny ability to figure out what each jellybean was before eating it. He was just really good at guessing.

Victoire brought her hand up to her mouth and tossed the pink bean into her mouth. She chewed for about ten seconds before a disgusted looking grimace came across her face, "_Yuck!_"

"What type did you get?" Ally asked from beside Xavier.

Victoire tried to wipe the grimace off her face because she knew that her friends were enjoying it, but she couldn't, "Earthworm."

Sandra and Ally started laughing while Xavier turned to his best mate, "Nice one. Did you know that that was the flavour?"

Kyle stopped his search in the box to grin, "Definitely. Did you enjoy it Vic?"

"It's not funny!" Victoire complained.

"It kind of is Vic," Teddy said from his spot beside her on the couch. They were holding hands and she was sitting with her back against his chest.

Victoire turned around slightly so she could look at Teddy face, "You're supposed to be on my side! My denying answering that truth was just as much for your benefit as it was for mine!"

Victoire's body was vibrating slightly from the chuckles that were running through his chest. He kissed her temple gently before answering, "Yes, I understand that. But that being said, you should probably eat a mint jellybean before I kiss you again."

Victoire slapped his chest but that made him chuckle even more.

"Hey Vic!" Kyle called before tossing a bean at her. She caught it easily and then glanced at the sea-foam green coloured treat in her hand.

"Is this the second bean you want me to eat?"

"No. I'm ninety-two percent sure that it's a mouthwash flavoured one."

Cue more laughter from all the males in the room, including Victoire's boyfriend. She grumbled at them and slapped Teddy on the chest once more before tossing the bean into her mouth. He slowed his laughter so that he could grab Victoire's face between his hands when she finished chewy the candy.

Victoire let out a low gasp when she felt Teddy's lips crash against hers. After a minute of kissing, they pulled apart and shared a small smile.

"I picked the next one Vic," Kyle said breaking into the couple's bubble.

Victoire frowned at him but grabbed the candy from him so she could inspect it. It was a light grey in colour. Not a very appetizing colour.

"What do you think it is?" Victoire asked him.

Kyle smirked back at her, "I'm eighty-seven percent sure that it's trout."

Victoire blanched. The look on her face couldn't have been worse even he'd told her that it was human flavoured.

"I am not eating that," Victoire stated determinedly; dropping the bean onto the coffee table in front of her.

"C'mon Victoire I picked an easy one. Trout is better than the earthworm one I made you eat," Kyle protested.

Victoire shook her head as she felt Teddy wrap both of his arms around her. He placed his chin on her shoulder before answering for her, "She absolutely hates fish. She would have rather you gave her a dirt flavoured one, or even another worm flavoured one."

"Seriously?" Sandra asked her best mate.

"Seriously," Victoire nodded.

Kyle shrugged, "Too bad. You still have to eat it though. Because you didn't answer the truth."

Victoire sighed and stared at the grey bean. She couldn't do it, "Fine. I'll answer that darn truth!"

Kyle's eyebrows rose in surprise, "Really? All right then. Favorite thing past or present boyfriends do?"

Victoire face actually went redder than even Teddy had ever seen –and he'd known her for the past seventeen years. She couldn't meet Teddy's or even Kyle's eyes when she answered, "Ilikeitwhenhestrokesmycheeks ."

"What?"

Victoire sighed and buried her face in her hands. Everyone was able to hear her this time, "I like it when he strokes my cheeks."

"He who?" Kyle asked milking Victoire's rarely shown embarrassment.

She didn't answer. Instead, she turned and buried her face into Teddy's chest. He laughed again as he wrapped his arms around the thoroughly embarrassed blonde who was now trying to hide in his sweater.

"I'm pretty sure she means me," Teddy said as he rubbed his hands up and down Victoire's back in an attempt to calm her down.

Sandra tried to help her best friend out of her embarrassment, "That's not that embarrassing, it actually rather sweet."

"For anybody else it would be sweet. For a person who's part Veela like Victoire it's embarrassing. A bloke stroking her cheeks shouldn't necessarily turn her on," Xavier added coming into the conversation.

Victoire –who would normally be throwing something at Xavier right now- was just trying to disappear even further into Teddy's comforting embrace. He sighed and whispered into her ear in an attempt to get her to show her face. She wouldn't.

"Who's next?" Teddy asked in an attempt to move change the conversation.

Kyle was about to open his mouth and say that it was Victoire's turn since she was the last to answer a truth, but then Ally interrupted, "I'll go! Sandra truth or dare?"

Sandra went on to say dare, but Ally dared her to tell an embarrassing story about her and Kyle. Sandra rolled her eyes at Ally's non-subtle attempt to even the playing field but launched into a story that had them all in stitches nonetheless. Victoire only pulled her head away from Teddy's chest when she had decided that everyone was enthralled enough with Sandra's story that they wouldn't comment on her finally showing her face. The story was about Sandra's dad, and how he had caught her and Kyle snogging one day over the summer, and that he had scared her boyfriend so much more than Kyle thought it would ever be possible for a muggle person to scare him. She went into detail about what her father had said to him and Kyle's face actually got white as he remembered that day.

At the end of her story, Sandra looked around the circle and her eyes landed on Teddy, "Truth, or dare Teddy?"

"Dare," Teddy answered. He was an Auror for a reason; he liked a little danger in his life even though he might not always go out looking for it.

Sandra smiled mischievously, "Lick the doorknob."

Teddy rolled his eyes and got up and walked over the door to comply with Sandra's dare. When he was finished, he came back and sat down. Kyle threw Teddy a jellybean when he sat down. Teddy caught it but looked at it confusedly, "I did the dare."

"Yeah, but that's peppermint flavoured."

"Ahh," Teddy said before popping the candy into his mouth. It definitely tasted better than the dirty brass doorknob.

"That would actually make a good jellybean flavour," Teddy said.

"Doorknob flavoured?" Ally asked.

"Yup. Anyway, truth of dare . . . Victoire."

Victoire's ocean blue eyes widened as she looked at Teddy. She really didn't feel like being put on spot like the last time. She was about to beg him to pick someone else when she saw him giving her a specific look. She knew that she trusted him completely, so she said, "Dare . . ."

Teddy grinned and leaned forward so he could whisper it in her ear.

"What? Not fair! You have to say it aloud!" Xavier commented.

Victoire and Teddy ignored the Head Boy and shared a look.

"Really?"

"Yup. Trust me," Teddy told her.

Victoire nodded at him before standing up and walking over to where Kyle and Sandra were sharing a large armchair. She sat down on the arm where she would be closest to Kyle, grabbed his face, and placed a big kiss on his lips.

Kyle's expression was hilarious when Victoire moved her face away. She stood up and looked down at the flabbergasted look on his face, "Do I still kiss like cardboard?"

Kyle shook his head.

Victoire smiled triumphantly before walking back to curl up on the loveseat with Teddy. He kissed her cheek when she sat down, "Good job."

Once Kyle was finally able to speak, he spluttered out, "Th-That was your dare?"

"Yup," Victoire said curling into Teddy's side.

"Although I'm sure she would have rather eaten that trout flavoured jellybean than kiss you," Sandra added giggling from her spot in the chair with Kyle.

Kyle frowned at his girlfriend but didn't speak.

Victoire took his silence as acquiescence with what she did, and continued with the game, "Xavier, truth or dare?"

Xavier looked up –he was busy whispering something into Ally's ear that made her giggle- and smiled, "Truth."

Victoire tried to think about what to ask him, when her eyes landed on his t-shirt. Reading the words, '_Best Big Brother Ever!_' got her thinking. There was something she wanted to discuss with him, but she was almost certain that he wouldn't agree to it because he hadn't told everyone in the room. This truth could change that.

"Okay, truth, why –besides to announce Katie's pregnancy- are your parents having a press conference tomorrow?"

Xavier narrowed his eyes at her, "Because my Dad has decided that he's going to retire from professional Quidditch and has been offered a coaching job with _Puddlemere_ instead."

Everyone in the room looked surprised at Xavier's confession –well everyone except Victoire and Teddy. Victoire because Xavier told her, and Teddy because Victoire told him.

Ally was the most surprised, "What? Oh my Godric Xavier that's fantastic!"

"Yeah? That's awesome Mate. So that means the Keeper position will be available for when you graduate this year?" Kyle asked.

Xavier nodded and then tried to change the subject. Victoire wouldn't let him though, they'd come too far to not get to the main point, "Not only will it be open, but they've somewhat reserved it for him."

Ally's brown eyes widened even more, "Really? That's phenomenal Xavier!" She grabbed him into a tight hug, "Why didn't you tell us about this? They're actually going to keep the position open until you graduate?"

Xavier swallowed thickly, "Umm, no. They want me to decide by New Year's. And if I say yes they want me to start training in February."

Ally's face pinched, "But, what about school?"

"They'll let me study during training and then I can take my N.E.W.T.s with everyone else."

"So they want you to leave Hogwarts to train with the team?" Ally asked.

Xavier nodded, "Ye-yes."

Ally stared at him; she wasn't entirely sure what to say, "How long have you known about this? How long have you had to decide about this?"

Xavier moved his gaze from Ally's face and looked at his friends watching them. He knew that he owed Kyle and Sandra an explanation, but as of now, it was more important to explain everything to Ally properly. He turned back to her and started to whisper quick and quiet explanations and apologies.

Victoire and Teddy, and Kyle and Sandra shared a look.

Kyle spoke first, speaking specifically to Victoire, Teddy, and Sandra, "Okay I'll take Kyle's turn. Victoire, truth or dare?"

"Kyle I just went!"

"Just pick one Vic!" Kyle called back allowing his eyes to gesture towards the other couple in the room who seemed to be silently arguing.

"Fine. Truth."

"What happened to you last night after you left the Ball?"

Victoire's eyes narrowed menacingly at the pureblood. She knew what he was trying to do, and she also knew that even though he meant well, he was just about to ruin everything.

Victoire opened her mouth to yell something insulting at Kyle when she felt Teddy place his hand on her shoulder and speak, "I thought you said that you wanted to wait until after Christmas to tell everyone about last night's attack."

"Attack?! What attack?" Sandra asked looking at her best friend worriedly.

Victoire didn't say anything. She grabbed the box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and popped the first one she found into her mouth; she definitely wasn't about to answer the question Kyle posed.

_Chew_. _Dirt flavoured_. _Chew_.

Kyle looked at his girlfriend –thinking that everyone was on the same page- and answered, "Victoire was assaulted by Chris last night. I went out into the Entrance Hall and he had her against a wall and was forcing a kiss on her."

Victoire tossed a jellybean into her mouth.

_Chew_. _Diet aftertaste flavoured_. _Chew_.

"What are you talking about Kyle?" Teddy asked before Sandra could respond to the new information, "Victoire was attacked last night in the gardens. Auror Williamson and I ran into a guy who had her hands and body trapped against a hedge."

Another candy.

_Chew. Earwax flavoured. Chew._

Kyle looked at Teddy confused, "No . . . I broke up Chris' assault before she went to find you in the gardens. He had kissed her but he didn't lay a hand on her besides that. He was just trying to convince her to give him a chance. Right Victoire?"

_Chew_. _Plastic water bottle flavoured_. _Chew_.

"No. We don't know who assaulted Victoire but it was in the gardens and he ended up hitting her a couple times . . . Right Victoire?" That voice was Teddy.

_Chew_. _Bass flavoured_. _Chew_.

"Victoire . . ."

_Bugger._

That voice was Ally's. Victoire finally moved her head up so that she could see all the stares she was getting. It seemed that whatever drama was unfolding concerning her was more interesting than Ally and Xavier arguing over whether or not he should have told her about his offer from _Puddlemere United_ sooner than he did. They were both looking at her with bewildered stares. She could tell that neither of them wanted to believe that either man was right about the attack on her, that they were separately describing.

Sandra was looking at Victoire with worry and confusion and beside her Kyle was looking at her beseechingly, "Vic, tell them about what happened with Chris. That I'm not making it up. That it did happen!"

Victoire swallowed thickly. She was procrastinating looking at Teddy's expression so she answered Kyle, "You're not making it up. Chris tried to force his . . . _affections_ . . . on me last night."

"See," Kyle continued. Obviously, he has no trouble looking Teddy in the eye, "I'm right."

Victoire closed her eyes. She could hear Teddy's breath quicken. It was a sure sign that he was getting angry. She felt the weight on the couch shift as Teddy lifted her body off him slightly so that he could stand. She felt him grab her arm and pull her up into a standing position. That's when she finally opened her eyes.

She was facing him where she stood. The unreadable expression on his face was even worse than if he'd looked downright livid. An unreadable expression means that he'd be controlling his emotions. If anything, it meant that he'd be cold and emotionless.

Teddy barely spared her a glance before he began to drag her by the arm to the door of the room. He called to Kyle over his shoulder before he ushered Victoire out the door.

"That's the problem Kyle. We're both right."

* * *

Okay, so I know it's a bit of a cliffie, but when I went to write the next part it ended up really reall really long. Like next chapter is 8,000+ words long. Good news, I have it written. Bad news I'm not sure when I'll be able to post it, which bring me to . . .

**Very Important A/N: Yeah, so who writes a fabulous (or so you all tell me) Teddy/Vic fanfiction and is moving in to university in four days? . . . Any guesses?**

**Yes, it's me. **

**So, I'm not sure when I'll be able to post next because it's my first time at university and I'll be moving into res. and I'm not sure if I'll have time to write even if I do have time to post . . . and yeah. I'm nervous. For many reasons. So, wish me luck, and I promise that I'm not going to abandon this story no matter how long it may seem between posts (worst case scenario of course).**

_On that note:_ _Thank-you to everyone for your continued support and encouragement through your reviews / follows / favourites / and just through the number of visits and hits I see when I look at the traffic page for my story. Thank you all._

**Fun** **Stuff**: Okay so earthworm (or worm), dirt, and earwax are all flavours of 'actual' Bertie Botts beans. And before you ask, I've tried, earwax, grass, and dirt flavoured of th eactual jellybeans. (I seriously tried to eat a soap flavoured one after the dirt, but my brother stole the last one). As for mouthwash, trout, peppermint, diet after taste, plastic water bottle, and bass (the fish) flavoured, to my knowledge I made those up. Peppermint and mouthwash flavours aside, I made Victoire eat the ones she did because they are the flavours that would be my least favourite. I hate the taste of any fish (I would rather eat a dirt flavoured one) and I hate the taste you get in your mouth after drinking a diet drink, and I absolutely hate the plasticy taste of water from a plastic water bottle. Yuck.

**Next** **Week:** Soif shoudl change that to 'Next Chapter' because I'm not sure if I'm going to post next week (V.I. A/N ^) but the next chapter will include everyone hashing out most of their secrets and issues. Which will be a huge load off my mind, and I'm guessing many of yours.

**An especailly big THANK YOU to:**

**RoLouG**, **RoonilFreakin'Wazlib**, **brilliant incandescence**, **Candy Converse**, **confusednikki24-7**, **Lizaluvsdoggies**, **As the Robin Flies**, **MuggleCreator**, **Diamondgirl3**,** trustxbelieve**, **Orion Spellsword**, **marmar8089**, **darling-everythingsonfire-x**, **TedandVic4ever**, **xSuperNovax**, **AzNeRd**, **Aurordreamer**, **EsaRavenclaw**, **owlcity2013**, **abuu**, _**YukiLovestoWrite**_, **HarryPotterNut94**, **Alfredo412**, **Dani**, and **wish right now x**!

**RoLouG**: You will see in *one, two,* THREE chapter's time :)

**brilliant incandescence**: You're really good at guessing.

**Candy Converse**: Again, good guessing :)

**As the Robin Flies**: That's actually where the idea first came from. I remembered how Ron hated the sweaters every year. I know that deep down he loves them because their a gift from his mother, but it would get boring wearing the same colour year after year. A voila! (imagine the French accents, I can't change my keyboard to multi-lingual at the moment) The Weasley Sweater Switch!

**MuggleCreator**: Thanks. And I'm not saying anything.

**Orion Spellsword**: And I love it when I see a new review . . . do you see a correlation? ;)

**AzNeRd**: You were the only one to mention it, but I think some others may have thought it.

**abuu**: Never sad. Only impressive.

**YukiLovestoWrite**: You always give me such amazingly long (I love long reviews P.S) and I feel bad about not being able to give you a long response in turn. I'm sorry I'm just crunched for time in between work and packing.

**Dani**: We've still got a lot to go!


	57. Talking It Out

**A/N:** Well here's the new chappie that has a lot of explanations in it!

So, as you all can tell I was able to update on time, but that's because I already had this chapter finished and my classes don't start until tomorrow :)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of this.

* * *

**Talking It Out**

Teddy had made sure to take all of the secret passages and tunnels he could to get to where they were going. The last thing they needed was nosey students to see him –an Auror- dragging Victoire Weasley down a series of corridors by the arm. Especially since, he was dragging her to his rooms.

Yeah. That would be easy for him to explain if they'd been caught and stopped.

Because of his foresight to use the secret passages though, they got to the door of his room quickly and without any bewildered stares from any students. Getting through his common room and to his actual bedroom was going to be a bit more of a challenge. He was ninety-nine percent sure that Kurt didn't have his patrol until later today and that he'd be in their rooms.

He was right.

He dragged Victoire quickly through the living room space -passed not only a surprised looking Kurt, but also a shocked looking Jilly who was sitting across from Kurt in an armchair by the fireplace- and kept moving until he had them both safely in his room with the door closed behind him.

He let go of Victoire's arm so that he could grab his wand from his pocket and set up some privacy wards. He did it wordlessly and without taking his eyes off the blonde who was standing in front of him with fear in her eyes. He knew that she wasn't afraid of _him_ but of the argument that was about to come. Even though he'd been astronomically angry with her –and still was- as he travelled through the passages with a grasp on her arm he'd made sure to go slow enough, and to hold her softly enough so that she wouldn't get hurt. She wouldn't even have as much as a bruise on her arm from where he had been holding her.

Once his wards were done setting, he crossed his arms over his chest and stared emotionlessly at his girlfriend. Or he knew that she'd think he was emotionless. His unconscious morphing might usually give away some of his embarrassed moments, but he usually had a good hand on controlling the colour changes that came along with the feelings of anger.

Victoire looked at him and swallowed thickly. She looked down at her feet when addressing him next, "I'm sorry."

Teddy's fist clenched around his wand. He had forgotten that he had it in his grasp. He loosened his hold and tossed his wand onto the bed. He took a step closer to her and she took an unconscious step back. They continued the movements until she had her back to the nearest wall and he stopped a foot and a half away from her.

"What did he do?"

Victoire gulped, "I-I left the Ball and I was coming to find you before going back to the tower. He came up behind me and we started talking. His questions were weird but I didn't think much of it at the beginning. He was asking me if I ever felt weird because I was the only one who wasn't in a relationship-"

Those words made Teddy clenched his fists and his teeth.

"-And that if I did he knew how I felt because he felt the same way. Then he went on to say that he thought that the fact that we were the two single ones out of our friends was some sort of sign and-"

Teddy stopped her there. He closed the gap between them and looked into her ocean-blue eyes, "I don't care what he had to say to convince himself to get the guts to address you. I want to know what he did to you physically."

Victoire blinked, "He– he didn't hit me or anything like the other assault. He barely even touched me-"

Teddy interrupted her again, "Well I know that's a lie seeing as Kyle told me that when he came in Chris was _kissing _you."

Victoire swallowed again. Her mouth was dry. She didn't know what to say.

"I'll ask again. How did he touch you?" Teddy repeated as he moved his arms up so that he could place his hands on the wall. One on either side of Victoire's head.

Victoire's blue eyes moved to either side of her; eyeing the position of Teddy's hands. She looked back to him and nodded as if to tell him that the way he was standing with her was how it went down last night.

"Was he standing like this?" Teddy asked as he felt his hands start to slip a bit down the walls. He didn't know how he felt about unconsciously coming to the same position Chris did when he accosted Victoire last night.

She nodded.

Teddy exhaled, "And he kissed you?"

Another nod.

"How?"

Victoire's eyes widened, "H-How? What do you mean how?"

Teddy clenched his teeth again and moved his face closer to hers. He shifted so that his lips were at her left ear, "Did he kiss you like this?"

He moved his lips from her ear and shifted his face quickly until he pressed his lips gently against hers. The kiss was soft, fast, and full of so much adoration that it caused Victoire's toes to curl.

Teddy lifted his lips off of hers enough so that she could speak, but they were still close enough that their mouths brushed with her answer, "No."

He moved his lips back to hers and pressed harder this time. The kiss wasn't rough but it was deep and full of even more emotion than Victoire had felt in the first one. She didn't think that that could have been possible.

Victoire groaned when Teddy broke off the current kiss. It had lasted longer than the other, but not by much. His lips brushed against hers when he spoke again, "Was it like that?"

"No."

Since the words were barely out of her lips when she answered, her mouth was still open when Teddy leaned in for the next kiss. He wasted no time in deepening the kiss farther than the previous two, and simultaneously taking Victoire's breath away. He led the kiss like the other two and didn't find any complaint for it, from her. Within seconds from the beginning of the kiss, his tongue had pushed into her mouth. Victoire couldn't stand the passion that she could feel him pouring into the kiss. She had to touch him. She broke the unspoken rule about no contact besides their lips for this exercise, and threw her arms around his neck; her fingers delved into his hair.

Despite the fact that she was clinging to him as if her life depended on it, Teddy broke the kiss and moved his face several inches away.

"Like that?"

Victoire was breathing heavily but she knew that Teddy was expecting her to answer, "No. Never like that."

Teddy's eyes hardened, "Then how did he kiss you?"

"I can't really remember anymore. All I know is that it would never match up to you. It was clumsy and pathetic and both times he kissed me, it made my skin crawl."

"He kissed you twice?" Teddy asked; eyes narrowing at the new development.

Victoire bit her lip. She'd forgotten that he didn't know about that part yet, "Yes. He thought that the first time was romantic but then I asked him the 'what the Hades he thought he was doing'. After that, I told him specifically that I couldn't feel that way, and he tried to kiss me again to convince me to change my mind. That's when Kyle came in."

Teddy sighed, "I can't believe that he would just kiss you like that. That he would force himself on you."

"I can."

Teddy's sapphire blue eyes widened, "Did you expect that of him?"

"No, no, no," Victoire said quickly as she shook her head, "But . . . when we were talking he explained it and . . . I guess I did lead him on-"

"Stop."

"What?"

"Stop right there. You are not about to take the blame for what that jerk did to you."

"But I am to blame, for some of it anyway. I didn't realize it but I _was _egging him on. I was wearing that dress and I danced with him, and I was flirting with him and it doesn't matter that it was unintentional on my part because-"

"No," Teddy said again, "It wouldn't matter if you'd been snogging him for the past half hour Vic. You told him that you didn't want him to kiss you. You told him to stop. You said no. No means _no_ and just because he was too much of a prat -and shame to the house of Gryffindor- to listen to you doesn't mean that it's your fault."

"But I did make him think that I was interested."

"No you didn't; you told him no. As soon as someone says that, the other person is obligated to stop whatever it is they were doing. If they keep going, it is harassment, an attack, an assault; take your pick of the term. Whatever it is, it's wrong. Moreover, just because he was trying to push the blame onto you and try to make you think that you were leading him on doesn't give him an excuse. He kissed you without permission and then he kissed you again after you'd told him that you didn't want him to. What he did was cowardly and disgusting. You told him you didn't like him that way, and he just forced himself upon you."

Victoire couldn't meet Teddy's eyes, his harsh words about Chris' behaviour struck a nerve, "If Chris' behaviour was disgusting; then I'm not much better."

Teddy looked at the blonde in confusion, "What do you mean?"

She looked up at him with a few unshed tears in her eyes, "Someone telling someone else that they have feelings for them. The other person trying to let the first person down easy because they don't feel the same way. The first person deciding not to take no for an answer and kisses the second person because they think that it'll change that person's mind. Does any of that sound familiar?"

He opened his mouth just to close it again.

_It may sound familiar but it's not the same._

"It's not the same Vic . . . what just happened with you and Chris was different than what happened between you and I last summer."

Victoire shook her head; hoping that the movement would stall her eyes from shedding the tears, "How so Teddy? You told me that you didn't return my feelings and I kissed you anyway! How am I any different from Chris? We were both hoping for the same outcome. Just because ours worked, and because I'm a girl and not a bloke, doesn't mean that my intentions and actions were any more above reproach than Chris'."

"Yes there is a difference Vic. I didn't tell you to stop. Heck, I saw that kiss between us coming from a mile away and I didn't say anything. Moreover, if I hadn't seen it coming you still pulled back after two seconds and began apologizing and you didn't stop until _I_ kissed you back," Teddy reminded her.

She still wouldn't look him in the eyes so he brought his hand up to lift up her chin. Once his sapphire eyes met her ocean-blue ones, she asked, "Actually? You saw it coming?"

He nodded simply, "Of course I did Vic. I've known you for seventeen years. I can read your eyes, your facial expressions, and your body language as easily as I can read a picture book to Lily before bed. I was surprised when you kissed me because my mind had a hard time wrapping itself around the idea that my best mate -the girl I looked at as a little sister- was confessing that she was in love with me and that she wanted to kiss me. My head had a hard time dealing with that and all the emotions, but I could still tell that you were coming in for a kiss. And even though I hadn't made any decisions about where we were going to go, I know that I wanted to try that kiss. That's why I didn't pull back the first time, that's why I didn't say no, that's why I kissed you back when you started apologizing that first time, and that's why you are different from Chris. You're right; it doesn't matter that you're a girl. If you'd forced yourself on me, you would be the same as Chris. But you didn't, so you're not."

Victoire's eyes had closed halfway through his explanation and he could tell that she was remembering that night in the summer when she'd first confessed her feelings to him. He could tell that she was trying to go through it again, but through his eyes now that he told her how he really felt.

Teddy didn't think that they needed to go over what Chris did to her anymore –if he was still worried he'd get the other side of it from Kyle later- so he tried to move their discussion along, "Why didn't you tell me about what happened?"

Victoire looked like she was going to cry again, "I-I was going to, that's one of the reasons why I was out in the labyrinth in the first place. I was trying to find you so I could tell you. I really did try, but then that . . . other attack happened and we had that meeting with McGonagall, Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron, Kingsley and my Dad and . . . I just couldn't bring it up in front of them. Besides, a schoolboy crush didn't seem important enough when we were discussing someone attacking and assaulting me. I didn't want them to worry more than was necessary."

He sighed, "Vic when are you going to realize how much you mean to us? Not just to me but also to your family, to your father, to Kingsley, heck even McGonagall has a special soft spot for you. You don't realize how much it hurts us to find out that something's happened to you. To find out that you've been attacked. Especially to people like Harry, Ron, Kingsley, and myself. We're Aurors; it's our job to protect people; especially the people that we love. It kills us every time we see that something's happened to you, because it tells us that we aren't doing our jobs well enough-"

Victoire interrupted him, "My getting attacked is _never_ your guys' fault. You are all amazing at what you do and I'm just a really big danger magnet. I mean look at all of the examples we have of just this school year alone . . ."

"I think we have too many examples actually," Teddy said slowly.

"You think some of them are connected?" Victoire asked surprised. She started to mentally go through every incident in her mind and she couldn't make any big jumps.

"I'm not sure about the Manticore or the problem with the force fields during your first Task, but this last attack and those notes very well could have been connected. They're both instances of someone threatening you."

Victoire sighed. Her hands were still around Teddy's neck from their last kiss, so she moved them slightly until she was stroking the tight, angry muscles of his neck, "Can we just not argue about that right now? It's going to be a long thing and I'm kind of wiped out from this whole Chris situation."

Teddy nodded; he didn't want to drop the topic, but Victoire really did look like she was about to pass out on her feet. He placed an arm around her waist and moved her until she was sitting down on the edge of his bed. He sat down right next to her.

"Victoire, is there anything else about the Chris situation that you need to tell me about?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, good. Nevertheless, I think we should go back to the Room. We just left everyone with the knowledge about you being attacked -not once, but twice last night- and Kyle only knows the particulars about one of them. Plus, I'm sure Xavier will have some things to say to you after you practically forced him to tell Ally about the offer from Puddlemere," Teddy said as he moved his hands up to stroke her cheeks.

Victoire smiled slightly for the first time since he brought her to his room. He knew now what his touching her cheeks did to her, "It needed to be done. He needs to make his decision in six days and Ally deserves to know."

Teddy nodded, "I'm not blaming you; your logic makes sense. But that doesn't change the fact that you should be there when they talk about this."

Victoire's fingers started to play with the hem of the sweater she was wearing. She was fiddling because she was nervous and wasn't sure if she wanted the answer to what she was about to ask next, "Teddy . . . why were you more angry to hear about Chris' attack on me than you were when you came across that other guy assaulting me? Is it because I didn't tell you sooner?"

He sighed and ran a stressed hand through his turquoise fringe, "I'm a little upset that you didn't tell me sooner . . . but I'm a lot upset that Chris kissed you. That never would have happened if he wasn't your date to the Ball, he wouldn't have had the guts to do it."

"I'm so sorry Teddy. He was my friend I thought he understood that that was the only reason why I asked him to be my date to the Ball but then-" Teddy moved the hand that was still on Victoire's cheek to her lips, stopping her from finishing her sentence.

"I don't blame you. I know you needed a date for the Ball, and I know that you thought Chris would be a safe escort. I'm angry that I wasn't able to be your date. If things had been different I would have been your date and Chris wouldn't have been anywhere near you. Nor would he have talked himself up to the ridiculous place he had to have been when he thought that you would like him to kiss you, not once, but twice," Teddy told her.

"I don't blame you either Teddy, it was just the situation we were in. In addition, let's get realistic. Kyle told me that he knew that Chris had a little crush on me for a while –if his sleep talking was anything to go by that is- so it would only be a matter of time before Chris worked up the courage to confess to me. Who knows, it could have gone even worse if he had been forced to wait longer than he had. You know the longer someone bottles something up, the more explosive the result," Victoire replied.

"I still can't believe that he kissed you," Teddy said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Why do you keep coming back to that?"

"Because it really bugs me."

"Why?"

"Because you're mine."

Victoire's eyes widened, "Excuse me?"

Teddy let a small smirk grace his lips before swiftly shifting them from their seated position on the bed to a position where she was on her back on the bed and he was above her. Holding himself up by the strength of his arms that were pressing into the bed on either side of her head.

"You're excused. However, _I_ said, I keep bring up the fact that Chris kissed you because it bugs me. It bugs me that he kissed you because _you are mine_," Teddy told her a new sparkle coming into his dark blue eyes.

Victoire's eyes narrowed. She hardly cared that it was Teddy saying these things; it always hit a nerve when a bloke tried to be possessive of her. When they tried to lay claim.

"You did not just say-"

Teddy interrupted her, "Vic do you remember last night at the Yule Ball when you were dancing with Xavier and that girl in the really skimpy and tacky dress came up to me? You know the short potion-bottled-blonde with the pale brown eyes?"

Victoire clenched her teeth, "Pamela?"

"Was that whom it was? Sure; Pamela. I take it that you and Xavier heard enough of our discussion to know what was going on?"

Victoire clenched her teeth even tighter in anger, "Yes."

"Did that bug you Victoire? Did it bug you that she touched my chest and that she tried to get me to be with her?"

"Yes."

"Why did it bug you Vic?"

"Because Pamela's a bint and a slag and she has no respect for the institution of devoted relationships whether she's the person in them or not."

Teddy smirked a bit at Victoire's description of her dorm mate but kept on, "Alright. Let's say that it _wasn't _Pamela that came on to me. Let's say that I went to some other bar or club where I knew no one, and where no one knew me. Let's say another girl came up to me and offered me the same things Pamela did. Pretend that she asked me these things and she didn't even know that I was in a committed relationship. Would it still bug you the same?"

"It would make me slightly less incensed because I wouldn't know the girl. But it would still piss me off and make me want to hex the living daylights out of her even if she were a muggle," Victoire said; her hand itching to reach for her wand that was sitting in the front pocket of her black yoga pants.

"But why would you want to hex her?" Teddy pressed.

"Because you're mine!" Victoire finally yelled.

She was taking deep breaths to steady her suddenly quickly beating heart so all she could do was glare at the gloating look he had plastered to his face. He brought himself down until his body was pressed against hers –even though he was still holding off most of his weight- and brought his face an inch away from hers, "Are we on the same page now?"

Her face said she was angry with him, but her body language said the opposite. She wrapped her arms around his neck and brought his lips as close to hers as they could be, and yet still be considered separate.

Teddy wouldn't allow her to close the gap between them until he got a specific answer from her.

"Fine! Yes, we are on the same page!"

Teddy's smirk was short lived because as soon as the words were out of her mouth, Victoire crashed her mouth to his. The kiss bypassed sweet and went straight to sultry. Their mouths battled for dominance of the kiss while their hands roamed.

One of Teddy's hands ended up in Victoire's long blonde hair; the grip on her head making it easier for him to deepen their already impossibly deep kiss. His other hand traveled down her side and hip until he got to her knee. Once there it traveled back up before stopping at her hip and gripping there.

For her part, one of Victoire's hands was clutching at Teddy's hair –pulling so hard that if he weren't so distracted she was sure that he'd consider it quite painful- while the other traveled down from his shoulder and across his chest. She fisted the fabric of his (actually Louis') jumper in her fist and tried to pull his body even closer to hers than it already was.

When she finally felt more of his body weight on her, she moaned. He felt his heart beating faster at the sounds she was making. He pulled back his mouth to take a breath himself and was met with a heartbreaking vision. Victoire had opened her eyes when she realized that he had removed his mouth from hers. Her eyes were dark and intense and her lips were red and swollen while her blonde hair was spread out around her head on the bedspread.

Teddy groaned himself and started to leave a series of kisses across her jaw and down her neck. He got to the wide neckline of her jumper (she hadn't shrunk it earlier; preferring to wear his sweater the same size it would have been on him) and he easily pushed the bright blue fabric out of his way.

When he saw her pale skin stretched tight over her collarbone, he metaphorically lost it. He pressed a delicate kiss to the skin and whispered something before starting to leave open-mouthed kisses on her clavicle.

Victoire could barely hear her own panting breath above the sound of her pulse roaring in her ears. She shivered as he kissed her, and moaned again, when she felt his tongue peek out to touch the skin he'd been sucking on. He stopped after a minute and kissed his way back up to her mouth. She attacked his lips as soon as they were close enough, and pulled his bottom lip in-between hers. She thought that she was going to faint when she tasted him again.

She didn't know if he had sensed it, but he slowed down the kiss and removed his mouth from hers right when she had figured that she had gotten too light-headed.

Teddy had to put a bit of space in between their bodies or he was certain that they were going to end up snogging again. He rolled off of her and shifted so that he was lying on his side facing her.

She mirrored his position once she was able to breath normally again. She could feel her blood pulsing through her body, and was confused when it seemed to make a detour on its way to her heart. She moved her fingers to gently touch the area on her clavicle that Teddy had been kissing. She could feel a bruise starting.

"You. Gave. Me. A . . . a hickey?" she wheezed out between deep breaths.

He smiled at her. Just like that she went from incredibly seductive looking to undeniably cute. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were wide as she tried to process everything. Teddy nodded in answer to her question, and reached across so that he could place a stray blonde hair behind her ear.

Victoire narrowed her eyes at him. He grinned, "This shouldn't be surprising Vic. We just spent the last few minutes going through the fact that I'm possessive of you."

"So you think that makes it okay?"

"Well when you're just as possessive in return, yes. I'm not saying that it's the healthiest thing out there but it's not like we're in a situation where the pot's calling the cauldron black."

Victoire rolled her eyes at him. His smile softened and he kissed her delicately on the nose.

"I love you, you know."

"I love you too. Even if you can be a jealous and possessive git."

"You wouldn't want me any other way."

"True."

The both of the shook their heads at the ridiculousness of their talk. Teddy got up from the bed first, and then held his hand out to Victoire. She kept a hold of it when she got to her feet. They walked to the door of Teddy's room and he reached ahead and opened the door.

* * *

_Thump!_

Victoire jumped back in surprise at the scene in front of them, but Teddy wasn't fazed. He'd expected this. He looked at the two people on the other side of the door with an eyebrow raised on his forehead; daring one of them to speak.

Jilly automatically looked down at her feet. She was embarrassed to be caught in this situation. She didn't have time to ponder why she was the one who felt embarrassed however, because Kurt had decided to break the silence.

"Yup Jilly. I told you that Teddy's privacy wards were strong; let's go check someone else's wand-work. We haven't bugged Lassoder in a while."

Teddy knew better than to believe Kurt's words; even if Kurt hadn't delivered them with his face practically in the carpet of the floor.

Kurt had obviously been leaning on the door before Teddy opened it, in an attempt to hear what was going on inside the room. Jilly's tense posture and guilty expression told Teddy that –despite the fact that her conscience was more involved with her life than Kurt's was with his- she too had been trying to listen in to what was going on in his room.

"Cut the lies Kurt."

Kurt nodded and finally got back onto his feet, he and Jilly shared a look before looking back at Teddy and Victoire. He tried to sound professional when he asked the next question, "What's going on?"

Teddy raised an eyebrow again, "What _is _going on? Or what _was_ going on in my room when you two tried to eavesdrop?"

"Either one will do," Jilly replied deciding to be the 'bad cop' because she knew Kurt wouldn't have the attention span to.

Teddy rolled his eyes at Jilly, "We were discussing Victoire's assault from last night."

"Oh. Sorry," Jilly said sheepishly.

"I thought we already exhausted that topic last night. Or did Victoire have any new insight on who the attacker was?" Kurt asked starting to turn professional again.

"Not that attack," Teddy said looking at Victoire.

Kurt and Jilly's faces showed their confusion. They looked at Victoire also, and were belatedly stunned to see that she was holding onto Teddy's hand.

Jilly's eyes were stuck on the pair's clasped hands but she asked, "What do you mean not that attack?"

"Just some stupid bloke who kissed me and wouldn't take no for an answer. It's not a big deal. Or at least it pales in comparison to the question you guys actually want to ask," Victoire said shrewdly, she hadn't missed the look they'd given her as they looked at her and Teddy's hands. Nor was it an accident that she still had Teddy's hand clutched within hers.

Jilly and Kurt shared a look before asking, "Are you two dating?"

"Yes."

Jilly expected the answer but she was still upset about it. She decided that she'd figure out if she were angry with Victoire later, as of now she just had an urge to yell at Ted.

"I can't believe you Ted! You know that that is against the rules; you know it! I could see this happening with someone like Lassoder –the prat has no morals- but I expected better from you! We can skip past the fact that our superior Aurors specifically forbade stuff like this from happening, and go straight to the fact that this is just- just so disgusting and underhanded and- and so villainous of you! She's a student! And not just that but the fact that she's practically your family. Do you actually think Potter, Weasley, or even Shacklebolt would be okay with this? Are you sure that you're a Gryffindor? Because breaking rules just to help yourself definitely seems to be a more Slytherin trait! And another thing-"

Kurt's large hands cut off Jilly's tirade. He didn't know how he felt on an emotional level about all of this. However, if he believed what Ted had said the night before at the Ball when he was trying to get that one girl to stop coming onto him, than he couldn't doubt that Ted had strong feelings for Victoire. Whether it was appropriate or not, Jilly hadn't heard the strong emotion in Ted's voice that Kurt had when he'd told that other girl that he already had a girlfriend that he was in love with.

Kurt had decided to let Jilly debate the morality of Ted's actions; he just wanted one answer to a question that had big bugging him, "How long have you guys been dating?"

Teddy had gotten increasingly quiet, as Jilly had yelled at him. Therefore, Victoire was the one to answer in a smooth tone, "Since August."

Both Kurt and Jilly's eyes widened in shock as they digested the news. If the atmosphere in the room hadn't been so tense from before when Jilly was laying it into Teddy, Victoire thought that she probably would have laughed at the completely floored and flabbergasted looks on their faces.

Kurt lowered his hands away from Jilly's face. He knew that he wouldn't be able to come up with the correct follow up questions, but he was sure that with the new information Jilly would. She didn't disappoint, "Wait. So you started dating before this whole Tri-Wizard Tournament mess?"

Victoire nodded, "Yes."

"So . . . you aren't technically breaking any rules with your relationship then?" Kurt asked.

Jilly narrowed her eyes at him, "What are you talking about?"

"Well if they started dating before the whole Tournament started, and before Potter and Weasley put the rule in place, then they must be above it . . . hey! Did Potter and Weasley know about you guys before they even made that rule?" Kurt questioned.

Teddy nodded and spoke for the first time, "Yes. They knew before the Tournament happened."

There was no need for either Victoire or Teddy to say just how close the time between both revelations were though.

"So Shacklebolt knew about this beforehand too then?" Jilly asked. She was finally starting to calm down to the idea. It was still a bit of a shock but the fact that their superior Aurors –who had made the rules in the first place- knew about their relationship was comforting. She didn't _want_ to think the worst of Teddy and his morals and intentions.

"Umm . . ." Victoire began, looking at Teddy for guidance. He gave her a look that said 'go-ahead-it's-best-if-we-get-everything-out-in-the-open'. Victoire nodded at him and continued, "Well, as you all know, Kingsley was away for a good portion of the summer . . . so we didn't exactly have the chance to tell him the good news . . ."

Jilly was about to open her mouth to say something else, when Victoire quickly continued, "Anyway, he did end up finding out about us during the first week when I came back to school- before anyone at Hogwarts had heard about the idea of the Tournament. But, um, well . . . _we_ didn't find out that _he_ knew until about October . . ."

"But they all still knew what they were doing? When they would specifically assign Teddy to follow you around, when they would send him on little errands to get you, when they assigned him to every extra patrol that had to do with you . . . oh good Godric. When you fainted at the Hallowe'en party and they told him to bring you back to his room to spend the night, they did that knowing that you were in a relationship?" Jilly said not wanting to believe her own train of thoughts.

Victoire rolled her eyes. Why everyone thought that just because she and Teddy were dating, meant that they couldn't spend time together without it being weird was beyond her. They didn't think anything odd of it –well after they'd explained the circumstances- the first time around when Victoire walked out of Teddy's room in his Quidditch jersey. Now that they knew that the two of them were snogging however, all of a sudden it looked wrong.

"Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron, Kingsley, and even my own parents for the matter, knew about mine and Teddy's relationship. They've known this the whole time. In addition, even though they knew this, they still knew that if they wanted me to be safe, they'd need a smart and talented person watching me. Someone who I would think twice _before_ hexing for getting into my person space, not after. Teddy was the perfect candidate, whether we were dating, or whether we still saw each other as just best friends," Victoire explained.

Kurt nodded, "Makes sense. I don't think any of the other Aurors would have lasted long if they were assigned to follow you around."

"Thank you."

Jilly rolled her eyes at the two and looked at Teddy, "I still don't know how to feel."

Teddy nodded, "I know you're confused, but you have to believe me. Even if we hadn't started dating before this whole mess started, I would never be the person you described. I love Victoire and I always have. At first, it was the best-friend and little-sister kind of love, but then it grew to something else without even my own knowledge. Before I realized exactly how I felt about her it was too late and I was head over heels for her. I know that because she's a student and because we're supposed to be protecting them and nothing else that you think that this is wrong, but it's not. I would never let anything happened to not just Victoire, but to any of the other students. Harry and Ron created that rule because they didn't want any problems with an Auror seducing a younger student. That is completely different from what is going on between Victoire and I. Completely different."

Jilly sighed, "I'm sorry this-this is just hard to wrap my head around."

"It shouldn't be. Weren't you suspicious when he came up to me and kissed me when I was stuck under that mistletoe a couple of weeks ago?" Victoire asked. She'd thought that that situation made how they felt about each other pretty obvious.

Jilly snorted, "I figured that he fancied you in some way but I didn't think that it went much farther than that. You're a pretty girl and even if you were practically family to him, it didn't mean that he wouldn't notice sooner or later that you're drop dead gorgeous. I thought it was some sort of hidden unrequited thing."

Victoire smiled brightly and looked at Teddy, "Trust me. It was never unrequited."

"See well I can see that now," Jilly answered stoically.

Teddy let go of Victoire's hand and wrapped his arm around her waist instead, "Anymore questions or apologies? Because we kind of ran out on Victoire's friends and I'm sure that they're going to want to know about what happened to her last night.

"Umm, actually, yes," Kurt said raising his hand up slightly as if he was answering a question a professor posed, "Why is Victoire wearing the sweater you unwrapped this morning as a Christmas gift?"

Teddy and Victoire shared a look before smirking and slowly walking to the door to the outer corridors, "The same reason why I'm wearing her brother's."

"And that would be . . . ?"

"Goodbye Kurt."

"Bye Jilly!"

* * *

"So . . . let me get this straight. You were attacked not once, but twice last night?"

"Yes."

"Once by Chris because he'd somehow gotten it into his mind that you fancied him, and because he decided to let you know that he actually fancied you back. And once by some person who looked like Austin Pennington, but whom you are certain wasn't Pennington."

"Yes."

"And Chris kissed you twice and tried to force your affections –all the while being a shame to the house of Gryffindor. And then Kyle came and saved you?"

"Yes."

"Yet the other attack was more of an assault and not only did the perpetrator threaten you several times, but he actually slapped you twice across the face, then Teddy and Auror Williamson came and saved you?"

"Yes."

"So now Chris is still stuck in the Hospital Wing because Madame Pomfrey still can't remove the jinx –nice one by the way Kyle- and when he does get out of the hospital then we're all going to shun him?"

"Um, sure . . . ? I-I don't remember deciding that though . . ."

"Oh you didn't. We did while you were gone."

"Oh! Okay then, well please continue."

"Sure. Moreover, as for this other bloke, the Auror department will be doing an investigation but they can't start it for a while because the Department of Magical Transportation is off during the holidays. Yet even when they are open, we shouldn't expect much since there isn't a lot of evidence to work from."

"Basically yes."

"And you thought that it would be smart to hide all of this from us . . . because?"

"Because I didn't want to worry you."

" . . . You know that you're an idiot, right?"

"Yup."

"Okay then."

When Victoire and Teddy had gotten back to the Room of Requirement everyone was sitting where they had been when they'd left; Sandra and Kyle in one chair, and Ally and Xavier on a loveseat beside them. When Victoire and Teddy took a seat on the couch they'd been sitting on earlier, she noticed for the first time that their furniture was facing the others in an odd way. It was as if Victoire was in front of an expecting audience. The room was silent when they came in. Victoire knew what they wanted, so once she was seated, she wasted no time in diving into both stories about what had happened the night before. She could tell by the way that they showed more emotion for the second story than the first, that Kyle had at least told them everything he knew about the first attack.

After the stories, Xavier began to ask Victoire questions. He seemed to be their designated spokesperson. He asked, and Victoire answered –mostly with just a calm yes. At the end, after Xavier called Victoire an idiot and she agreed, was when he first cracked a smile.

Once the interview was over both Head students relaxed their poses. Victoire leaned into Teddy beside her who began rubbing her back comfortingly, and Xavier leaned back on the loveseat and tossed his arm across the back of it, behind Ally's head.

Victoire hadn't gotten much evidence, when she'd first come into the room, on how far Xavier and Ally's talk about his offer from Puddlemere had gotten. Everyone had been focused on her, but now that they had seemed to finish with her issues, she really wanted to know about Xavier's.

Victoire cleared her throat to bring at focus back on her, "So . . . can we switch gears from me to Xavier now?"

Kyle sighed, "Xavier already explained everything to us while you were gone."

"That's okay, I already know the details, I just want to know if he's decided," Victoire responded.

"You already knew?" Kyle asked surprised.

Victoire nodded, "He bloody woke me up in the middle of the night –the day that I first woke up after being attacked by the manticore- to ask me to tell him what he should decide. Git."

"He wanted you to tell him?"

"Yeah, he had just found out and he was overwhelmed by all of the information. I wouldn't tell him what to do, but we made a plan on how he should go about it to decide."

"Which was?" Sandra asked.

Victoire gave Xavier a look that said, 'do-you- want-to-take-it-from-here?'. Xavier sighed but nodded.

"I wasn't sure if I wanted to take up the offer, or stay at Hogwarts and finish my last year with you guys. Victoire told me that I should weigh the pros and cons and then get through with any . . . unfinished business . . ."

Ally turned slightly to give him an odd look and spoke for the first time since Victoire and Teddy had come back, "Unfinished business?"

"You," Xavier told her quietly, "Vic didn't think that it would be fair of me to leave –if that was my choice- before letting you know how I felt."

Ally's eyes widened, "Oh."

"But that's not the only reason why I wanted to," Xavier added quickly, "I wanted to let you know, this was just the catalyst that brought everything into motion and caused it to speed up."

Ally nodded her head but Victoire could tell that she wanted to talk to him about something else . . . just not with anyone else present. Obviously, they hadn't gotten very far into the details of this issue when Victoire and Teddy made their previous scene.

"So have you made a decision yet?" Victoire asked Xavier. She wanted to know what frame of mind Ally would be coming with to her later when she would no doubt go to her cousin for guidance.

Xavier shook his head, "Not yet. I still have 'til New Year's Eve until I make a final choice. Mum and Dad just want to know if I'd decided _yet_, when they go to have the press conference tomorrow. They weren't going to mention it anyway. Tomorrow's going to be all about the new baby, and Dad's retirement from playing Quidditch to coaching it."

"Do you know which one they're going to start with?" Victoire asked suddenly.

Xavier shot her a confused look before answering, "No . . . why?"

Victoire shrugged, "I just think that it would be best if Oliver announced his occupation change first, and then site Katie's pregnancy as a one of the reasons why. End it on a good note and maybe all they'll remember at the end is the fact that Katie's got another mini-Oliver in the oven."

"Do they know that it's a boy?" Sandra asked.

Xavier shook his head, "No. Mum and Dad actually want it to be a surprise. I think Victoire is more referring to the fact that whatever gender they have, she's guessing that it'll take after my Dad in personality."

"Who knows, maybe the baby will take after Katie, Cecilia did," Kyle added.

Victoire and Xavier shared a look before Victoire snorted, "Yeah, but they broke the mould when they made Cecilia. She's a one of a kind."

Everyone nodded in acquiescence and then it was silent.

Victoire couldn't stand the silence because there was still something bugging her, "You guys aren't angry with me, are you?"

Despite the fact that there was no segue into her topic, her friends knew what she was talking about.

"Of course not Vic. We understand that you didn't want to worry us. It was stupid of you of course, but we understand because that's the kind of person you are. That being said, we want to know if you're all right. That's a lot of emotional stress to go through. A nameless person assaulting you is one thing, but I still can't believe that Chris would be something like that. Well . . . I can believe it because obviously he did, but I didn't think that he would do something like that," Sandra rambled as she tried to comfort her best friend.

"I'm just upset that it was Kyle and not me to walk in on it. I would have loved to give Chris a piece of my mind for doing that to you," Xavier said angrily.

Victoire could tell that Xavier wasn't the only male in the room who was over-protective of her. While he clenched his fists angrily and Ally attempted to calm him down, Victoire was doing the same with Teddy. Just talking about Chris was enough to get Teddy angry again. She turned to him and grabbed his large hands between hers. She tried to unclench his fists as she whispered some calming words to him. A few minutes later, he was calm enough that Victoire shifted her attention from him to everyone else.

"Anyone else angry with me?"

"No. Not unless there's some other big secret you're keeping from us," Kyle answered offhandedly.

Victoire tried to laugh good-humouredly but it came out sounding strained to her. The only other people that she noticed that seemed like they heard the lull in her voice was Teddy –he knew what she was thinking of- and Ally.

Victoire knew that she and Teddy were both thinking of the mysterious notes she'd gotten, but she didn't know what Ally would have read into her off-sounding laughter.

"So what do we do now?" Victoire asked the others.

"We'll we skipped lunch because you and Xavier thought that it would be fun to keep secrets from us so . . . quick visit to the kitchens?" Sandra asked.

Kyle, Victoire, and Teddy nodded but Xavier and Ally shook their heads.

"Ally and I are going to go and . . . well we have some things to talk about," Xavier said standing up and then offering his hand to Ally to help her up.

The group of Gryffindors nodded and Xavier and Ally left the room holding hands. Everyone else stood up and Victoire grabbed Teddy's hand before looking sadly at the door that Ally and Xavier had left through.

"I really don't think that that's going to end well."

* * *

Hey, well I hope you liked. This ending is also a little abrupt, but it was already getting _really_ long.

**Kay, so a few things:**

**1).** Victoire's feeling that it was her fault that Chris attacked her. I wrote it that way because I wanted to get across the idea that a lot of the times it's the victims of an attack taht feel as though it's their fault. Sometimes someone will staright up tell them, but sometimes a person's mind will just come up to that conclusion themself. Usually it's a person's insecurity and selfconsciousness that brings it up, and since everyone feels that way at some point, people feel that way a lot.

BUT! Even though people feel that way (especially victims) it's NOT their fault. Like Teddy tried to explain to Victoire even if she had accepted Chris' affection and 'moves' concientiously, even if she knew what she was doing, Chris had the responsibiltiy to stop the moment she told him to. Contrary to popular belief it's never to late to say 'no' and once someone says no (of either gender) the person who is pressuring them had the obligation to stop.

**2).** The thing I said above goes both ways. Vic felt bad after Teddy had tried to talk some sense into her because she felt as though she had done the same thing to Teddy (earlier in the year) that Chirs had to to her. There was a difference between the two as Teddy said, and not just because the gender of the person who was pressuring the other person, but because Teddy hadn't pulled back or said no to the kiss. Harrassment isn't specified by gender. Men harrass women, women harrass men, men harrass men, and women harrass women. No matter the genders, when some says 'no' or any of it's variations it means no.

**3).** I realize that some people might not like Jilly in this chapter, so I thought that I'd head off any complaints by writing my motivation for writing her like this. She was worried for Victoire, and she was worried about Teddy and his reputation. Some might say that she was being hypocritical because she broke the rules when she 'dated' Professor Cooke, but there is a difference. Jilly and Prof. Cooke are two adults several years over the 'age of consent'. Victoire, while she is sventeen and legally an adult, she had just turned sveenteen, and she is still attending school. Meaning in Jilly's mind that anyone who would go after a student they are supposed to have a striclty proffessional relationship with, even an of age one is disgusting. In her mind at first she thought that Teddy had seduced Victoire somehow and that he was to blame for the infraction. They set her straight but it will still take her a while to get used to the idea of a relationship between the two.

So, in conclusion, she didn't mean to sound like a b!tch but she was worried for the well-being of everyone involved because it is technically against the rules and could be considered an abuse of power on Teddy's part if it got out, even though Harry, Ron, Kingsley and her parents know.

**A/N:** So thank you to everyone who wished me good luck a university. Moving in and my 101 week (A.K.A. Frosh week but they're not legally allowed to call it that, even though they do arrange trips to take the of age students to Quebec 'cause the drinking age is 18 there) have been easy, but it will be when classes actually start that will be the problem. I haven't had one yet (my first classes are tomorrow) and one of my Profs, has already e-mailed everyone in the course about when our first and second midterm will be :(.

**And for those of you who were guessing and/or wondering** at what kind of course I'm taking. If you haven't read my profile, I'll tell you here. I'm actually not taking anything that has to do with writing or English, or actully anything to do with the Faculty of Arts. I'm in the Faculty of Science, and I'm taking a Honours Baccelorette degree in Biomedical sciences. Or we juts shorten it it BioMed. So yeah. No English courses in the future, but lots of Bio, Chem, Calc, Anatomy, and Pysch and ect. All together I have 24 hours of classes a week, not counting time for homework or the one-two hours that some Profs. suggest we use to get ready for our lectures.

Anyway, enough about me, thank-you to everyone who has **reviewed / followed / favourited / read /** or **just enjo**yed my fanfic :)

**Next Week:** Ally and Vic have a little girl-talk, only this time it's sans Xavier . . .

Okay I'll make this part short:

**GREAT BIG THANKS TO:**

**Alfredo412, confusednikki24-7, IstillwishIwasaWeasley, abzster98, Dani, brilliant incandescence, Aurordreamer, Diamondgirl3, Lizaluvsdoggies, AzNeRd, MuggleCreator, Candy Converse, onedirectionlover98, potterhead1997, j r latchem, xSuperNovax, As the Robin Flies, RoLouG, nifflerstorm17008, .7, and YukiLovestoWrite.**


	58. Making Decisions

**A/N****:** Hey, well this chapter is actually just a few shorter scenes, but the ball seems to be rolling . . .

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any thing that you recognize :)

* * *

**Making Decisions**

The Gryffindor common room was unusually warm and busy for two o'clock in the morning on the day after Christmas. It was unusually warm because by midnight the fire in the fireplace would usually have died down because there would have been no one up to attend to it. That didn't seem to be the case tonight though, seeing as the fire was roaring and giving off large amounts of heat. As for it being unusually busy, most of the students were expected to be asleep by now. The students went to bed late and full of fantastic food from the Christmas feast the night before, and weren't expected to get up until at least nine o'clock the next morning –that morning. The blonde would have had no problem going back to bed and sleeping for another hour or eight, but it seemed like that wasn't going to happen, or at least not until this meeting was over with. The brunette on the other hand, was only just getting back into Gryffindor tower, and as soon as she'd gotten in, she went straight up to the girls' dormitories and woke up the still half-asleep blonde.

The blonde was lying prone on one of the black leather couches. Her long slivery-blonde hair was splayed out around her, she was decked out in a pair of orange and black Chudley Cannons pyjama pants (a gift from her Uncle Ron earlier in the summer), and her baby-blue Weasley sweater with the sparkly silver 'V'. A sweater that James had pretty much thrown at her when he didn't have to wear it anymore at the end of the day.

The brunette was still wearing her dark jeans and her brother's yellow and red sweater from the switch that morning. Usually they all would have traded sweaters back after dinner, but she hadn't made it to dinner that night. Therefore, she was just going to give her brother his sweater back to him later that morning; he really wouldn't care if she were late.

While the brunette debated how to begin the conversation, the blonde finally opened her eyes and asked, "Why'd you wake me up?"

Ally studied Victoire carefully. She didn't know if she wanted to get into it right away, so she started with a question of her own, "Why are you holding a teddy-bear?"

Victoire looked down at the light brown plush bear she had clutched in her arms and then back at her cousin confusedly, "Because he's my Teddy-bear."

Ally was still puzzled, "Since when do you have a teddy-bear?"

"Since Teddy gave him to me for Christmas," Victoire replied, a small smile coming to her face.

She and Teddy had exchanged gifts after they'd gotten something to eat for lunch. She'd gotten him a new traveling cloak with a series of special everlasting protection charms built in. The charms were only up to the standards of a simple _protego_ spell, but they wouldn't fade like other charmed clothing items. It wouldn't protect against many dark curses, but it would handle the smaller ones that might come at him when his back would be turned when he started actual Auror fieldwork. Teddy's gift to her had been the -a fore mentioned- Teddy-bear. He told her that he had actually made it himself, because none of the other plush toys he had seen looked like they'd be able to hold up to the distinct spells he's put on it. He put a special colour-changing charm on it that would cause the colour of the bear's fur to change depending on the mood Victoire was feeling when she held it. Because he had decided to make the bear himself, he'd started on it in August just before she'd left for school. His first intention had been to give her something that she could hug and cuddle up to when he couldn't be there during her school year, but because of the Tournament, it took some of the practicality out of it. Victoire loved it nonetheless, and felt that what Teddy might have thought that it lacked in practicality, it definitely made up in sentiment.

"Do I even want to ask more questions?" Ally asked slightly worried by the glazed look that had come across Victoire's eyes when she answered.

"Probably not. But you should know that it's fur is this dull brown colour because I'm upset that you woke me up," Victoire told her earnestly.

Ally blinked and briefly considered that Victoire wasn't fully awake yet. She shrugged as soon as she'd considered that. A slightly sleep-deprived and loopy Victoire was better than no Victoire at all.

"Okay. So are we back at me then?" Ally asked.

"Well I sure hope so or else there's really not much of a reason for me to be out here," Victoire told her as she closed her eyes and snuggled with her Teddy-bear onto the leather couch. The bear's fur was gradually changing from the pale brown to a burnt orange. Victoire figured that that colour was showing that she was actually more curious about what Ally wanted than she was letting on.

Ally sighed and jumped right in, "I told him to go for it."

Victoire sat up right away and eyed her cousin markedly, "I dearly hope that you're talking about Xavier and that he should take Puddlemere's offer."

Ally blushed slightly, "Yes I am. He flat out asked me what I thought he should do, and I told him."

"Is he going to do it then?"

"I think so. He said that he needed to think through a few things but I'm pretty sure that he's going to take them up on their offer. I mean this is what he has been hoping for since he was thirteen. It's his chance to get the starting keeper spot on _Puddlemere United_. No waiting out a few years on the reserve team and no having to wait for Oliver to retire. He can do it right away; he can have his dream everything he's ever wanted. Of course, he's going to go for it. What would stop him?"

Victoire gestured for Ally to sit down next to her on the couch and rubbed her hand comfortingly on her arm, "Ally when he first told me about this he didn't know what he wanted. There were several things that would have made him think to stay. Not the least of which was you and how he felt about you."

Ally bit her lip, "But I don't want to stand in his way."

"You're not Ally. He told you how he felt; you told him that you reciprocated those feelings. He told you about his offer; you guys talked about it together and came up with the choice that was the best for the both of you. He spoke with you about it and you guys talked it out like the two mature adults that you are. You've worked through this together. I don't know if he would have been able to decide what he actually wanted if you hadn't been there to talk it through with him," Victoire said soothingly.

Ally ran her fingers worriedly through her brown hair, "I'm so happy for him . . . and so, so proud of him. He's such a talented and brilliant person, I knew that he was going to do something big. I did know."

"But . . . ?" Victoire asked, sensing that the word was coming.

Ally looked at her favourite cousin. Her brown eyes were wide they looked like they might actually cry, "But . . . Godric Vic I'm going to miss him so much. And-and I care about him. A lot. I-I don't know if I'll be able to handle this."

Victoire gazed at her cousin; her face didn't show her astonishment, but the bear that she was holding in her right hand turned to a bright green –obviously the colour that showed surprise. She'd looked over the fact that she and Ally hadn't actually had a conversation about how she felt about Xavier. Not when she knew that she had a crush on him earlier in the year, and not even after he'd asked her to the Ball those few weeks ago. She had always looked at her cousin as a shy-natured individual. She hadn't brought up her feeling for Xavier before for that purpose. She knew that it would take Ally a while to admit how strong her feelings for Xavier were, but she never doubted that it would happen. Victoire had taken this for granted –the proof that Ally felt as strongly for Xavier as Victoire knew Xavier felt for her. She had forgotten that Ally and she had never actually talked about this yet. This wasn't the most ideal time to deal with this, but Victoire knew that it needed to be done.

"Ally," Victoire started slowly; she didn't want to 'rock the boat' on this one, "Have you and Xavier talked about what you're going to do now that he's decided to take the offer?"

Ally squinted her eyes in confusion; she didn't know where Victoire was going with her question.

Victoire sighed, "About your relationship I mean. Have you decided what's going to happen about it?"

Ally nodded and took a deep breath, "We've decided that we're going to try a long distance relationship for the rest of the year. If you and Teddy thought that you could handle it for nine months, well we should be able to handle five."

Victoire nodded glad to hear that they were going to attempt something. She didn't know how she'd feel if they had just gotten together to break apart not even a month later. She didn't know if she'd be able to handle two heart-broken friends.

"You're still going to have one year of Hogwarts left after this year's over though," Victoire reminded her gently.

"I know. We thought that we'd take it slowly though. See if we can handle five months apart of this year, then reconvene during the summer and see if our trial run went over well enough for us to do it next year," Ally said.

Victoire nodded. It was somewhat clinical thinking but they both must have been emotionally exhausted when they came up with it so it seemed like a logical enough plan, "Don't worry, those months will go by fast. He'll be back in February for The Second Task, there's the week of Easter holidays, The Third Task, and the last month of school's going to go fast because we'll be studying for exams –which Xavier may be able to come back for, and then summer starts. Everything will go by quickly and you'll be back together."

Ally nodded and then looked up at Victoire, "How were you planning on handling it? How were you planning on surviving the whole school year away from Teddy?"

"I was going to put on a brave face and work through it. I was planning that school would keep my body and mind occupied for enough of the time that the amount of time that I did spend mooning over the fact that we couldn't be together would be infinitesimal compared to all the time we spent apart," Victoire told her honestly.

"So you're telling me to keep busy?" Ally asked.

"After he leaves; yes. Before he leaves just spend as much time snogging him as much as possible so that you'll have enough optimistic fodder for your daydreams," Victoire said smiling slightly.

Ally blushed and bit her lip, "Don't worry. We've already got that covered."

Victoire smirked but then it fell, "I really don't know what I should think about that. Part of me wants to be your favourite cousin and go all girly about it, but then there's part of me that wants go up to his dorm and hex him for touching you."

"What part makes you want to do that?" Ally asked surprised.

"Not sure. I'm going to say it's the protective cousin in me. Anyway, how was it?"

Ally's face turned even redder, "You don't actually want to have this conversation do you?"

Victoire shrugged, "I'll go first if you want."

Ally frowned, "I don't know if I want to know what it's like to snog Teddy."

"You're missing out then," Victoire said laughingly.

Ally had to laugh to just at the ridiculousness of their conversation, "Xavier's a really good kisser. Sometimes it worries me though because it makes me wonder what other girls he's been snogging that made him so good."

Victoire didn't want to laugh. She knew that it would take a lot from Ally to admit something like that. Nevertheless, her worry that Xavier was kissing another girl before her was downright hilarious to Victoire, "Don't worry Ally. Xavier wasn't kissing any other girl before you. He's been obsessed with Quidditch 'til he realized that he was head-over-heels for you this year. He hasn't had time to snog another girl."

"Then why is he so good at it?" Ally asked interested in the answer but still red-faced. She wasn't very used to having these conversations, even if it was with Victoire.

Victoire shrugged, "Probably has something to do with the fact that it's you he's kissing. And probably has something to do with the genes, I mean he can't be that good-looking of guy and be that horrible of a kisser."

"You think that Xavier's good-looking?" Ally asked surprised.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Of course he's good-looking. He looks just like Oliver doesn't he? And while I'd never tell Xavier to his face that he's attractive I've said it jokingly to both Oliver and Katie in the past. He's a hot Scottish bloke who's going to have a lot of fans when he goes professional and not just because he's so talented."

Ally frowned, "And that's what I'm worried about."

"Don't be," Victoire said quickly, "It took him practically five months to tell a girl he's known since he was four that he fancied her. If he did fall for any of those Quidditch groupies, it would take him years to admit to it. Plus, his Dad's the coach and his Mum's a trainer, there's no way they'd let anything close to that happen."

Ally considered that. She'd forgotten that Xavier wouldn't be left to his own devices while on the team. If she were going to be sensible, she'd also admit that she didn't think that he'd have the guts to just randomly snog another girl. Victoire was right; it did take him four months to just snog her if she didn't count the fact that it took him another month to snog her again when she wasn't completely intoxicated.

"Good point."

"Yes. And if you're still worried, take my advice. Just snog him enough that he won't forget who you are."

Ally eyed Victoire explicitly, "Is that what you and Teddy were doing on Platform nine and three quarters before you got on the train this year?"

"Yup. Still do it every once in a while though, there are _way_ too many girls in this school who find him attractive," Victoire said, mumbling the last part sourly.

"Compared to the hundreds of blokes in this school who would give their wand arm to date you?" Ally asked.

Victoire shrugged and with her movement, Ally noticed something weird near Victoire neck. She leaned in and looked closer before saying with a raised eyebrow, "Is that a hickey on your neck?"

Victoire blushed lightly but her smirk was humongous, "I told you that Teddy was a good snogger."

* * *

"I think I'm going to vomit."

"Xav . . ."

"And if it's not going to happen right now it's going to happen in half an hour when I'm stuck in front of all those people at the press conference."

"Xavier . . ."

"In front of all of those people with all of those cameras . . ."

"XAVIER!"

"Oh Merlin! In front of all of those people from Dad and Mum's team that are going to be there for this-"

"XAVIER OLIVER WOOD!"

"And then when the pictures make the front page-"

"_Silencio!_"

Xavier only stopped his hurried pacing when he felt Victoire's spell hit him and was no longer able to complain. He spun around where he was at the far end of Professor McGonagall's office and glared at Victoire and –more specifically- the willow wand she had in her left hand.

Victoire, Ally, Sandra, Kyle, and Louis were in Professor McGonagall's office to say goodbye to Xavier and Cecilia. Their parents would be flooing in any minute to take them to the press conference and their friends were just keeping the company until they came. The press conference was set for eight o'clock on that Boxing Day evening, and they weren't expecting it to be done until even later than that. Because of that, Xavier and Cecilia were expecting to have to spend the night with their parents at their house when the conference was finally over with. They would come back to Hogwarts the next morning before breakfast.

Ally went up to Xavier once he'd stopped his maniacal and worried pacing, and kissed his cheek. He frowned at her for a minute before grabbing her around the waist and pulling her into a hug. He pressed his face against her hair and Ally whispered something quietly in his ear that no one else in the room could get the gist of.

Cecilia rolled her eyes at her brother's behaviour from where she was lying on the floor flat on her back. It seemed that where Xavier paced to get out his excess energy, Cecilia would just lie down and try to relax.

Louis was surprised at the difference in attitudes between the siblings, and voiced his wonder, "Are you not worried about the press conference too, Cecilia?"

Cecilia shrugged, "The way I see it is this is going to occupy the front pages for what . . . a month before the next Task? Maybe sooner if –no offence meant Vic- if _something_ else happens at Hogwarts or somewhere else . . ."

"But they're not just going to forget it."

"No, they won't. It will fade to the background but it will still be there. However, it doesn't affect me much. I get a new sibling to see in the summer, but I'm still going to be spending the majority of my time next year at Hogwarts. This affects Xavier and Mum and Dad more than me," Cecilia said easily.

Louis nodded and the room went quiet again, only to be interrupted ten minutes later when the large fireplace glowed a bright and brilliant green. Seconds later Oliver Wood was helping a rather round Katie out of the fireplace.

"Mum! Dad!" Cecilia called before getting up off the floor and running to hug her parents.

Oliver picked up his daughter and spun her around in a circle as he hugged her before he put her down and walked over to give Xavier a man-hug. Cecilia carefully hugged her four-month pregnant mother. Katie was glowing almost as bright as the fire had a minute ago. Victoire has seen her a month ago and at three months, Victoire could only pick out the baby bump because she knew what she was looking for. However, now at four months it was more obvious. Most women could get away until their fifth month before they started to show, but Katie had always been a tiny woman; both in height and weight. The fact that she was carrying another person was very obvious when you looked at her now.

After Oliver greeted Xavier, Katie went to hug her son.

"Hey Xav."

Xavier nodded back at his mother. His silence surprised her, so she looked to Ally who was standing next to him for help, "Why isn't he speaking?"

"Vic cast a silencing charm on him," Ally said easily as she gave Xavier a one-armed hug.

Katie laughed and then looked to Victoire, "A silencing charm?"

Victoire shrugged, "He was driving everyone –including himself- nuts with his manic pacing, and whisperings about what could go wrong at the press conference so I silenced him. Moreover, if that's how I sounded before the First Task, I'm surprised no one did that to me. And if I do that for the Second Task, someone please use any charm you want to shut me up."

As Victoire spoke, she took out her wand and released Xavier from the spell. He came directly over to her as soon as the counter-spell hit him and grabbed Victoire into an embrace, "Thank you for putting that charm on me. You were right I was annoying the crap out of myself. That being said don't ever do that to me again."

Victoire chuckled, "Fine."

"Good. And another thing, if you really want, I won't only put a silencing charm on you before the First Task, I'll also put a full body-bind curse on you so you can't move," Xavier offered jokingly.

Victoire actually took time to consider him offer, "I might just hold you up to that."

Everyone gave the Woods a series of good-byes and well wishes for the hell of a press conference they were about to go through.

* * *

"Seriously Rosie, I think you should just ignore that Malfoy prat. He's not even worth wasting the energy to hate him. Just pretend that he doesn't exist. If he says anything just pretend that you didn't hear it. Act as if he's not even worth the time it would take to acknowledge his presence because he's not," Dom lectured her younger cousin as she ripped open a chocolate frog package.

"Bet you that is a member of the Order of the Phoenix," Victoire said pointing to the not yet fully unwrapped treat, "Anyway, Dom you shouldn't be prejudicing Rosie against anybody, even if it is a slimy Slytherin."

Dom finally ripped the last of the paper off. She held the chocolate treat in one hand, and gazed at the collectable card in the other. After a minute she tossed the card across the space from her to her elder sister, "What? Should I just let her try to be nice to him and then realize after he humiliates her that he's a good-for-nothing slime ball?"

Victoire rolled her eyes before glancing down at the card Dom had given her. The larger print near the top of the picture read: _Kingsley Shacklebolt_. She smiled to herself before commenting back, "Dom just leave  
it alone. Rose can talk to or ignore whomever she wants. She doesn't need you to try to force your own ideals into her. Besides, you know just as well as I do that just because someone is a Slytherin doesn't necessarily mean that they're horrible. Heck, I saw you snogging with a Slytherin this morning after breakfast!"

"I'm not saying that just because they can be slimy gits doesn't mean that they can't be good kissers. I'm telling Rose to be careful around a Slytherin who seems like he'd want to humiliate her," Dom said as she flicked some of her red hair back past her shoulder. It looked odd though because behind her Molly was trying to fix her hair into two French braids.

"Hold still Dom! You told me that you wanted your hair done like this," Molly complained as she pulled her cousin's hair a bit too hard into one of the braids.

Dom rolled her eyes but complied with Molly's demands. Victoire laughed a little at her little sister and her cousin before looking over to the youngest member of their group tonight, "Rosie, just forget about Scorpius. Dom was right about one thing and one thing only. If he bugs you, take the high road and ignore him. Don't do it out of malice or superiority though, do it just because you don't want to make things worse, okay?"

Rose nodded her head and then turned to look at Ally beside her who was offering her the bag of _Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans_. She took a spaghetti-flavoured one and chewed it carefully.

Victoire glanced at her cousin's face and decided to change the subject. She didn't want Rose to think that either she or Dom were angry with her, because they weren't. If anything, Victoire was angry with Dom for bringing up the stupid subject in the first place when they were supposed to be relaxing. Victoire had been enjoying a girls' night in her dorm with her sister and her cousins when Dom had first decided to bring up the topic about the wary Slytherin with their younger more 'naïve' cousin.

"Molly, did I say thank you for painting my nails a while ago?" Victoire asked her blue and green stripped pajama clad cousin.

Molly rolled her eyes at Victoire as she finished wrapping the elastic around the second braid of Dom's hair, "Yes you did Vic. At least five times already. Pick something new to talk about."

Victoire sighed and leaned back until she was lying on the blanket-covered floor with her head on Ally's too-soft pillow, "Fine then. What do you want to talk about Molly?"

Molly moved out from behind Dom and reached for a chocolate frog from the small pile that was by Dom's knee, "How about we complain about my prat of a sister?"

Dom and Rose giggled lightly but both Victoire and Ally put stern expressions on their faces, "Molly, don't be so tough on Lucy."

"Yeah," Victoire added, "I know from personal experience that your sister can bug the hell out of you. But she's family and you've got to live with her no matter what things she does to aggravate you."

"I know I know. Nevertheless, it just annoys me that she's so busy 'following the rules' that she won't take time out to have fun. There's nothing wrong with her coming and joining us for the night. If she doesn't want to sleep over with the rest of us 'big and bad Gryffindors' she could leave before we all called it a night. She doesn't need to study or whatever lame excuse it was that she gave Ally for not attending. We do this every year on Boxing Day. It's bad enough that Lily can't be here with us but now Lucy thinks that spending time with us won't be worth her while. I just don't get it. She was fine and even giggling along with Vic during our Sweater Switch yesterday. How can she just do some cold one-eighty today?" Molly asked frustrated.

For better or for worse, Lucy was Molly's older sister and she wanted to look up to her. She wanted to think of her elder sister as a superhero, but was having a hard time when she acted the way she did.

Dom rubbed Molly's back comfortingly, "Dunno. Personally, I think that someone spiked her pumpkin juice with a calming drought yesterday. She was _way_ too mellow to have been like that without some form of emotional enhancement."

Ally rolled her eyes and was about to say something when the arrival of a sandy-haired Head Boy surprised all five of the Weasley girls in the dormitory.

As per their Boxing Day all-girls slumber party tradition, they were all sitting inside a humongous blanket fort. Victoire and Ally had arranged half of the beds of the dormitory to maximize room and then placed blankets on the floor –where they were going to sleep- and above the beds as a roof for their fort. When Xavier came in he had to crunch down onto his knees and crawl in before closing the opening of the blanket where he'd entered.

Ally was across the space from him so he crawled towards her before sitting down next to her. He kissed her lightly on the lips before looking around at all the girls, "However did your roommates allow you to do this Vic? I thought that they all hated you."

Victoire threw the pillow that she had under her head in Xavier's direction. Since it was Ally's to start with, she grabbed it from Xavier before he could throw it back.

"Pamela's spending the night with some Ravenclaw bloke and the rest of her friends don't have the brain capacity to come up with an opinion of their own without her lead to follow," Victoire answered.

Ally looked at Xavier questioningly, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home all snug in your bed right now?"

Xavier lifted his hand to run through Ally's dark brown hair, "Would you rather that I not be here?"

Ally blushed and shook her head. Before she could reply, Xavier kissed her again. The kiss wasn't light like the first, and before long Ally had her hands in his hair and they looked like they were trying to eat each other's faces off.

Victoire quickly placed her hands over Rose's –who was beside her- eyes.

"There are children here!"

It took a few more minutes for Xavier and Ally to separate before Xavier spoke, "I can see that you're clutching a stuffed bear but that doesn't mean that you're a child Vic."

Victoire frowned at him and regretted throwing the pillow at him so soon. She didn't have any more ammo except said Teddy-bear that was presently a bright red colour, and she wasn't going to throw that.

"Can we go back to the last intelligent thing someone said? I believe it was when Ally asked you why you're here. It's twelve o'clock; shouldn't you be at home sleeping?" Dom asked.

Xavier sighed and ran a hand through his newly messed up hair, "I couldn't sleep. The press conference was over at like ten-thirty and then everyone went to bed. I could barely get comfortable so I got up and went to the kitchen. Mum and Dad were still up and I told them what was happening. They said if it would help that they'd be fine if I flooed back to Hogwarts tonight. Cee-Cee was asleep already so she'll just come back tomorrow before breakfast like planned."

"Was there a main reason why you had trouble sleeping?" Victoire asked shrewdly.

"Maybe. However, I have so many thoughts swirling around in my mind that I feel as though I won't be able to sleep for a while. So imagine my surprise when I saw that all of you ladies were still up," Xavier said charmingly.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "All-girls slumber party tradition. You know that. Why'd you come here in the first place? Why aren't you in your dorm staring at the ceiling there?"

"'Cause Sandra and Kyle are still up and they were making too much noise," Xavier replied.

"What are they doing?" Rose asked interestedly.

Xavier shared a look with Victoire before answering, "They're playing _Scrabble_."

Dom and Ally snickered while Molly looked confused, "What's _Scrabble_?"

"It's a muggle board game. You get these letters and you try to make words. The bigger the words the more points you get. Mum and Dad play it sometimes but Dad can't get through a game without quitting, because Mum always wins," Rose explained.

She looked at Victoire confusedly though, "Although I don't know why Sandra and Kyle would be playing that at twelve o'clock at night."

Ally and Dom's snickers broke out into full-out giggles. Victoire tried to ignore them as she answered Rose with a straight face, "It's an odd muggle tradition of hers. _Scrabble_ on Boxing day and other important holidays."

Rose nodded and went back to looking at the small pile of collectable cards from the chocolate frogs they'd eaten that night. She was trying to figure out which ones she already had.

Victoire looked back to Xavier, "So the chances of you going back to your dorm are . . ."

"Low until Sandra and Kyle are done their game. When I walked in she had just hit a double-word score and man was she excited about it," Xavier said shuddering at the memory.

Victoire rolled her eyes and tossed him a chocolate frog from the unopened pile of sweets. He caught it, opened it, and then bit the head off.

Realizing that Xavier had decided to crash girls night for at least a bit longer, Dom started in on a story about James and Fred walking in on her and the last guy she'd been snogging, and how she had to blackmail them to keep them from sending a letter to her parents about it.

* * *

Okay, well I hoped that you all liked that! And if you did, please review!

**A/N:** Okay, so I'm just going to mention this here. The whole '_Scrabble_' thing you just read. I know that it's rather suggestive and that you all probably will want to know exactly what it's about, so I'm going to say this:

**I'M NOT TELLING** :P

But seriously, if any of you have read Margaret Atwood's novel _The Handmaid's Tale_, you will completely understand the reference. And if you haven't, well, I hope that not knowing won't cause you to loose and sleep or anything. It is rather inconsequential. :)

Big thanks to everyone who: Reviewed, followed, favourited, enjoyed, and read! (Even those of you who might read it but not enjoy it, thanks)

**Next Chapter:** Hmmm . . . well . . . I think I put in some Teddy/Vic fluff . . . yeah. Oh! Oh! and the title's a good one! It's called:_ Colton Knott's a Genius_. Enjoy trying to figure out what that entails.

Big HUGE **Thank-you** to everyone who reviewed especially:

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	59. Colton Kontt's a Genius

**A/N**: Here's the next chapter. The title's entertaining, and while it might seem like filler to you, as with my previous more 'boring' chapters, there are a few hidden bits of important things that will be important later on in the story . . . :)

Oh, and there's some fluff too . . .

**Disclimer**: I do not own any of this.

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Colton Knott's a Genius

The morning of December 31st looked like it would be a typical December morning. Snow had fallen thickly the night before but had lightened up to a light dusting by morning light, and it seemed the weather was going to keep up the light dusting for the entire day. The inhabitants of Hogwarts and the citizens of Hogsmeade were in for a very white New Year's Eve and –if the past moths weather was any indication- a very white new year.

The Weasley's had many traditions for the holidays, not just centring around the Christmas holidays, but many others also. The traditions concerning New Year's was clothing related. The Weasley's would wear any clothing that they wanted, as long as it was Quidditch related.

Victoire's outfit of choice was her white signed _Puddlemere United_ tank top, underneath her black fleece zip-up sweatshirt that said '_Gryffindor_' on the back in gold writing with a small insignia that said '_Captain_' on the breast. Tying in her un-matching top half was an even more un-colour coordinated bottom half consisting of a pair of loose green sweatpants that narrowed around her ankles and had the word '_Harpies_' written in gold block-letters across her derrière. The pants had been a gift from her Aunt Ginny from the last Christmas, and were even signed in bright gold ink along the front leg spelling out '_Ginny Weasley-Potter_'. Her outfit didn't match one bit and it irritated Dominique to no end.

Dom had planned an outfit that was both Quidditch related and figure flattering opposed to her sister's multi-coloured mess that annoyed her every time she glanced at her in the Great Hall or in the Common Room that day. Dom had decided to wear a white long-sleeve tee that read '_Chudley Cheerleader_' on the front in black writing along with the team's black cannonball logo, and a pair of black tights underneath a pair of orange jean short-shorts that had '_Chudley_' and '_Cannons_' written on either hip in black sequins.

Ally wore an outfit in-between the two sisters' drastic different clothing choices. She had on a pair of navy-blue peddle-pushers that she usually wore for Quidditch practice and a light yellow long-sleeve shirt under her short-sleeved blue-white-and-red _Puddlemere United_ practice shirt that read '_Bell_' on the back.

Victoire and Ally had been apprehensive about following through with their tradition that year though. They knew that New Year's Eve was the day that Xavier had to, to decide whether he was going to take up _Puddlemere_'s offer or not. He was to leave after lunch to meet with them, and –if he decided to take the offer-, the next day the front page would show Xavier, Oliver, and the rest of the managerial staff as Xavier would be named the new starting keeper for _Puddlemere United_. They didn't want to stress Xavier out any more than he already would be, so they had almost decided not to go along with their tradition of wearing Quidditch related clothing. They had changed their minds after they had a chat with Cecilia, and she suggested that ignoring their tradition and pretending that Xavier didn't have this big decision to make would cause Xavier to worry more. Victoire and Ally thought it out some more and decided that they'd continue with their tradition. Cecilia was right; Xavier would feel worse if they stopped it just for him.

Victoire and her friends knew that time was ticking until Xavier would have to leave and announce his decision, and they wanted to keep him as occupied as possible before he had to leave for his appointment. They woke up early and had breakfast in the Great Hall before it got too full –something that wasn't very hard to do seeing as it was the holidays and most people didn't lie to get up before ten. After breakfast they all threw on their warmest winter clothes and went outside to have an epic snowball fight. They used the same teams that they were going to use on Christmas day before their schedule had been de-railed by the revealing game of truth or dare in the Room of Requirement.

Despite having one less person on their team, after an hour Victoire and Kyle were winning the snowball war. It quite possibly could have been because Ally and Xavier stopped every five minutes to snog, but Victoire and Kyle preferred to think that it was their amazing athletic and tactical abilities that were causing them to be in the lead. After Sandra had called a timeout so she could shake out the snowball that had ended up flying down the back of her coat with uncanny precision –and after she spent just as much time threating Kyle with retributive action if he ever did that to her again- more people joined them.

Cecilia, Louis, Baxter, and Cecilia's friend Danielle Reed had decided to take a stroll down to visit Hagrid, and were on their way back to the castle when they saw the group of elder Gryffindors. Louis and Cecilia had begged to be allowed to join in the battle right away, and Baxter had actually come up with the idea that they'd do third-years against the of-age-Gryffindors. Louis had complained at first because they were older and had one more person, when James and Freddie showed up and decided that they'd join in.

The snowball battle lasted another hour and half with both the older and the younger side getting some good shots in. Despite being older, the of-age-team was actually losing near the end of the game. Victoire, Ally, and Xavier comforted themselves with the knowledge that the younger team had just as many people as they did that played Quidditch. James, Fred, and Cecilia even though she preferred not to play for her house team with the exception of when Victoire begged her to- and that they also had an edge because James and Freddie took every opportunity they could to cheat. After fifteen more minutes of battle, the elder team finally gave-in after James and Fred had somehow charmed their snowballs to hit their opponent in the face while yelling out personalized insults to them. Sandra had been the one to call the game when she was hit by a rather large one that announced that she was 'talentless-big-mouthed-cow'.

It was a good thing that it was time for lunch because their epic snowball fight conjured up quite an appetite with all of the battle's participants. They were so hungry, that Xavier didn't even bother to comment on Victoire's lack of table manners while they ate –although she had been getting increasingly better at not talking while her mouth was full of food.

Near the end of their meal, more people were entering the Great Hall for lunch and Victoire could tell that Xavier was getting antsy.

"Don't worry Xavier, they're not looking at you," Victoire told him consolingly.

Xavier sighed and put down his fork, "Yeah, just like they haven't been looking at Cee-Cee and me since Mum and Dad made their announcements."

The eyes of almost everyone at Hogwarts –or at least every Quidditch fan- had been on the Wood siblings since the day after Boxing Day.

_The front page of The Daily Prophet had been graced with a large picture of the Wood family. Xavier stood beside his father, and Cecilia stood beside her mother; both were wearing their '_Best Big Brother/Sister Ever!_' tee shirts. Oliver and Katie stood in the middle bookended by their children and they both of them were posed with their hands on Katie's larger stomach. Oliver was wearing a dark-blue _Puddlemere United_ golf shirt with the words '_Coach_' stitched in yellow over his left breast. The title above the picture had read '_New Beginnings for the Wood Family_' and there was an article below it stating about Oliver's choice to leave professional Quidditch and take up a job offer to coach it instead. The other half of the article spoke about how Oliver's change in career was related to Katie's announcement about expecting another baby. The article briefly mentioned Xavier and Cecilia by stating their names, ages, what year, and house they were in at Hogwarts, and –for Xavier- what position he played on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The article went on to talk more about Katie and Oliver and specifically the baby. _

There was nothing even so much as hinting to Xavier's offer from Puddlemere, that would all be dealt with that New Year's Eve.

"If it makes you feel any better it will probably just be you that everyone's eyes are on tomorrow," Kyle told him.

Xavier narrowed his eyes at his best mate, "Surprisingly, that doesn't help Kyle."

Ally –who was sitting next to Xavier on the bench- kissed his cheek lightly and rubbed her thumb across his hand, "Everything will be fine Babe. Yes the people in this Castle are nosey, but your being the centre of attention will be a good thing. Everyone will see you for the amazing and skilled person that you are. And if you still don't want the attention . . . I'm sure Vic's overdue for some sort of attention grabbing incident."

Victoire rolled her eyes at her cousin but gazed at Xavier sympathetically, "I _can _make a scene if you want."

"No. If things get bad I'll just hide out in the Room of Requirement all day or something," Xavier told her. He knew that Ally had joked about using Victoire to take the attention off him, but he also knew that if it was what he needed, Victoire wouldn't think twice before causing a scene that would take the attention away from him.

Xavier had just finished drinking the rest of the juice from his goblet when he heard the distant tolling of the school's great clock. He silently counted the number of tolls in his head. When he got counted out twelve, he knew that his time was up.

He turned to Ally, kissed her lips, and then stood up, "I have to get to Professor Longbottom's office. I'm going to floo out from his fireplace this time. If all goes well I'll be back by eight o'clock tonight, in time for the common room New Year's Eve party to start."

His friends quietly nodded at him, and their gazes followed him as he exited the hall.

Victoire heard a quiet sniffle and turned to look at her at Ally. Tears were starting to pool in her brown eyes.

"Ally . . ."

"Yeah?" she croaked out.

Victoire grabbed her cousin into a tight hug, "It's going to be okay Ally. Really. I know that you're going to miss Xavier, but you'll get through it. This is what you want."

Ally nodded and spoke into Victoire's shoulder, "I know. I-I just . . . I think that I need to have some time alone. You know, to process some things."

Victoire let go of the brunette and looked softly into her brown eyes, "That's totally fine. But if you don't want to be completely alone I can go with you. I promise not to say a word. I'll have Sandra _silencio_ me if that's what it takes."

Ally shook her head as she stood up, "Thanks, but no thanks Vic. I just need some time alone with my thoughts. I promise if I need something though, that I'll contact you. Okay?"

Victoire agreed with Ally before she scurried out of the Great Hall and to whatever pre-planned destination she had in mind. When the sixth-year was gone, Victoire finally sent a look to her last two friends. Sandra was in Kyle's arms with her head leaning against his shoulder. They both looked like they were about to tear up also. Victoire silently nodded to them. Kyle nodded back, stood up, and held Sandra's hand. They walked swiftly out of the Hall, and Victoire was ninety-nine percent sure that they were going to Kyle's dormitory to talk. She knew that Sandra was the one who was closest to tears, but she also knew that Kyle would be the one who would end up crying. It was his best mate that was about to make such a big decision on his future. Moreover, it was his best mate that was about to sign the contract that would –very soon- take him away from Hogwarts for the rest of the year.

The minute Victoire realized that she was alone at the table, was the minute she stood up and took her own exit from the Hall. She wandered around the Castle corridors without purpose, deep within her own thoughts, before she ended up walking right into a wall.

"You okay there Weasley? You do know that the only parts of the architecture that move in the Castle is the staircases right? The walls actually do stay in place."

Victoire sighed. She knew that voice. She was almost always irritated by that voice. She turned around, placed her hands on her hips, and gave her small audience a disdainful look.

"Oh, Colton. How nice of you to ask. I'm fine, but it's great to know that you care about what happens to me."

Colton Knott rolled his eyes and turned around to follow his friends in the direction that they were going before he'd stopped them because he'd seen Victoire walk into the wall. Victoire did the same. She was several paces away from the hurriedly retreating Slytherins, when she heard her name called out from behind her again.

She almost tripped again. However, this time it was because she couldn't believe the softness from the voice that was calling her. Victoire turned around with an eyebrow raised in surprise.

Colton had backtracked and called her name gently. Her first name.

"Yes Colton?" Victoire asked not sure why his expression looked guilty instead of arrogant. She narrowed her blue eyes when she saw him nervously twist his hands together.

He wouldn't meet her eyes, he was looking at her feet when he spoke, "Well . . . I-I saw Kyle and Collins walk by a little while ago and . . . are things okay between them?"

"Why in the world would you care about the status of Sandra and Kyle's relationship?" Victoire asked. She ignored the fact that he'd referred to Sandra by her last name and Kyle by his first, because she was just so shocked by his question.

"I don't really care that much about Collins. But she _was_ crying and Kyle _did_ look very . . . upset. Almost defeated. So again, what's going on between them?"

Victoire thought that brief would be best. She needed to be careful about spilling Xavier's secret, "Their relationship is fine. Never better if what I've seen counts for anything."

"Then why was Kyle so upset? I've never seen him like- I mean he's usually an easygoing guy. He doesn't let much faze him," Colton said hurriedly spitting out the latter part.

She caught the tone of concern in his voice again. She knew that it wasn't for Sandra, but she was still surprised that there was that much for Kyle, "This time it's something that we can't change. It's something we wouldn't change. And that is usually the worst thing. When you know that you have to let it go, but you still feel sad."

He narrowed his eyes, "We?"

"I told you that Sandra and Kyle's relationship is fine. So if something is big enough to make the both of them sad enough for you to notice, chances are that it's big enough to make me sad too," Victoire replied a little snappily. Out of all of them, she'd taken Xavier's secret that best. Partly because she'd known about it for a few months longer, and partially because she felt the need to be everyone else's shoulder to cry on. However, all of the emotions that she hadn't had time to deal with yet were whirling around in her mind and she was having a hard time keeping them all locked up in the corner she'd made in her mind specifically for them.

Colton's blue eyes stared at her shrewdly for a minute before he asked, "Walking into that wall wasn't an accident, was it?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, "No Colton. I did it on purpose."

"That's not what I meant Victoire. I meant that you didn't just walk into a wall because you're a spaz. You walked into the wall because you were busy thinking about something else. You were thinking about whatever's bugging Kyle, weren't you?" he asked.

"Yup."

"Then why aren't you crying like Collins? Or is she just a crybaby?"

"She's not a crybaby. She just has the luxury to be able to have Kyle's shoulder to cry on," Victoire defended.

"Bitter because you don't have someone's shoulder to cry on?" Colton asked starting to sound a bit more like his usual self.

Victoire opened her mouth to retort but stopped. Colton's sneering comment had jolted a thought into her mind.

"You're a genius Colton!" Victoire called behind her as she ran away from him.

She'd decided to take off into a sprint down the corridor so she didn't see the bewildered look the Slytherin gave her as she left him mid-conversation. Victoire ran through several corridors and jumped down a few flights of stairs before she came to a stop in front of a familiar door. She took a minute to catch her breath before opening the door and walking through it into the room. She knew that she'd probably be interrupting something, but she needed someone to talk to. Someone's shoulder to cry on as Colton had said –no matter how sneeringly.

Victoire walked into the room and wasn't surprised to see that all of the inhabitants had gone silent with her entry. She barely spared a glance for Kurt and Jilly before she ran straight into Teddy's surprisingly waiting arms.

The minute she felt Teddy's arms encompass her, tears started pouring out of her eyes. The tears went from her eyes straight into the fabric of his shirt because she had her head pressed against his chest, near his neck. She could feel the smooth circles his large hands were rubbing into her back, but they, combined with the soft questioning words he was whispering into her ears made her begin to sob even harder. As she cried, she could feel Teddy shift her slightly so that she was fully straddling his lap instead of the half in his lap half on the couch beside him position she had adopted when she'd ran to him.

The first few words that Teddy spoke that finally broke through the barrier of her tears was the question, "What happened?"

She shook her head into his chest –silently telling him that she wasn't able to answer- and moved her face up from his chest to the crook of his neck.

He stopped rubbing her back and moved his lips to her hair, "Is it something serious?"

She whispered quietly, "Xavier."

Victoire felt Teddy stiffen beneath her for a minute before placing his hands under her legs and lifting her up. She didn't know what he was doing but she tightened her legs around his waist and moved her arms from around his torso to around his neck. Victoire could hear Jilly start to say something but she ended up stopping mid-sentence so Victoire assumed that someone had given her a type of warning.

Victoire felt the movement of Teddy's considerably smooth footsteps as he walked with her in his arms several steps into his bedroom. He closed the door gently with his foot and set her down on his bed. She let go of him as he took a step back and examined her.

"What's wrong with Xavier?" Teddy hedged gently trying to form a question out of the only information he'd been given.

The fabric of Teddy's shirt had dried Victoire's eyes but she was sure that the tear tracks would still be visible on her cheeks, "He's leaving."

Teddy eyed her carefully, "Yes. You knew this before Vic."

"But he's not going to be here anymore! Ally's sad but she hasn't talked to me about it since Christmas when I told her that you were a good kisser. Sandra and Kyle are off to who knows where trying to console each other because we're about to lose the Quidditch-obsessed prat, and even though he can annoy the snot out of me I walked into a wall because he was bugging me so much. AND I ended up talking to Colton Knott, thinking he made sense, and then actually calling him a genius!" Victoire complained in a teary voice.

Teddy kneeled down on the floor in front of her and looked deeply into her eyes, "Vic Honey. I know in your mind that you make sense, but you really have to give me more to work with. What does Colton Knott being a genius, you walking into a wall, and me being a good snogger have to do with anything?"

Victoire took a deep breath and quickly reiterated what she had done that day with her friends, how each of them had left the Hall, and her literal run-in with the wall, and her figurative run-in with Colton. When she was done, Teddy had a much better understanding on her state of mind and _almos_t everything she had said.

"I still don't know how me being a great kisser has anything to do with Xavier taking the offer from Puddlemere," Teddy asked placing his hand gently on her knee as he teased her.

Victoire prayed that her embarrassment wouldn't show through a blush and was disappointed when it did. It seemed that the longer she dated Teddy, the more blushing she did.

"At Christmas I was trying to make Ally feel better and I asked her how her and Xavier were. She said they were good but then she blushed and I wanted to know the details. She said she wasn't sure if she wanted to spill, so I told her that I'd tell her how good of a kisser you were first and then see if she felt any more comfortable spilling about Xavier," Victoire explained hurriedly as she looked down at her hands where she'd clasped them in her lap.

Teddy –who was still kneeling in front of her- lifted her chin up with his finger so that he could look into her ocean-blue eyes, "You're ridiculous."

She smiled a little, "I know."

"But I'll let it slide because I know that you're feeling really emotional over Xavier leaving and that you haven't had time to be sad about it because you always put a strong face on for everyone else," Teddy said moving his hand from her chin so that he could cup one of her cheeks.

Victoire unconsciously leant in even farther into his palm, "Who will I fight with now that he's gone?"

"Kyle? From what you've told me you guys have been getting rather sassy with each other lately."

She shook her head, "No. Kyle will know that he's just a substitute for Xavier and that will just make him even sadder that he's gone."

Teddy seemed to think deeply for a moment before a light came into his sapphire blue eyes, "Well . . . Kurt knows about us now, and I'm sure that he'd love the chance to tease you whenever he could."

Victoire smirked at him, "Do you think that he could be able to handle what I'm capable of?"

Teddy grinned back, "I'm sure that he could at least give you a good run."

She smiled at the thought but it slowly faded. She leaned forward until her head was against his chest and said quietly, "I'm going to miss him."

"I know."

"He's one of my best friends."

"I know."

"I'm going to have to find different people to sit next to in every class now that he's going."

"I know."

"I'm going to be Captaining the team all by myself now. Like I was supposed to be doing in the beginning."

"I know."

"If things were different and he didn't have Ally, and I didn't have you. We probably would have dated."

"I know."

Victoire moved her head from his chest so that she could look at his face. It was calm and expectant.

She framed her next sentence carefully before letting the words cross her lips, "I'm going to need to find a new Keeper for the team."

Teddy kissed her forehead lightly, "Yes, I know."

Victoire moved her hands into his hair and adjusted his head so that they were at the exact same eye-level, "If you were going off to play professional Quidditch and you had all sorts of fan-girls throwing themselves at you would you cheat on me? Even if there was no way for me to know for sure whether you did or didn't?"

"Are you afraid that Xavier's going to cheat on Ally?" Teddy asked ignoring her question. He knew that she had to have a deeper reason for asking it. It wasn't born out of pure curiosity over what he would do in the hypothetical situation.

Victoire sighed, "No. Or at least I don't think so. Urg! I know Xavier. He would never do that to any girl let alone Ally. But then again, Quidditch players aren't exactly known for their fidelity. Remember those gossip articles that came out a few days after Katie and Oliver announced their newest pregnancy?"

Teddy nodded, "Those one's claiming that she was having someone else's baby and that Oliver had another family on top of all that in some other country?"

Victoire nodded, "They're eighteen years of marriage and now three children in, and apparently it is okay for people to assume this about them because they're Quidditch players. What if Ally and Xavier get caught up in that? Even if he doesn't cheat on her the papers and magazines can really make it look like he is."

"But Ally's not stupid Vic," Teddy countered, "She knows that the press will try to turn anything into a story, and she knows that Xavier would never actually do that to her."

"But it doesn't mean that she should have to watch girls and women throw themselves at him either. We used to make fun that he'd be named Quidditch's most eligible bachelor but it's very likely. Heck, Oliver was Quidditch's most eligible bachelor for at least a year after he married Katie. They only stopped once Xavier was born. The whole nine months that Katie was pregnant half the world thought that Oliver was still single!" Victoire said.

Teddy moved until he was sitting on the bed next to her and grabbed both of her hands within both of his, "They'll be fine. It's things that they're going to have to work out for themselves, but if they can, they'll be stronger for it."

Victoire sighed, "But that's so easy for us to say! We were ready to spend almost the whole of nine months apart but then we didn't have to. Truthfully, if you didn't end up coming here for the Tournament I don't know if I'd have been able to survive with you at such the distance you were at."

He dropped her hands and pulled her into a gentle hug, "That's just doubt messing with your head Victoire. We're both stronger than either of us will give each other credit for. We would have been able to handle it. And I know that Ally and Xavier will do just fine."

"This is just a lot to handle," Victoire said setting her head down on his shoulder.

"I know. But you haven't delved deep enough into the subject I know that you want to talk about. Xavier," Teddy prompted gently.

"I'm going to miss him so much, not just for Ally's sake but for mine."

"But he's not going to be completely gone. He'll just be less visible than usual. If anything maybe seeing less of each other, with make you two behave better towards each other."

"Maybe," Victoire sighed out into the crook of Teddy's neck. She felt him move his hand up to her head and run his fingers through her hair.

"Do you need to cry more?"

"No I don't think so."

"Do you just need to sit here and do nothing?"

"Nah."

"Thank goodness."

Victoire shifted her gaze up so with the intention of giving Teddy a questioning look, but her confused thoughts were lost to even herself when she caught sight of the look on his face. His sapphire blue eyes were dark and they were locked onto her ocean-blue ones. She felt her stomach do a flip before feeling him crash his lips onto hers. Victoire gasped even though she was little less than surprised at his lips' passionate attack on hers.

Teddy lost no time slipping his tongue into her mouth when she gasped, and simultaneously shifted them so that she was lying on the bed underneath him. Victoire's hands shot up to his currently turquoise blue hair and weaved her fingers into it so that she could keep his mouth attached securely to hers. His hands travelled down her sides until he got to the hem of her sweater. He slipped his fingers underneath the hem and trailed his fingers lightly across her stomach. She groaned loudly and shifted her head to the side so that she could take a breath. He was undeterred at the loss of contact with her mouth and began a line of slow kisses down her neck. She felt him circle her bellybutton with his finger and she felt her stomach flip again.

"Hot," Victoire gasped out as she realized that her overheated body was partly because of Teddy's touch but also because of the thick black sweater, she was wearing.

She didn't know how, but apparently, Teddy understood her words. He moved off of her for the five seconds it took her to fight with the plastic zipper on the front of the sweater and to tug it off. The second it was gone from her body, she reached forward to grab a hold of Teddy's face and attached her mouth to his again. As Victoire focused on running her fingers through his hair; his hands had taken up their previous spot just below the hem of her shirt. He traced his index finger across her hipbones and Victoire's resulting moan vibrated from her through him by the contact of their open mouths. She sucked his bottom lip into her mouth and bit down on it almost roughly.

Teddy groaned and only separated his mouth from hers when he knew that he didn't have enough oxygen left in his lungs to continue. He moved not only his mouth away, but also his body so that he could put a bit of distance between them as he panted heavily and tried to get more oxygen into his lungs. Victoire didn't seem to like his idea however. Without him realizing exactly how she did it, she rolled them over until she was lying on top of him and began kissing up his neck and jaw to the spot just below his ear.

Teddy turned his head until his lips touched hers again and moved his hands until his fingers were trailing down her back. The shirt she had worn underneath the sweater was thin enough that he could feel her spine as his fingers traveled down her back. She sighed into his mouth when his fingers came to where the hem of her tank top touched the waistband of her pants. His fingers had just seemed to decide to venture farther south than where they presently were, when a sharp rap on the door echoed through the room and joined the sound of their heavy breathing.

Teddy's eyes popped open almost comically wide and Victoire almost fell off the bed because of the haste in which he'd used to get away from her and to his feet. A minute later Kurt's face popped into the room through the small crack he'd made when opening the door.

He had one hand covering his eyes as if in preparation for whatever he'd thought he'd walked into and said, "Jilly's in the living room as we speak having a glaring contest with Lassoder. He came in and said that he needed to talk to you Ted. We tried to tell him that you were . . . busy but he wouldn't leave. Sorry."

Teddy sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair. He shot Victoire a look and she nodded. She understood that the look was meant to tell her that she should stay in the room until the coast was clear. Before Teddy left the room with Kurt, he shot himself a quick look in the mirror. He morphed his features a little to take out the redness in his face and walked out of the room, not fully closing the door behind him.

Once Teddy was gone, Victoire stood up and walked over –on slightly wobbly legs- to the mirror in his room. When she looked at her reflection, her eyes went wide. Her long blonde hair was a mess, her face and what she could see of her chest was red, and her lips were a swollen scarlet colour from Teddy's kisses. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to try to get the blush to fade from her skin, and ran her fingers through her hair to try to get the knots out. When she opened her eyes again, her flushed skin was faring better, but her hair wasn't. She sighed, gathered it all up, and put it into a low ponytail. When she was finished, she had decided to go looking for wherever her sweater had ended up, but was sidetracked when she heard the slightly raised voices coming from in from the door that Teddy hadn't fully closed.

She walked over to the door and quickly debated with herself over whether she should open it or not. She swiftly made up her mind when she realized that not only had Teddy not closed it fully, but he also hadn't attempted to put up and anti-eavesdropping wards or charms. Victoire moved until she was right next to the crack in the door and peeked out into the living room space.

Teddy was standing across the room form where she stood in his room and she could tell that he'd picked that spot for more strategic purposes than none. Jilly and Kurt were sitting down in chairs to the left of him, and Auror Lassoder was standing with his back to Victoire as he faced Teddy. Even though she couldn't see the young man's face, she could tell by his stance that he was angry.

"What's the problem Lassoder?" Teddy asked watching the other Auror very carefully.

"Well Lupin, I came in a few days ago expecting to be on my regular patrol schedule, but when I got to the meeting room, Auror McKenny sent me on a wild goose chase with two other Aurors-in-training to the ministry to talk to the people over at the Department for Magical Transportation. When we got there we had to ask the men a bunch of vague and hypothetical questions about whether in their records they'd even noticed someone appararting away from Hogwarts before. After getting no helpful answers, we came back and told McKenny about the interview. I expected him to at least tell us then why we'd gone and had to do what we did, but he wouldn't breathe a word," Lassoder said.

Teddy had controlled his expression very well, he had just the right amount of confusion on his face, "Alright . . . but what does any of that have to do with me?"

"I saw McKenny writing down our findings in some report. The only word I could read was your name. Obviously you know what it was all about, and since your name was under '_first investigator'_ I thought that I'd come here and see if you'll finally tell me what it's all about," Lassoder explained.

Teddy dropped his innocent act and folded his arms cross his chest, as Lassoder had, "It's not my fault that Auror McKenny decided not give you clearance to all of the facts of the investigation."

"But why were you named as first investigator? You're not even a full Auror yet!"

"Maybe Ted's listed as first investigator because he was the first person on site? And maybe they didn't give you clearance because they don't want the incident getting out," Jilly snapped.

"What is the department trying to hide then? The questions seemed useless yet they are somehow connected to an investigation important enough to keep the names of everyone involved a secret," Lassoder hedged.

Teddy sighed, "A student was attacked a little while ago. The attacker fled from Hogwarts by _apparating_. McKenny sent you to check the apparition records to see if they would say who was involved. According to you they didn't so it seems to be the end of the story."

"So you don't have any actual leads on who did it then? You don't know who attacked her?" Lassoder questioned.

Victoire watched, as Teddy's dark eyes narrowed with interest as he eyed Lassoder carefully, "I never said that the student that was attacked was female."

Lassoder scoffed, "Oh, so you're telling me that this attack has nothing to do with the requisition Shacklebolt put in to get more security among strategic parts of the Castle. Strategic places that just so happen to be where Victoire Weasley spends most of her time."

Victoire's blinked.

_Kingsley's trying to get more security around me?_

She was so shocked that she almost missed the worried look Teddy shot her hiding spot from across the room.

"Maybe Kingsley's just gotten more worried about her safety since this other incident. It doesn't mean that they're connected," Teddy reasoned.

"That would make sense, except for the fact you're the first investigator on the report and the fact that it always seems to be _you _that she goes to when she has a problem-" Lassoder started before being cut off by Teddy.

"We're practically family; she always comes to me when she has problems. Whether they have to do with her safety or just what she should give her sister for a birthday present," Teddy waved off.

"Family? Seriously? Whom do you think that you're kidding? Anytime she's in the room you follow her every move with your eyes."

"I'm supposed to be watching after her specifically according to Harry and Kingsley's orders. Even so, this doesn't matter. She's not the victim in the investigation," Teddy reiterated as he lied through his teeth. He didn't want Lassoder to know about the attack when only a few people in the Castle and the department had even heard about the incident.

Victoire knew that Lassoder was only going to keep asking questions until he got Teddy to tell him something or until -most likely- Jilly or Kurt spilled something important. She looked around Teddy's room until she found her previously discarded black sweater and quickly came up with a plan.

"You don't have to show me where it is anymore Teddy, I found my sweater," Victoire called loudly as she grabbed her black sweater and walked out of Teddy's room.

As she had expected, everyone's eyes and attention turned to her. This time it was what she'd wanted. She placed a perfectly surprised look on her face as looked at Lassoder, and she knew she could make him think that she didn't know that he'd been there.

"Oh, hello," Victoire added with just the right amount of shyness as if she was just realizing that everyone was looking at her.

Lassoder looked like he'd been taken by surprise by a bludger. It took him a full three minutes before his flabbergasted expression shifted as he gave Teddy a bit of a smirk, "Well, well, well. What would _she_ be doing here?"

Teddy opened his mouth to give some sort of answer but Victoire beat him to it and spoke in a pointed tone, "_She_, is here because she wanted her black sweater back."

Lassoder turned to address Victoire, and she noticed Teddy shooting her an angry look behind his colleague's back. She knew that he was giving her that look because he hadn't wanted her to reveal herself, but it was too late to go back now.

Lassoder smiled slyly at Victoire, "And why was her sweater in Lupin's private bedroom?"

Victoire rolled her eyes and tried not to smile. She knew that Teddy _really_ wasn't going to like her response, "Oh because we were totally snogging before you got here and our clothes were practically flying off."

Lassoder's eyes bugged out of his head, and Victoire would have found it funnier if he were the only to have had that expression. However, sadly, he wasn't. Both Kurt and Jilly's expressions seemed to match their fellow –yet more hated- Auror, and Teddy's expression had gone completely blank.

Victoire rolled her eyes more dramatically this time, "Really? Merlin, do I look like some sort of slag to everyone? Wait, I don't want to know the answer to that. But for your information my sweater was in Teddy's room because I ended up leaving it at his grandmother's house and he grabbed it for me."

Lassoder was still staring at her oddly but asked, "Why was it at his grandmother's house?"

"Because I took it off when we were visiting her a few days ago because Andromeda usually keeps her house rather warm and I forgot it there," Victoire answered with part truths. She and Teddy _had_ visited Andromeda a few days after Christmas, Teddy had asked for and been given permission to take the day off, and Andromeda usually did keep her house rather warm.

Lassoder opened his mouth but closed it after a minute. It didn't seem as though he knew what to as next. Victoire knew if she stayed until after Lassoder was gone that Teddy would have the privacy and the opportunity to 'talk with her' about her actions and how she'd just disobeyed his orders. Therefore, she decided that she'd skip that and try to leave right away so that she could at least put off the angry conversation until later.

"Okay, well you guys get back to whatever secret Auror stuff you were all talking about before I walked in," Victoire said giving Teddy, Kurt, and Jilly the same small wave of her hand so before practically bolting out of the room and running down the corridors that would lead her back to Gryffindor tower.

* * *

Hey, so I hoped you liked it. Review if you did! (or didn't, I'm not too picky . . .)

A/N: So . . . who thinks that Teddy's gonna be a little upset with Vic? And who's curious that Colton's seemed to take an interest in Kyle and Sandra's relationship?

About last week's chapter, I don't think many of you have actually read _The Handmaid's Tale_, because those who reviewed and said that they had said that it was genius, not that I ruined _Scrabble_ for them so . . . I'm still not going to tell what it was about. If you really want to know, either read the book, or google it if you want :P

Next Week: Okay, so I'm going to be trying something a little different next week . . . but you'll see when I update. I'll I'm going to say is, check your e-amil. Oh, and next week we may or may not have Victoire having a chat with Chris . . . yeah.

Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed / followed / favourited / read / and enjoyed my story!

An especially big thanks to:

**Addicted-To-Sugar-Quills**, **Istillwishiwasaweasley**,** siriusblackANDjamespotter**, **RoLouG**, **Jobo78**, **Lizaluvsdoggies**, **MuggleCreator**, **nifflerstorm17008**, **Eighteen Inches**, **Guest**, **AzNeRd**, **brilliant incandescence**, **xSuperNovax**, **confusednikki24-7**, **marmar8089**, **HarryPotterNut94,** **Alfredo412**, and** abuu**.


	60. New Year

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

New Year

Victoire wasn't sure what was wrong with her. Here she was; hanging out with her friends, wearing one of her favourite outfits, surrounded by decent music, dancing, and conversation, and not to mention copious amounts of alcohol and she couldn't have a good time. Her ocean-blue eyes scanned the full-to-the-brim Gryffindor Common Room and skimmed past the looks of fun, joy, and drunkenness on the majority of the faces.

She stopped for a minute when she saw Sandra and Kyle slow dancing to the inappropriately –in Victoire's mind- fast music. She had spoken to them a little after she'd left Teddy's room and saw that they were both in much better spirits since she'd seen them last. She had also told them about her oddly neutral conversation with Colton Knott and his interest in their emotional state. Sandra had looked surprised, but it was nothing compared to the absolutely shocked look that had graced Kyle's face. He ended up shrugging it off and changing the topic of the conversation but he hadn't been as talkative for the rest of the night as he usually was.

Victoire scanned the other slow-dancing couples and smiled a bit when she saw Ally and Xavier. He had come back just before dinner and they'd been almost inseparable since. The only time they'd spent apart was when Victoire dragged Ally away from him so that she could spend five minutes changing her clothes for the Common Room's New Year's Eve party. At the moment, the couple wasn't so much as dancing as they were standing in the middle of the crowd sucking each other's faces off. Victoire couldn't even find it within herself to roll her eyes or to put on a fake disgusted face. She knew that this was going to be the last time for a while that the couple would have time to just be themselves. Xavier had told her when he'd gotten back that an announcement would be in the newspaper tomorrow stating that he'd graciously accepted Puddlemere's offer and was now their new Keeper.

Victoire looked around the room and found an empty seat near the fireplace. Most people were trying to put some space between them and the fire because they were feeling warm enough from the crowded room. Victoire was different in that sense. She was feeling rather cold despite the fact that she was wearing a long-sleeved button up top.

When she settled into the chair, she turned her gaze to the fire and sighed.

She had been deep in thought for several minutes before she felt a light tap on her shoulder. When she turned to look at the person her stomach clenched; and not in a good way.

"Do you think that we could talk?"

Victoire bit her lip as she considered his words. She knew that they had to talk sooner rather than later, and she also knew that she wanted to get this over with. What better time than on New Year's Eve? In half an hour, she could start a new year off with a clean slate if they talked through everything.

She nodded her head at him and stood up. He gestured with his head to the portrait hole and she nodded. Going somewhere without an audience would be the best course of action for their talk. As she followed him through the crowded common room, she caught Xavier's eye as he teasingly spun Ally around in a circle. He stopped and gave her a questioning look. Victoire shook her head and gave him a look back that told him to stay where he was. He looked like he wanted to disagree, but when she nodded to Ally next to him he gave her a pained look. Victoire didn't want to make him have to feel like he needed to choose, so she chose for him. She gave him a pointed look that said 'if-you-don't-stay-where-you-are-I-swear-to-Godric-that-I'll-make-you-regret-it', and he wisely followed her wordless advice.

Several paces later and both the action and the noise of the party were gone. They'd made it out of the portrait hole and down the corridor until they stopped a spot that was well lit, yet had no moving portrait in its immediate vicinity.

Victoire made she that she was nowhere near either wall on either side of the corridor and asked, "What do you want?"

Chris ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "I'm sorry."

She crossed her arms over her chest and kept an expressionless look on her face, "What exactly are you sorry for?"

"Listen Vic-" Chris had stared to use her nickname but decided to quickly finish it after he saw the scathing look she gave him for his attempt at skipping formalities, "Toire. Victoire. I'm sorry that I came onto you, and I'm sorry that I kissed you when you obviously didn't want me to. I-I just I love you so much and I thought that you liked me that way too, so when I found out that you didn't I kind of snapped. I feel really bad about it now though."

"Oh, now you feel bad about it. Not when you were forcing yourself on me, but now because none of your friends will talk to you, you feel bad," Victoire said angrily. If he was trying his best to apologize, it wasn't very efficient.

Chris grabbed a handful of his hair, "I don't know what else you want me to say Victoire. I made a huge mistake in forcing myself on you. I lost the girl of my dreams and my closest friends because they sided with her. You could at least make this easier on me."

"Easier on you?" Victoire yelped in a high-pitched voice, "I didn't make Kyle jinx you, I didn't make everyone side with me. They chose to stick with me because I didn't do anything wrong. I was the victim!"

Chris stared at her with hard blue eyes, "Nothing wrong? We've discussed this. You _led_ me on. Why would you have worn a dress like you did if you were just going to the ball with a friend? You knew exactly what you were doing."

"Oh Hades no. You. Are. Not. Going to blame me for what you did to me. You are not going to get into my head and make me think that everything was my fault! I told you that I didn't like you that way! I told you that I didn't want you to kiss me and you still did! None of that was my fault!" Victoire yelled at him.

"But why him? Why not me?! What have I done wrong? Why couldn't you just give us a chance?" Chris asked just as angrily.

"What do you mean 'why him?' why who?" Victoire asked confusedly. She wondered how in the world he knew that she was seeing someone. When she tried to let him down, she only told him that she couldn't feel that way about him. She didn't say that it was because she felt that way about someone else instead.

"Don't play coy with me Victoire. I know you're seeing some bloke. In what capacity I'm not sure but it's pretty obvious. You had a massive hickey after Ally's birthday party, and at first, I brushed it off. I assumed that you met some random bloke and that you were drunk enough to snog him and let him give you a hickey even though all of your friends –even the guys- know of your aversion to hickeys. But then you had one a few days after Christmas and I knew then that it wasn't just because you were intoxicated and snogged some random guy. You're seeing someone aren't you?" Chris asked his eyes blazing.

Victoire swallowed thickly. Her anger had been replaced with a slight fear. The look in Chris' eyes was starting to scare her, "Chris don't you think that you would have known if I was seeing someone? I've never kept a boyfriend a secret before. Why would I have started now?"

"There are plenty of reasons why Victoire. You could just be friends with benefits, or the bloke might even have another girlfriend."

She wanted to scream. Did Chris actually think that she was that sort of person? Did he think that she would date someone that already had a girlfriend? Or that she'd be in just a purely physical relationship with a bloke?

"Chris you're ridiculous."

"Is that why you wouldn't date me?"

"What?"

Chris eyed her carefully, "Why won't you date me? Why are you with this-this other bloke? I bet you that he doesn't care for you even a fraction as much as I do. I bet you that he wouldn't be trying to fight for you like I am."

"Chris you can't fight for me. I'm not yours to have, or even to try to win. I don't feel that way about you. It doesn't matter if there is or isn't someone else in my life. I don't see you the way you want me to. Chris, we're just not meant to be. We wouldn't even work out if I did give you a shot. I can see now that we're just both to hotheaded and stubborn to work. We'd have been butting heads and we both would have had a nasty jealousy streak . . . and I just know that it wouldn't work," Victoire said trying to turn their conversation back onto a logical road.

Chris eyed her doubtfully, "But you wouldn't be able to be with someone that you could just walk over either Victoire. You need someone that can handle you. Someone that can tame you. If you gave me the chance I could do that!"

Victoire narrowed her eyes dangerously at him, "I am not some prize to be won nor am I some wild animal. I do _not _need to be tamed and even if I did, you would be the last person I'd go to for it!"

"If you just-"

"_No_ Chris. Just . . . no."

At this point Victoire heard a heavy set of footsteps echoing down the corridor. She exhaled heavily and closed her eyes.

_Great. What Professor is it going to be tonight who gets to witness mine and Chris' problems? With my luck it'll probably be Linkwell._

"Victoire, you know that you're not supposed to be out of the tower this late at night by yourself," a stern voice called.

She bit her lip.

_No. It's not him. I'm just imagining this. It's just because I've been fighting with Chris. This is all just my imagination._

But she couldn't convince herself of it so she opened her eyes.

_Damn. I guess it wasn't my imagination._

Coming up quickly from behind her, was Teddy. She just stared at him as he came to a stop close beside her. She didn't know what to say, but it seemed like Chris did.

He glared at Teddy right away and said irritably, "She's not alone. We were having a _private_ conversation."

Teddy eyed Chris superiorly; there was no way he was going to leave the slime ball with his girlfriend, "Alright then. Please continue on with your conversation."

Chris' face started to turn red, "You sort of need to leave first."

Teddy smirked, "No can do. Since I've stumbled upon Victoire alone in the corridors I can' leave until I know that she's been delivered _safely _to Gryffindor tower."

"You don't have to worry. I'll make sure that she gets to _bed_ in _perfect_ shape," Chris said sneeringly looking Victoire up and down.

She unconsciously shuddered and took a step away from Chris and closer to Teddy, "There's no need for that Chris. We're done our talk. I'm not going to change my mind so there's essentially nothing new to discuss."

"But Victoire-" Chris started in a wheedling tone.

Victoire sent him a scathing look and he went silent, "No. There's nothing more to discuss. You tried to apologize –horribly I might add. You tried to blame me for everything that was your fault. And you're treating me like some item. I'm not an item I'm a person. I'm a person that you're never going to have. Thanks for the talk Chris. But I'm not going to accept your apology, so goodbye."

Chris frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, "Fine. Let's just go back to the common room then."

Victoire laughed humourlessly, "Ha! No. I'm not going anywhere with you. You can go back to the common room, and I'll go back on my own in a bit."

Chris sent her a look but walked away when he saw that she wasn't going to follow him. Once he was out of sight Teddy faced her and asked her quietly, "Are you alright?"

She shook her head, "I thought that he actually felt sorry for what he did. But all he wanted to do was try to blame me for what happened."

Teddy sighed, "We can go somewhere if you need to talk about it."

"Aren't you supposed to be patrolling?" Victoire asked looking up into his face.

His hair went red with his blush, "Um, I'm not actually on patrol."

Victoire raised an eyebrow at him, "Then why are you here?"

"Uh, I was sort of scanning the Marauder's Map and saw that you were with Chris and I had a feeling that it wasn't about to end well so . . ." Teddy trailed off running his hand through his still red hair.

"So you were pretty much stalking me?" Victoire asked.

He shrugged, "I guess . . . if you want to call it that."

"What would you like to call it then?"

"Being a caring boyfriend?"

She rolled her eyes, "So you're free right now then?"

He nodded, "Although I don't think my room would be the best place to go."

"Why not?" She asked interestedly.

Teddy ruffled his hair, "Kurt kind of invited some people over who weren't working, for an impromptu New Year's Eve party."

"Why didn't you stay for that?" Victoire asked as she began to walk down the corridor. He'd vetoed his room, so she'd decided that she gets to pick the next place.

"It wasn't all that fun."

Victoire eyed him disbelievingly and he sighed.

"It was uncomfortable there, okay?"

"How was it uncomfortable?"

"It was uncomfortable because Kurt kept pushing every single woman in my direction."

Victoire tried not to smile, "Now why would he do that?"

"Because he's a git that likes to watch me squirm?" Teddy asked as he followed her down a set or stone steps.

"Why would single woman make you squirm?" Victoire asked as she opened the closest door to the outside.

Teddy was confused when he followed her out into the cold snowy grounds but she was walking fast to get to wherever she was planning on taking him, "Single women make me squirm when they practically throw themselves at me! It's really awkward and the only reason Kurt did it was because he knew that I wouldn't be able to let the woman down by saying that I have a girlfriend."

She smirked at him as she pulled her wand out of the pocket of her jeans, "Now you know how it feels." She didn't give him a chance to respond; instead, she called out –unnecessarily- the charm to immobilize the tree in front of them.

Teddy jumped a bit when he realized that they were next to the Whomping Willow. Once the spell hit the tree, they walked to its base and went through the secret passage that would take them to the Shrieking Shack.

When they were inside they went straight to the living room and Victoire waved her wand and conjured up a fire for the fireplace, "It's freaking freezing out."

Teddy smirked, walked over to her, and wrapped her into a tight hug from behind, "You wouldn't be so cold if you were wearing proper winter clothing."

Victoire rolled her eyes and moved out of his embrace. She paced over to the large armchair closest to the fire and sat down on it. Teddy followed her a minute later, but instead of sitting on the couch next to her chair, he sat a bit of a distance away on the arm of the loveseat.

They stared at each other for a few minutes before Victoire broke the silence, "Are you upset with me?"

Teddy didn't look surprised by her words; he just eyed her carefully before answering, "What do you think I would be angry with you for?"

She sighed, "A number of things really. I was sort of inappropriate today when Lassoder was there, I went off somewhere alone with Chris, and –as you pointed out- I'm not dressed properly for this weather."

"Well . . . as for the clothes I don't think you were planning on coming outside in this weather when you left the Castle," he answered.

Her eyes told him that she didn't appreciate his attempt at light humour. She wanted him to answer the questions that worried her the most, "Seriously Teddy."

"Well, to tell the truth, I didn't like what you said when Lassoder was there."

Victoire nodded and looked down; expecting some sort of more scolding for her actions. Teddy surprised her by saying what she least expected.

"Although, the look on his face when you spoke to him will almost be worth the scrutinizing looks I'll get from him for the next little while."

Her head snapped up and a small smile grew on the corners of her lips, "Really?"

He nodded, "Yes. Now, do you really want to talk about the Chris thing?"

She nodded in return; very earnestly, "Yeah. I want to get this stuff over with before midnight."

"You want to start the New Year off fresh?" Teddy asked with a small smile.

Victoire knew that she didn't need to respond. He knew her well enough that his words were more of a rhetorical question than anything else.

"Fine," Teddy began, "I'll start with what we both want me to ask. Why did you agree to speak to Chris alone?"

"He said that he wanted to apologize for what happened and I wanted to get everything over with," Victoire replied.

"But why did you go alone? After what he did to you, I can't believe that you thought that going alone to speak to him would be a good idea."

Victoire sighed. She knew that this was going to be a big issue with him, "It just happened that way. I mean, Xavier saw us walking out together. And I could tell by the expression on his face that he didn't want me to go alone either. But I made him stay where he was because his time alone with Ally now is really numbered and he didn't need to waste time trying to mediate our interview."

"Well apparently you needed some sort of mediator because when I came by it looked like something was about to happen. I bet you were ten seconds away from scorching him with Veela fire."

She didn't try to deny it, because now that she thought back to it she could tell that it was probably true, "He was being such a git though. I mean he said that I needed someone to tame me. Can you believe that?"

Teddy didn't answer and Victoire finally had to look up to him to see the look on his face. It was expressionless with a hint of a curl on the corners of his lips.

Victoire watched his face closely, "You do think that that is ridiculous, don't you?"

"Whatever you say love."

"Teddy!" Victoire gasped, "You don't actually believe that do you?"

"Well, truthfully Vic, you do need to take some stuff down a notch. We've discussed this before though," Teddy replied.

"But you don't think that I need to be _tamed_?" Victoire asked saying the word pointedly.

Teddy shook his head causing his light blue fringe to shake on his head, "No. You're right, he was just being rude."

"Thank you."

"And delusional if he thought that someone would ever be able to control you," Teddy said as he dodged the punch to the arm he knew Victoire was going to aim at him.

She tried to give him a frown after he dodged her punch the look of fake innocence he placed on his adorable face wouldn't let her, "Are we done with this? Or is there something else that you want to get angry with me for?"

Teddy pretended to think for a minute before leaning closely to her and pressing a soft kiss against her lips. He made sure to kiss her, and then pull back in one motion because he guessed –correctly- that Victoire's response would be to try to deepen the kiss.

"To answer your question," he said as he pulled away and avoided her attempt to kiss him back, "I think that we're done here."

Victoire pouted and was looking at his lips instead of his eyes, "But I don't want to be done with that."

"You want me to be angry with you some more?"

She raised her gaze from his lips for a second to shoot his sapphire blue eyes an eye roll before they reverted to their previous position, "You know what I mean Teddy."

He moved his face closer to her but there was still about a foot of space between their lips, "I don't know. It's pretty late; I think you'll have to spell it out for me."

Victoire grinned wickedly and licked her lips, "Fine."

"S." She moved her hands up to his head and entwined them in his hair, her movement causing his face to move much closer to hers. He closed his eyes as she played with the blue strands.

"N." She kissed his forehead.

"O." She kissed the bridge of his nose.

"G." She kissed his left eye.

"G." She kissed his right.

"I." She moved her lips to kiss the spot behind his ear that always made him groan.

"N." She pressed her lips so lightly to his that he wasn't sure if she'd actually done it, or if it was a product of his imagination.

"G." She whispered out before pressing her lips against his rather patient mouth. Within three seconds of the kiss, she had her tongue in his mouth and she could feel his warm hands through her clothing as he reached for her.

They fumbled a bit as they tried to situate themselves into a snogging position that would be most comfortable for both. Which, a small part of Victoire's brain reasoned, was very difficult when two people were trying to share one chair. It annoyed the small part of her brain, which wasn't focused on what his tongue was doing in her mouth, so much that she even made a mental note to ask Sandra and Kyle how they made snogging in one armchair look so easy. However, despite their awkward movements, they were able to squeeze the both of their bodies into the seat of the chair and keep their mouths and tongues connected the whole time. Since Victoire was the one who was sitting in the seat at first, she was on the bottom of their pile, with Teddy sort of straddling her waist as she moved to laying her body out pretty much horizontal across the seat and arms of the chair.

Victoire's hands had migrated as they adjusted themselves. Once they got comfortable, one was near Teddy's knee as it dug into the seat on the right side of her waist, and the other had somehow ended up sliding up the front of his shirt and was resting on the hard muscles of his stomach.

Teddy's hands had also travelled and gotten themselves comfortable. His right hand was twisted in Victoire's long blonde hair near the nape of her neck, and his left was squished in between the couch cushion and the skin of the small of Victoire's back where her shirt had ridden up (either from her own movement or because of Teddy's she didn't know). She felt his hand move from her back and start to inch lower. She moaned into his mouth but then had to break their kiss so she could breathe.

As she panted, she felt his mouth move down to her neck, and his hand move lower until he slipped it into the back pocket of her jeans. She had just decided to say something snarky in reference to his hand positioning, when she felt him starting to suck at the skin of her neck.

Whatever she'd been about to say came out in a moan sounding very much like his name. Simultaneously, he began to suck harder at the skin of her neck and in response; she unconsciously dug her fingernails sharply into the skin at his stomach.

"Oww!"

Victoire sprang back the small amount that she could and looked at Teddy with wide eyes, "Oh my Merlin I'm sorry."

Teddy tried to wave it off but she could see him trying to furtively rub his hand across his stomach where she'd just pretty much attacked his skin, "It's fine Babe."

"No it's not! Godric I'm so awkward," Victoire complained as she buried her face in her hands.

"It's okay," Teddy repeated.

"Stop saying that! It's not okay. What kind of girlfriend stabs their boyfriend with her nails when said boyfriend was just trying to give said girlfriend a hickey?"

He adjusted their positions slightly so that they were both somewhat sitting on the chair, and then grabbed her hands so that she wouldn't be able to hide her face anymore, "I said that it's alright. It was an accident. And, to be fair, you weren't the biggest fan of hickeys to begin with."

Victoire wasn't able to hide her face anymore but she still didn't want the vulnerability that came with looking him in the eyes, "I've started to like it when you give them to me though."

Teddy grinned at her but then frowned when he realized that she couldn't see it. He let go of her hands, and used his own to cup her face so that he could force her ocean-blue eyes to meet his, "Well if that's some sort of round-about compliment, I will gladly accept it."

"Well," Victoire started, "It was a bit of a compliment, even though it is annoying trying to hide them."

"I wish you didn't have to hide them," Teddy said as he tried to sound nonchalant.

"I probably would try anyway, I'm not the biggest fan of letting _everybody_ see them," Victoire said as she moved her hand up to her neck and rubbed the spot Teddy had been sucking on.

He gave her a bit of a sheepish look, "Um, that one _is_ going to leave a mark . . . just so you know."

She sighed and dropped her and, "I figured that much out."

"Do you _have_ to hide it?" he asked quietly. His voice dropped several octaves, making his question a more intimate sounding whisper.

She closed her eyes and groaned internally. Victoire should have known that this was how he was going to react. Despite her warming up to the marks, she still felt very self-conscious when she had them. She could only imagine what people were thinking or saying behind her back when they saw that she had a mark on her neck. Granted, her imagination might have been worse than what a percentage of the population was actually thinking, but she still felt very insecure when she saw someone's eyes trained on the marks.

She knew that the answer she wanted to give was not one that Teddy would like, so she used a different one, "If I don't cover this one people are going to think the wrong thing after they saw me leave the common room with Chris tonight."

She knew her words had hit the mark because Teddy's hopeful face had turned sour, "Fair enough."

The room was silent after he spoke. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire in the fireplace, the whistling of the wind outside the shack, and their –now- relatively normal breathing rates. Neither knew what to say next, and ended up just staring at each other for the next ten minutes.

By the time, Victoire felt the urge to fill the silence with mindless babble, the small clock of the far wall of the room chimed gently. After the tenth chime, she realized what it was signalling. And –as if he was thinking the same thing as her- Teddy moved his head in the direction of the clock also. The last two chimes rang out and then the room was quiet again.

"I think this is where were supposed to wish each other a Happy New Year," Teddy comment quietly from beside her.

"What's so happy about it? Chris and I can't be friends anymore, Xavier's leaving, despite her assurances to the contrary I'm sure that Ally's heart's going to break, I have two more stupid Tasks to get through, and we still can't be with each other out in the open," Victoire listed off grumpily.

She never really looked to the New Year as solution to all of her problems before. She felt that it was what you made of it; she didn't believe that the change of year would make things automatically better. However, she'd never really looked at it so negatively before either.

"You know that it's all based on your perspective Vic. I can change absolutely everything you said for the better," Teddy commented as he threw his arm across her shoulders and squeezed her to his side.

"Go ahead and do it then," Victoire challenged watching his face closely.

"I think that you're lucky that you know what Chris is actually like. As I said before, if he didn't let it out, he would have just kept bottling it up and the explosion could have been _much_ worse."

Victoire nodded at his logic.

"As for Xavier and Ally. Yes, it's sad that they'll be apart, but look at the bigger picture. He's doing something that he's always wanted to do, and a trial separation for the next few months is a good practice run for the year that they'll have to spend apart next year."

She nodded again. She'd used those points to Ally herself when trying to cheer her up to the idea of their separation.

"Now, I know that the Tournament's been a bit of a joke really. I mean, you almost killed yourself, you were definitely the best champion so far, and you ended up with a horrible score just because Flannery hates you. But you have two tasks coming up and it's your chance to prove to everyone that you're a contender for this thing, and to prove to them that you have what it takes to win."

She was smiling a bit at this point and couldn't stop herself from giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

When he went to continue he gave her a loving look, "And, for the point that we can't go public with our relationship, it's not going to be for the rest of the year. Once the Tournament's done, when you graduate, we won't have to hide anymore. It's only five months at most. I think that we can handle it."

He punctuated his sentence with a quick but sweet kiss on her lips.


	61. Article 1

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Article One

_The Daily Prophet_, _Date: January 1__st__, 20–_

_New Year Equals a New Keeper for Puddlemere_

_The New Year has come with many new things. On top of the list are people's New Year's resolutions, and the fact that a vast majority of the population will be writing the date with the wrong year for the next few weeks or so. However, this year brings something very new things for one of Quidditch's most popular families. A few days ago, this newspaper reported the news that Oliver Wood –professional Keeper for Puddlemere United- had announced his intention to resign from the Quidditch team and instead take up a position as coach with the same franchise by May of this year. Before speculations could fly around, Wood revealed that his intention to resign playing had to do with his hope to spend more time with his family. Most reporters had found his explanation odd seeing as both of Wood's children are well into their teens (17, and 13) and that both attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry throughout the school year. After letting, us sit in our confusion for a few moments Wood explained his sudden desire to spend more time with his family. He announced that his wife of nineteen years Katie Bell (who has herself has been retired from professional Quidditch Chasing for Puddlemere fourteen years and who is now currently working as a trainer for them) is expecting their third child! _

_As expected many congratulations have gone out to the family on their expected new arrival, and everyone assumed that that would be the end of the story. This reporter however, is excited to tell you that that is, in fact, not all to the story. Along with the new child for the family and the new job for Oliver Wood, there is one more milestone, which the family is now able to celebrate._

_Early today Puddlemere announced that they have signed a new Keeper to take over Oliver Wood's spot on the main team. Words and theories had been tossed around throughout the Quidditch community since Wood released his intent to retire, on who would be the next superstar Keeper for Puddlemere. The names of Randy Sturdwick (reserve Keeper for Puddlemere for the last three years), Barrie Hedley (another back-up Keeper which Puddlemere had picked up about a year ago from the Caerphilly __**  
**__Catapults), and Jody Waterman (newly un-contracted Keeper for the Montrose Magpies) have been the most popular names that have been juggled around. While any of these athletes would have been a valuable player on the team, Puddlemere's announcement insisted that their new Keeper would make the other teams feel as though Oliver Wood (Eleven time recipient –five of those consecutively- of Britain's Quidditch Keeper of the year award) were still playing._

_Who is this amazing player? Who is this Oliver Wood protégée? Who could be better than Oliver Wood? _

_Well apparently, the recipe for the perfect Oliver Wood replacement is someone who is genetically fifty-percent Oliver Wood, and another fifty-percent Katie Bell._

_Yes, if you hadn't figured it out yet, Puddlemere coaching staff has announced that Oliver Wood's replacement, as first-string Keeper will be none other than his son Xavier Wood._

_Xavier Wood (17), as stated previously, is a Head Boy and seventh year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As of the eleventh of this month, he will officially be a member of Puddlemere United, and will undergo several months of extensive training with the team to be ready to take over in May when his father will officially resign._

_Since not much is known about Xavier Wood's Quidditch talents outside the statistics of his games from school, many of Puddlemere's competitors are going to be keeping their eyes open for this new talent. As for the Quidditch fans of the world, they'll have to keep themselves up with any morsel of information about this new teen star as they get it because Puddlemere is known for their strict and secretive practices and plays that will make finding information about this new player very difficult._

_As for now, this newspaper wishes all of the Woods the best on their new adventures in life and can't wait until we get to see Puddlemere's first game with their new Keeper._

_For a brief bio about Xavier Wood and his connections with this year's Hogwarts Tri Wizard champion Victoire Weasley, see page 11._


	62. Article 2

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_Article Two_

_The Daily Prophet, Date: January 5__th__, 20–_

_Tri-Wizard Tournament Re-cap_

_Last night Minister Flannery cheerfully announced to us that the date for the Second Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament had been set. On Saturday February fourth, the three champions will be competing in the second task of the tournament. _

_Information on what type of obstacles the champions will have to face are hush, hush, as is the rule for the Tournament. However, our sources within the Department of Magical Games and Sports have let slip that the second task will be a bit of a throwback to one of the Tasks from the previous Tri-Wizard Tournament. Speculations have gone from a maze, to a task in Hogwarts' famed Black Lake, to a trial concerning dragons. Seeing as Hogwarts Champion Victoire Weasley has already entertained the Wizarding world with her battle with a dragon from the last Task, we believe that the former two suggestions are much more likely._

_It doesn't really matter which trial they have decided for the next task though, because each champion knows that they have to try to win the next task to be in good positioning for the Tournament._

_Here's a recap of the traditional scores from the Frist Task:_

_Konstantin Krum: Thirty-seven_

_Victoire Weasley: Thirty-five_

_Noëlle Varens: Thirty-three_

_Now, the special scores that will be added at the end of the Tournament are as follows:_

_Victoire Weasley: Eight_

_Konstantin Krum: Four_

_Noëlle Varens: Three_

_And, to remind everyone, Victoire Weasley was the only one who left the First Task with the correct partial map that is a tool for the last task._


	63. Article 3

_Article Three_

_*Victoire's History of Magic Notes*_

_ Involvement of the Order of the Phoenix in the Second Wizarding War __Date: January 20__th__, 20–_

_ The members of the Order of the Phoenix were a talented and brave accumulation of witches and Wizards from every walk of Wizarding life. From the studious Headmaster of Hogwarts (Albus Dumbledore) to the brave and useful squibs (Arabella Figg) everyone played an important part . . ._

**_Hey Vic?_**

_Kyle, why the bloody hell are you writing on my history notes?_

**_I need to ask you something!_**

_You need to remove your quill from my parchment before I place that quill somewhere where you will need help to get it out._

**_Seriously, this is important._**

_Then use your own bloody notes and get away from my desk. Professor Cooke is going to notice when he turns around that you're not supposed to be so close to me._

**_What's one more rumour?_**

_I'm not talking about what he'll think about us! I'm talking about the fact that we'll get detention for passing notes._

**_But we're not passing notes, that's the point of this. I'm writing on your own notes and he can't get us in trouble because we're not passing them around._**

_ . . . I hate that your stupid logic actually has a point._

**_Don't hate the player; hate the game!_**

_What is that supposed to mean?_

**_I actually don't know. Sandra says that whenever she says that we can't-_**

_Okay I don't want to hear that!_

**_You can't hear it; you see it._**

_You're a prat._

**_And you're a cow._**

_Yes, now that we have that established will you please get to the point of this non-note passing so I can go back to being a good student?_

**_Why do you need to even take this course? You're related to half of the members of the Order of the Phoenix._**

_Doesn't mean that I can't try to listen to an unbiased view on what happened._

**_I don't know, I've heard some of your family's stories about it and they're much more interesting._**

_That's just because Uncle Ron uses more swear words._

**_He knows how to capture peoples' attention that's for sure._**

_Yeah, but seriously, what do you want?_

**_Xavier's Birthday in in a bit._**

_I know the thirtieth._

**_Yeah, so I was planning on collecting a bunch of letters to send to him since it will be the middle of the week and he'll have like eighteen hours' worth of practice, and I thought that having letters from us would be a nice thing for him to keep. We'll send him gifts of course, but this is something private that we can write to him. You know, tie him over on all of the gossip until we can see him on the fourth for your Second Task._**

_First, that's a great idea. Second, why did you have to tell me that now? Why couldn't you tell me after class?_

**_First, I know it's a great idea; I'm a frigging pure-blooded genius. Second, I just found this lecture boring in comparison to your family's stories and I didn't want to be the only one not paying attention to Prof. Cooke's lecture._**

_You're an-_

**_What was that Vic? Lol._**

_I HATE YOU! Professor Cooke just gave us detention and you're laughing about it? P.S. I cannot believe that you just wrote Lol._

**_If you're so angry that I got you in trouble for writing notes, why are we still writing them?_**

**_Hello?_**

_. . . the members of the Order were in charge of many different tasks. Some were intricate, and others, weren't but they all were very important in contributing to the bigger picture that the Order was trying to work towards-_

**_C'mon Vic, the lecture is still boring!_**

_Do you want me to hit you?_

**_No . . ._**

**_Ouch! I can't believe you did that!_**

_Wow, that really echoed._

**_Is Professor Cooke laughing at me?_**

_Yeah, he's not the only one bud._


	64. Article 4

_Article Four_

_Witch Weekly, Date: January 29__ th__, 20–_

_The New Face of Puddlemere: Continuation of the Wood Dynasty_

_Lindsey Travis sits down with Oliver and Xavier Wood_

_Devastatingly talent and handsome father and son Quidditch duo of Oliver and Xavier Wood have kindly agreed to do an interview with us where we'll ask them questions on the new experiences in their lives and how they're handling all of the little –and big- changes._

_Lindsey: So, Oliver, we've met many times over the years have we not?_

_Oliver: Of course Lindsey, I wouldn't even dare to visit any other reporter if I could have the lovely opportunity to speak with you._

_Lindsey: So I'm not scary or intimidating then?_

_Oliver: Of course not._

_Lindsey: Then why does your son look as though I'm going to pull out my wand and start hexing him?_

_Oliver: (Laughing very charmingly and patting his son gently on the shoulder) Oh Xavier's still new at this. Most newbies find the long and grueling practices the hardest part of becoming a professional Quidditch player, but Xavier definitely thinks this is the worst. He takes after his mother. He'd do practice 24 hours a day and 7 days a week if it would get him out of speaking to the press. You do remember Katie and mine's first joint interview after we were married don't you?_

_Lindsey: Oh, how could I forget? I think we only got through about four questions before Katie ended up throwing up on the white couches._

_Oliver: Yes, actually, now that I think of it, that would have technically been Xavier's first interview too. We found out after a week of more vomiting that she was pregnant with him._

_Lindsey: Thank-you for bringing that up Oliver. I have been meaning to ask how she was, but I was afraid that I'd be over stepping my boundaries._

_Oliver: You don't have many boundaries left when you've been in the public eye as long as Katie and I have been. She fantastic though. We're both very excited for the arrival of the new baby in a few months' time._

_Lindsey: That's brilliant. Do you know the gender yet?_

_Oliver: No we don't actually, we want it to be a surprise. We've already got a boy and a girl so we're of the frame of mind that whatever we get now will just be an extra blessing._

_Lindsey: Very eloquently put._

_Oliver: (Chuckling) Well, that's just because that's how I put it. I believe the first time Katie and I spoke about it she called it a 'bonus'._

_Lindsey: And how is your lovely wife? As the Daddy all you have to do is sit around and wait a few months for the baby. Katie has to carry it for the next few months._

_Oliver: Oh trust me Lindsey, I know. I love Katie with all of my heart but she's definitely milking her pregnancy for all that its worth._

_Lindsey: As she should, it wouldn't matter if it was your first or your tenth child, every pregnant witch should be treated like royalty during her pregnancy._

_Oliver: I completely agree. If I think back to both for our previous pregnancies, she definitely had her hard times._

_Lindsey: But you're not alone in catering to her wishes this time are you Oliver?_

_Oliver: You're right I'm not. To make it more convenient to get to and from practices, Xavier is living with us as he goes through his training._

_Lindsey: (Turning to Xavier now that we've given him some time to adjust to the settings) And how has it been, being home while your mother's pregnant?_

_Xavier: (Smiling slightly) Before moving back home, I wasn't too keen on the idea because I had remembered slightly of how Mum acted when she was pregnant with my sister Cecilia._

_Oliver: We affectionately call anything odd she did 'pregnancy brain'._

_Xavier: Yeah, so I was apprehensive at first but then getting back there it has definitely been interesting._

_Lindsey: Are you doing everything your mother asks of you?_

_Xavier: Well, I don't really have to. She doesn't ask much of me, usually just Dad. In her mind, I'm still her little baby and on top of that, I've been going through the long and grueling training practices so by the time I get home she just wants to take care of me._

_Lindsey: Ah, the pregnancy's really bringing out her maternal instincts then?_

_Xavier: She's always had strong maternal instincts; it's just a bit magnified. I'm an adult and I have a job now, but she still tries to cut my food up into smaller pieces when she thinks that I'm not looking._

_Lindsey: Your humour is very much like your father's Xavier, has anyone ever told you that?_

_Xavier: No, usually when people are comparing me to Dad they're complaining about how strict and obsessed we are with Quidditch._

_Lindsey: Really? And who have you heard that from?_

_Xavier: (Laughing a little) Um, my friends, my uncles, my grandparents, my parents' friends, Mum, my sister, and recently many of the other players on Puddlemere._

_Lindsey: So your colleagues see a resemblance between you and your father?_

_Xavier: Well they all agree that we're Quidditch crazy, but past that, I'm not sure._

_Lindsey: Not giving much away I see. Don't worry we're all on edge waiting for your first game Xavier to see how you'll compare to your father._

_Xavier: Um, thanks._

_Lindsey: Does that make you nervous?_

_Xavier: Nervous? No. Anxious? A little. I'm not nervous though. I know that Puddlemere wouldn't have recruited me if they didn't think that I'd be able to contribute to the already amazing and talented team._

_Lindsey: Also very well said. Well, if we're making a list of the similarities between your father and you, we can add intelligent and smooth talking to the list._

_Lindsey: Anyway, our sources tell us Xavier that you're not going to be seventeen for very longer._

_Xavier: (Smiling a little sheepishly.) Your sources would be correct. My birthday's tomorrow._

_Lindsey: So you'll be eighteen then?_

_Xavier: Yes._

_Lindsey: Well you've definitely established a lot over your short eighteen years of life haven't you?_

_Xavier: When I look back, I have to agree with you. However, when it was happening, it definitely seemed like it was taking forever._

_Lindsey: Are you referring to the time you had to wait until Puddlemere offered you a position?_

_Xavier: Oh! No, no, no. Puddlemere offering me a position was right out of the blue. They began talking to me about it the minute I'd even learned that Mum was pregnant and that Dad was stepping down._

_Lindsey: So you're telling me that you didn't see an offer coming your way at all?_

_Xavier: An offer to play professional Quidditch –especially from Puddlemere United- has always been my dream. That being said, I haven't always been confident enough in my abilities to assume that I'd be scouted right out of school._

_Lindsey: Really?_

_Xavier: Yeah. I've always been the type to see past how well I was doing, and just focus on what I was doing wrong. My friends have always found that trait of mine rather odd because they say that I'm very supportive anytime they need help, and that they can't believe that I can be so patient with them and so hard on myself in return._

_Lindsey: I'm glad that you mentioned your friends Xavier. You left Hogwarts rather quickly; do you miss them?_

_Xavier: Definitely. A lot. At almost every time in the day. I'll see something that will remind me of one of them, or something will happen and all I can think is, 'I need to tell so-and-so . . .' and it's hard because I can't just walk into the common room anymore and find them._

_Lindsey: Have your friends been supportive of your choice to start your career so early?_

_Xavier: Most definitely. I'm not going to say that some have been more supportive than others have, but some have definitely been more vocal. However, in the end of the day, they all wanted me to pick what I wanted to do and they said that they'd be behind whatever my choice was. In fact, I believe one of my friend's exact words at one point was, '_Xavier I don't care if you want to stay and be a loser with us. Go off and be an arrogant Quidditch player, or drop out of school completely and become a sketchy magical hobo in Venezuela. Just do whatever your heart tells you to and give your one-hundred percent at whatever you choose to do_.'_

_Lindsey: A very interesting image those words conjured up._

_Xavier: Yeah, she's always been an interestingly eloquent girl._

_Lindsey: Ah, so a friend who is a _girl_ said that to you did she?_

_Xavier: (Giving me a charmingly big smile.) Yes. My best mate's girlfriend actually. She's full of lots of interestingly worded advice on life._

_Lindsey: Ahh, you caught me there I see. Okay, so your best mate's girlfriend. But now that you're mentioned girlfriends, and friends that are girls, you know that I'm almost contractionally obligated to ask you these types of questions._

_Xavier: I thought that I'd have to talk about this, go ahead, shoot._

_Lindsey: Victoire Weasley?_

_Xavier: Is one of my best mate's but if we're together for more than two hours at a time without a break we end up trying to strangle each other._

_Lindsey: Really? Because earlier in the year _The Daily Prophet_ had, some interesting pictures and cases to the contrary._

_Xavier: First, the both of us will admit that the photos they ran could be taken the wrong way. However, I mean what I say when I say that we are not dating, or seeing each other in secret, or snogging each other or whatever rumour is going around. She's an amazing friend, a brilliant witch, and a talented Quidditch player but there is nothing even remotely romantic going on between us._

_Lindsey: What would the chances be of you guys getting together In the future be though?_

_Xavier: About the same chances there are of Mum to accept a position to play beater for the Chudley Cannons._

_Lindsey: (Laughing.) Not very likely then?_

_Xavier: No, not at all. Victoire's interested in another -absolutely amazing- bloke and I'm actually taken._

_Lindsey: Bingo! Now that's exactly what I was digging for. So you have a girlfriend then?_

_Xavier: Yes._

_Lindsey: Will you tell us the lucky lady's name?_

_Xavier: Nope. But I will tell you that I'm actually the lucky one in our relationship. I'm lucky that she wants to put up with me._

_Lindsey: Ahh, well whoever it is it seems that you're absolutely smitten with her. But really Xavier, give us something that we can work with. Is she a girl from Hogwarts? Or someone that you know from outside of school._

_Xavier: I'm not going to answer those, but I will tell you that I've known her for almost forever and that she's the most amazing woman I've ever met._

_Lindsey: Oh, how will Katie feel when she hears that you said that your girlfriend is the most amazing woman in your life? Usually titles like that are reserved for a man's mother._

_Xavier: Mum won't really care in the way you're guessing at. She knows my girlfriend and she would agree with me that she's amazing. In fact, Mum has forewarned me that if I'm –I believe her exact words were 'Stupid enough to ever break up with [her] that she'd take [her] side in the break up and that I'd pretty much be dead to her'._

_Lindsey: Ha, well that definitely seems like something Katie Bell would say. So it's safe to say that your family approves of your girlfriend?_

_Oliver: Approves isn't a strong enough word. If Katie weren't so busy with the new pregnancy, she would probably be trying to adopt the poor girl right now._

_Lindsey: Well then, it must be an interesting time to be you Xavier Wood. New dream job, fantastic girlfriend, and a new sibling on the way._

_Xavier: It is, and I feel very thankful and blessed that I'm able to have all of this in my life._

_Lindsey: Well it was very nice to meet you Xavier, and Oliver, as always a pleasure._

_Oliver: Thank-you Lindsey._

_Xavier: Thanks._

_Lindsey: Oh, and Xavier, I hope that you remember how to get here because I'm certain that we'll be seeing a lot more of you here in the interview room at _Witch Weekly_._

_Xavier: I'll make sure to draw up a map before we leave._


	65. Article 5

**Article Five**

_Dear Xavier, January 30__th__, 20–_

_ Hi, so, just in case you were wondering about the date, it actually is the thirtieth as I'm writing this. To be precise, it's ten minutes past midnight. I couldn't sleep. _

_Again. _

_I miss you. _

_Still._

_I know that sounded weird, it's not as if I assumed that I'd just stop missing you once you were gone for a bit, I just thought that it would get better. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sitting here crying my eyes out and feeling depressed enough to want to resort to mood-altering potions (even though you know if I needed one I'd be able to whip one up right away without any help). But I do feel sad still, and –I'll repeat- I do miss you. It's almost been a month and I really hope that Victoire was right when she told me that the first month would be the worst. Not that I doubt her really. She's usually always right even though we all like to deny it. It keeps her grounded; remember? And without you here, I'm afraid that her ego's going to inflate and that soon she won't need a broom to be able to fly._

_Okay, that last part was a little dramatic now that I look it over. She's not in much danger of an over-inflated head. Teddy keeps her grounded better than either of us could, even when we used our combined forces. But, he's always been able to control her better than everyone else. When we were younger, he was one of the only people that could get her to drink her flu-fighting potions. Not even Uncle Bill of Auntie Fleur could convince a four year-old Victoire that she needed to drink it. The only person she'd listen to was a six-year-old Teddy._

_I guess some things don't actually change. _

_The date for the Tri-Wizard Tournament's getting closer and Victoire's getting more keyed up. I love my cousin so much but lately I've had the urge to slap her anytime someone's stupid enough to mention the upcoming task. (On an un-related note, I bet that you won't be able to guess Kyle's new favourite pass time is.)_

_But, seriously, I think Vic would have had a panic attack by now if it weren't for Teddy. It's gotten so bad that sometimes his only choice to calm Victoire down is to stop her crazy rants mid-thought with a kiss. I know that you're probably giving me that 'really Ally?' look that you usually give me anytime I say something naïve, but I'm completely serious. I know that she's not complaining on purpose just to get him to kiss her because she always ends up hitting him and trying to make him stop for a good five minutes before she realizes that it's in her best interest to just go along with it._

_And, if by now you haven't realized that I'm just mindlessly rambling about Victoire because I'm not exactly sure what to write to you, then you've probably taken one too many bludgers to the head since you've been on the team._

_I'm not sure exactly what to say, so I'm going to start with this: I'm proud of you._

_I know we've talked about this before, but I just want to reiterate it. You are such an amazing person and such a talented player, and I'm so ecstatic that you've gotten the opportunity to chase (more like keep) after your dream. I know that this separation is hard for both of us, and I know that at some points over the next few months, that it will get harder. I just want to let you know that no matter what, I love you._

_I fully believe that we're going to make it out of this stronger and I know that we'll be able to handle whatever is thrown our way. Victoire (again I'm quoting her, don't let her know or it might over-inflate her ego again) will say that it is because we're both dedicated, intelligent, caring, trusting people and etc. But, not that I think she's wrong, I think the main reason that we'll get through this okay is because we love each other._

_I know that she didn't' want to go and throw that word around willy-nilly because I don't think I've ever really come right out and told her that I love you before, but I know deep down that she knows. She's the both of ours best friend, of course she knows how we feel about each other._

_Anyway, I'll make this short because I know that you'll have at least three more letters to read tonight, and because I hope that whatever we leave unsaid we'll be able to pick up on when you come back to Hogwarts for Victoire's task:_

_Happy eighteenth Birthday._

_I love you._

_Say hi to Katie and Oliver for me._

_I love you._

_Say hi to the baby too. (Yes, even if you have to literally get on your knees and speak into your mother's vastly expanding stomach.)_

_I love you._

_When I feel as though I miss you, I'll make sure to spend some time with Cecilia and I'll encourage her to regale me with embarrassing stories of your youth._

_I love you._

_I miss you._

_Have a good day at practice tomorrow._

_I love you._

_Be safe until I see you next week._

_And, I love you._

_Ally M. Weasley_


	66. Article 6

**Article Six**

_Sweetheart, _

_I know that today's the day of the Second Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, so I'll make this quick:_

_–Don't go flying off the broom handle-_

_Love, Teddy_

* * *

**_A/N: The day of the Tournament is upon us :)_**


	67. Visitors Part Two

**A/N:** Okay, so as you could probably tell from the title, it's not exactly The Second Task chapter. But hey, since when have you known me to just shove everything into one chapter?

Xavier's in this one, you get to find out what the task will be, and there's a little Vic/Teddy in here. There wouldn't have been any room for a decent task if i'd tried to fit it in.

In summary, the Second Task will be next chapter, however, I still hope that you enjoy this one (I think it's fun) and please, please, please, stay tuned and read **all** of the** A/N** at the end, it's a very important one that you're going to want to read.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own anything . . . actually, I guess I'm sort of to blame for Kyle . . .

* * *

**Visitors Part Two**

"Where in the world could they be?!"

"Under your bed?"

"No I checked there."

"In your trunk?"

"That's the first place I looked because that's where they're supposed to be!"

"In your Quidditch locker? They are the shoes you've designated for playing Quidditch after all."

"No, I've already rifled through that thing thrice."

"In Teddy's rooms' maybe?"

"Why on Earth would they be there?"

"I don't know. Whatever weird stuff you and Teddy do in private isn't any of my concern."

"You're really not being helpful right now."

"Fine, do you want to wait another fifteen minutes until Xavier gets here and then you can yell at him for old times' sake instead of me?"

"URG!"

"Is that another one of those phrases to explain your dissatisfaction that Wizard folk use that I'm not aware of because I'm a muggle born?"

Victoire stopped frantically searching her trunk (for the fifth time) and gave her best mate a glare, "This isn't funny Sandy! I have the second task in an hour and I can't find my favourite pair of trainers!"

Sandra rolled her eyes at her overly hyped-up blonde friend and uncrossed her arms from her chest, "Take a calming drought for a minute Vic. Look at the grand scheme of things. They're just a pair of trainers. Granted they may be your most comfortable, but you have other shoes that will do."

"I guess you're right," Victoire said in a much calmer tone than before as she pulled out a different pair of shoes from her trunk.

"And, if the gossip flying around _The Prophet_ and the school is correct, you're next task is going to be in the Black Lake, so chances are you won't need shoes."

"You're really bad at pep-talks."

"Oh just shut up and get into those black track pants that they're making you wear again from the first task. You know, the ones that everyone said made your butt look nice."

"Seriously, whenever you find your kids or teenagers upset or sad in the future, let Kyle handle the pep-talks. You'd probably just make the situation worse," Victoire commented as she tied the different –less comfortable- pair of shoes onto her feet, and shook her legs a bit so that the black legs of the dreaded and aforementioned track pants would sit over top of them.

"Ready?" Sandra asked finally getting up from her seated position on her bed.

"Ready."

The two Gryffindor girls walked out of their dormitory, through the common room, and out the portrait hole. Instead of turning left though, to go to the Great Hall, they turned right and began to walk to the area of the Castle that held Headmistress McGonagall's office. They walked in silence, together. Victoire was busy watching her feet move and trying internally calm herself down, and Sandra was busy sneaking a peek at Victoire at even intervals of time so that she could be sure that Victoire wasn't about to either: A.) Vomit, B.) Run away, or C.) have a nervous breakdown and/or spontaneously combust.

Once they got to the gargoyle outside of McGonagall's office, Victoire knew that Sandra had to leave for the time being.

"So, I guess I'll see you a bit?" Victoire asked her friend.

"Yup. McGonagall said that you get to see everyone fifteen minutes before the tasks starts, like last time," Sandra responded.

"And you're going to go meet Ally and Kyle and grab Xavier at the gates of the Castle before a mob scene starts?" Victoire questioned.

Sandra shook her head, "No, actually Professor Longbottom has graciously offered us the services of his fireplace, and Xavier's going to just floo straight into his office."

"Oh! That's a good idea. You'll be able to get him into the Castle without much of a ruckus then."

"That is the plan now."

"Okay. See ya."

"Bye."

Victoire knew that Sandra was going to keep standing there until she saw with her own eyes that she actually walked through the door. Therefore, she just decided to stop procrastinating and get it over with. When she walked into the office, everyone in the room turned to watch her.

_Goody! Even more attention!_

The room wasn't exactly to its fullest capacity, so she reasoned that it could have been much worse. There were still a lot of people there though; Professor McGonagall who gave her a covert wink from behind her horn-rimmed spectacles. Madame Maxine who inclined her head politely to her, along with Headmaster Jaroslov who gave her a dark glare that she was by now very familiar with from any of the other times she'd seen him. Noëlle Varens was there standing quietly next to her teacher Professor La Croix, and who looked just as green as Victoire felt. Minister Flannery was there speaking to the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sport, and had seemed to cut his conversation off mid-sentence so that he could give Victoire a condescending glare even scarier than the one Jaroslov had given her. The only other person in the room was Professor Cooke, who came up to her the minute she'd walked in, and directed her to a corner on the opposite side of the room as Flannery. Professor Cooke also stepped in front of her when she'd gotten there so that his back was between Victoire and the heated look the Minister for Magic was giving her.

"How do you feel today?" Professor Cooke asked her in a quiet and gentle voice.

"I'm fine," Victoire responded back automatically.

The blonde brows on his young face rose in incredulity, "Fine like you were two weeks ago when I made you and Mr. Line serve detention for writing notes in class?"

Victoire looked away from his face but didn't blush. She'd rather hoped that as a teacher he'd seen weirder things and had essentially forgotten what had transpired when she and Kyle had shown up to serve their detention. Basically that of the two students trading insults back and forth through the night -as they graded the lower years' papers- until Kyle genuinely said that he knew that Victoire was going to be great in the next task. His words ended up causing her to break down and sob out dis-conjoined words on how she was probably was going to fail and for the rest of the detention Professor Cooke ended up trying to figure out exactly what Kyle had said that had made her start crying.

"I haven't cried yet today," she replied folding her arms across her chest.

Professor Cooke gave her a small smile, "And are you going to keep it that way?"

"Yes. I am a Gryffindor after all. We can worry and fret leading up to our big days, but on those days we give one-hundred-and-ten percent."

"I'm glad to hear it."

Victoire's attention was then dragged away from their quiet little corner when the door of the office opened and Konstantin Krum walked in with one of his professors. Since all of the Champions were there, Flannery decided that he could start speaking.

"Alright everyone," he announced as he made sure that everyone's attention was trained on him, "From here we'll separate the three Champions and give them some time alone with their friends. After they get fifteen minutes with their friends and family, they'll all reconvene and we'll announce what the second task will be!" Flannery sounded very excited at the end of his speech but no one else in the room –the champions specifically- seemed to share in his enthusiasm.

McGonagall was the one to get everyone moving after Flannery less than inspiring talk, "Alright, Miss Weasley will stay here in my office, but if Miss Varens and Mr Krum will follow me with their professors I will show them to the rooms that have been set up specifically for you to use."

As per usual, everyone listened to what Professor McGonagall said and went about their business quickly and efficiently. Not even a minute later and Victoire was left alone in her office with Professor Cooke.

"Why do I get McGonagall's office?" Victoire asked him idly.

"Because we're expecting that you're going to get the largest amount of visitors, and all of your visitors actually know how to get here so it was most convenient," he answered walking over to answer the door, which had just issued forth a knocking sound from the opposite side.

When he opened it, he stood back so that the group of people could come in. The first two people Victoire saw come into the room were Fleur and Bill. They were also the last people she could pick out completely because the minute her Mamma was in the room she was all over her.

"Mamma, I'm fine!" Victoire called out, her voice slightly muffled by the fact that Fleur had her body in a death-grip disguised as a hug.

"Fleur," Bill tried to reason with his wife as he pulled her off of their eldest daughter, "Give Victoire some room to breathe. I'm sure she's worried enough about the task without having to worry about not being able to breathe because you've crushed her lungs."

Fleur listened to her husband but squeezed Victoire once more before letting go of her and taking a step back. Bill decided that since he now had time to give his daughter a gentle hug; he'd take it because she was sure to be busy in the next fifteen minutes with a lot of visitors.

A round of kisses to her cheeks and forehead, and some words of encouragement from her parents (along with a warning about not jumping on the back of any magical creatures in this task) Bill and Fleur swept out of the room as quickly as they'd come in. Victoire wasn't upset about it though, because she knew that her dad was just trying to speed things up because she had many people to see, and because she knew that her Mamma was probably about to cry like she had the day of the first task. Before her parents had left however, Bill explained that the majority of her aunts and uncles would come see her after the task, and that they wished her luck, they just didn't want to overwhelm her before the task. She appreciated this and took a deep breath in relief that she wouldn't have to see _every _single member of her family right before her task.

The next people to capture her attention were Dom, Molly, and surprisingly Lucy. Dom and Molly were wearing their shirts that they'd gotten at the First task that flashed through the words 'Go-Victoire-Go', and they had somehow even forced Lucy into a shirt that said 'Go Hogwarts' on it –in very tiny lettering mind you that didn't flash through different colours. The two Gryffindor's seemed to have found some way to convince the Ravenclaw to come with them to wish Victoire good-luck before the task, and –as Dom whispered into Victoire's ear as she hugged her- they had even convinced her to sit with the family as they watched the task too. Victoire was glad to see that Molly had seemed to get over the anger she'd felt towards her sister for ditching all of them on their Boxing Day sleepover. They weren't being overly friendly or affectionate mind you, but they didn't look like they'd rather be anywhere but with each other like they had previously, so in Victoire's mind she'd chalk this up as a success.

James, Freddie, Al, and Rose were the next few to approach her. They each wished her good luck –Al and Rose's seemed a bit more genuine but that could have only been because James and Freddie always looked like they were up to something- and then they whisked out of the room right after they'd given Victoire her hugs.

The door opened another time and Victoire went running towards the newcomers not even a second after she realized who it was.

"Xavier!"

Victoire had punctuated her exclamation by jumping at Xavier with a ferocious hug.

"Um, hi Vic . . ." Xavier responded back a little breathlessly because she was squeezing him so hard.

When Victoire let go and stepped back from him, she examined him closely. He might or might not have grown another inch or two, but the predominate physical characteristic that was brought to her attention was the fact that he'd seemed to bulk up a lot more than she thought was possible for the fact that he was only gone for about a month. His long sleeve red and gold Gryffindor shirt was something that he'd worn on occasion before he'd left, but now it was looking rather snug around his arms and across his chest. Xavier had never been overly lanky like Victoire used to complain about, but he hadn't been as muscular as he looked now either.

"Did you like my birthday gift to you?" Victoire asked him mentally slapping herself back into the present.

_Was I actually just checking out Xavier Wood?_

Xavier's face turned red, "Um, well, it was thoughtful . . ."

Victoire snickered, "I'm glad that you liked it."

"After it finished scaring me for life, yes, I'm sure it will come in handy," Xavier answered derisively.

Ally, who had been standing next to Xavier while he and Victoire hugged but who was now pretty much hanging off of him now that he was unoccupied looked between the two of them confusedly, "What did Victoire get you for your birthday?"

"Nothing," the two answered her back rather quickly.

Ally gave them another odd look before deciding that she'd probably rather not know what they were talking about.

"Uh, we're here too," a male voice said sarcastically from near the door.

Victoire's blue eyes moved to the door and quickly took in the five figures. She sent a smile to the four who had stayed silent, but placed her hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes playfully at the guy who'd spoken, "Yeah, but you're not as good-looking as Xavier."

Kyle pouted playfully, "You can't compare my handsome and sophisticated pureblood looks to his chiselled and rugged Scottish genes. They're completely different styles."

"Just accept it Kyle. Xavier's hotter than you," Sandra said patting her boyfriend on the shoulder before walking over to Xavier and kissing him on the cheek.

"I hate girls," Kyle said folding his arms across his chest.

"I think that you're better looking than Xavier," Cecilia commented smiling at Kyle.

Kyle smiled brightly back at her and patted her head non-condescendingly, "Thank you Cecilia. At least one girl in this room has taste."

"Of course, I still think Louis is cuter than you, but you're cuter than my brother," Cecilia said flippantly.

Victoire snickered as the smile on Kyle's face fell and as Louis' expression brightened.

Baxter –who was the fifth person to come into the room- chuckled at Kyle's expression, "Ouch. You just got placed below a fourteen-year-old."

Kyle tried to save what little dignity he had left, "He may be fourteen but Louis is also part-Veela."

"Yeah, a part Veela who looks just like Victoire," Ally volley back.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"That means that if you follow the chain you just created, that you're considered less attractive than Victoire," Sandra said teasing her boyfriend.

Victoire winked at Kyle, and he frowned, "She's also part-Veela."

"She's also a girl," Xavier said.

"Oh, really? I didn't know that. Well that explains a lot," Victoire said sarcastically.

Everyone laughed –still at Kyle's expense- and Victoire smiled happily, as she watched her family and friends.

_I guess not much has really changed. Xavier hasn't even been here for an hour and we're already all acting like he'd never left._

"I don't want to bring down the mood here, but we've got to wish Vic good-luck then get out of here because the task's going to start really soon," Louis said giving his elder sister an apologetic look.

Victoire reached forward and ruffled his silvery-blonde hair, "Don't worry about it Louis, I don't think anything today is going to make me forget that the task is coming up."

Louis, Cecilia, and Baxter wished Victoire good-luck, gave her a round of hugs, and then left the older Gryffindors to themselves.

"So, how are you feeling Vic?" Xavier asked her sincerely.

"I don't feel like I'm going to get sick. I don't feel like I'm going to faint. And, I don't feel like I'm going to run away," she responded.

"That's good," Ally commented encouragingly.

"But for some reason I feel like I want to scream," Victoire said seriously.

Sandra and Kyle both watched her warily, "But you're not going to scream . . . are you?"

Victoire sighed and answered honestly, "I don't know. Is it good to bottle up those kinds of feelings?"

"I do. But then I usually end up exploding at whoever pushes me over the edge," Ally told her as she squeezed Xavier's hand and shared a look with him.

"Let's hope that it's Flannery you blow up at," Kyle tossed out offhandedly.

Victoire rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to comment back but was stopped when she heard the door open again. This time it was her uncles Harry and Ron that came into the office.

Harry smiled at the teens but gave them a stern look as he spoke to them, "I don't want to rush you, but you guys should be getting outside and into your seats."

Ally nodded at her uncle, "Okay. Is Victoire's visiting time almost up?"

"I'm not sure. I'm just telling you guys to hurry up because I just ran into Katie and she said that she wanted Xavier and you kids down there A.S.A.P. so that she didn't have to keep telling people off for taking your seats."

"So you came up here just to relay a message from my mum?" Xavier asked him.

Harry gave him a serious look, "Your mother scares me. Especially since she's pregnant."

Xavier considered this before nodding, "Yeah. You've got a good point."

Sandra, Kyle, Ally, and Xavier each wished Victoire good luck before leaving the office.

Ron walked over to Victoire and led her to chair closest to her, "How are you?"

"Did you know that you're like the fifth person to ask me that in the past half hour?" Victoire asked her uncle ignoring his question.

"Did you know that you're ignoring the question?"

"Did you know that Harry's scared of Katie?"

"Did you know that you're really bad at trying to change the subject?"

"Did you know that you've got dirt on your nose?"

"Do either of you know that that's gotten really annoying?" Harry asked coming to stand in between the two. They were arguing like a pair of children. At least Victoire had an excuse; she was still only seventeen. Ron didn't really have a reason to explain why he was acting so childishly.

Victoire shared a look with her redheaded uncle before they both spoke at the same time, "Yes."

"Well aren't you guys just adorable?" a deep voice said from the doorway.

Victoire whirled around and was running at the shape in the doorway before she had a chance to double-check and make sure that she was running towards the person who she thought he was. Lucky for her, she'd known her godfather's voice since she was a child and could pick out his deep timbre even in a loud group of people.

"Hi Princess," Kingsley said laughingly as he gave her a tight hug in return for the tackle/hug she'd just bestowed upon him.

"Hi."

"So how are you feeling?" He asked her as he scanned her minutely.

Victoire was always happy to see Kingsley but his words made her frown, "I swear, I'm gonna slap the next person who asks me that."

"But how do you really feel?"

Victoire frowned and narrowed her eyes at the blue-headed figure behind Kingsley in the entranceway.

"Just so you know, if you take two more steps you will be in my slapping zone," Victoire notified Teddy. Her warning didn't do what she wanted though. Instead of it making him stop and think, he just kept walking closer until she had no choice but to slap his arm.

"Ouch," Teddy grumbled as he rubbed the spot on his arm that she'd just hit, "I can't believe that you actually hit me."

"I can," Kingsley said grinningly as he threw an arm around his goddaughter's shoulders.

Victoire rolled her eyes at the both of them, "Just get all of your guys' worried questions out so I can get back to focusing on my own concerns."

Kingsley squeezed Victoire to him and told her gently, "I'm not going to ask you anything else. I know that you'll be brilliant and that everything's going to go fine today."

"Do you know what the task is?" Victoire asked him surprised at his optimism.

"No, the Department of Magical Games and Sports wouldn't tell us. I do know the area that it will take place though, so I think I've got the gist of it."

"Are you going to share your gist with your favourite goddaughter?" Victoire asked sweetly as she batted her eyelashes at him.

Kingsley chuckled and kissed her forehead lightly, "Not likely Vic."

She pouted, "You're so mean to me."

He laughed again and kissed her temple before giving her one last squeeze and stepping away, "Harry, Ron, and I have to discuss some last minute things with Professor McGonagall, so I'm going to wish you good luck now."

"'Kay, bye."

Harry and Ron each gave Victoire a hug but before they left Harry turned to Professor Cooke –who Victoire just remembered was still in the office with her- and asked, "Do you know where Minerva is?"

Professor Cooke nodded, "Yes, but I was given instructions not to leave Victoire alone."

Harry shrugged away his concern, "Auror Lupin can stay with her until everyone comes back, that's not a problem. But we do need to see McGonagall A.S.A.P."

Professor Cooke nodded and all of the adults seemed to be out of the room in the blink of an eye. They were gone so fast that Victoire had barely had time to realize that Harry and Kingsley's plan to talk to McGonagall could have just been an excuse to leave her alone with Teddy for a few minutes. By the time her brain had formed the suspicion, she was alone with said Auror. She looked at him as he closed the door to the office quietly –probably making sure that no one would be able to hear whatever they were going to talk about- and sighed. He had such a serious look on his face. She knew what he was going to say.

"Just go ahead and come out with it."

"Come out with what?" Teddy asked her taking a step closer. He kept his face expressionless, which annoyed Victoire because it meant that she couldn't use his emotions to tell what he was thinking.

"Just go ahead and tell me that you want me to be careful, and that you don't want me to take chances."

"I don't think that I have to tell you that Vic," Teddy told her gently as he grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently.

Victoire stared into his sapphire blue eyes, "Why? Because I just said it for you?"

Teddy chuckled lightly, moved his other hand up to her face, and cupped her cheek, "No. Because I'm not your father-"

"Thank goodness or that would make this relationship even weirder than it is," Victoire cut in.

Teddy ignored her and continued, "I'm not your father; I'm your boyfriend. While it is within both my job and our relationship description to ask you to be careful, it's also my job to be behind you one-hundred-percent and to trust that you'll be able to handle yourself."

"Are you saying this because it's in your 'job description', or because you really believe it?" Victoire asked.

"I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't believe it Vic. I'd be outside triple and quadruple checking all of the safety measures before coming up here and trying to convince you to bow out of the tournament if I believed that you wouldn't be able to handle this."

"How do you always know what to say? Anytime I try to sound as eloquent as you I usually come off sounding like a bit-brat."

Teddy kissed her temple gently, "It's because you love me. I never sound wrong to you because you care about me enough to not hear or care about some of the really stupid things I say."

Victoire looked deeply into his eyes, "Does that go both ways?"

"Aren't relationships supposed to work both ways?" Teddy asked a sexy smile on his handsome face.

"Godric I love you," Victoire told him before pressing her lips softly to his. She couldn't hold herself back anymore. She felt like she just _had_ to kiss him.

Teddy kissed her back sweetly for a moment before ending it. What they had going on was gentle, but if they continued he was sure that their combined chemistry would probably make them take it up several notches. Which would mean that it would probably be very awkward when everyone else would return to the room to see the both of them madly snogging.

"I love you too."

"I still feel like I want to scream though," Victoire told him earnestly.

"What?" Teddy asked her puzzled.

"Never mind."

They stared at each other for a few minutes before they heard the door to the office slowly open. They took a few steps away from each other before they decided that they were a platonic enough distance away from each other.

Professor Cooke had been the one to open the door first –abnormally slowly Victoire noticed- and then everyone else seemed to file in after him. Once everyone was in, Flannery cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and began.

"Alright then. The Second task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament will be starting in fifteen minutes so I'm here to announce what the task will be. Each champion will be completing the task at the same time, and on the same playing field. The theme of this task is water."

Victoire scrunched her forehead, "So . . . _The Daily Prophet_ was right then? The Task is going to be in the Black Lake?"

Flannery frowned at Victoire for her interruption but was _kind_ enough to answer her question, "Sometimes the _Prophet_ gets things right. But yes, it will be in the Black Lake-"

"But eet eez cold," Noëlle cut-in.

Flannery huffed; he really hated it when teenagers interrupted him, "Yes, that's what will make the task more difficult-"

"Does vis mean vat ve vill be changving into svimsuits?" Konstantin questioned.

Flannery rubbed his forehead, "Are the three of you done interrupting me so that I can tell you what you'll actually be doing in this task? Or do you just want to keep asking silly questions?"

Victoire raised her hand up in the air like she would in class. Flannery was so surprised that he called on her, "Yes Miss Weasley?"

"One more question: did you forget to get drink your mood-controlling potion today? Because you seem to be rather grumpy."

Flannery stared at her with an open mouth.

"Is that a yes? Because I can get you a potion if you want."

Flannery seemed to have had enough of their childish questions. (Even though Victoire was legitimately asking him a question as she tried to figure out why he seemed so crabby.) He ignored her presence entirely and finished what he was going to say, "This task will not only take place it the Black Lake, but it will also be a throw-back to the second task of the last tournament in the case that you'll all be looking in the lake for a specific thing. Something specific to each of you, and something that I'm sure you all would have noticed as missing earlier today."

* * *

Okay, so I hope that you liked it.

**VERY IMPORTANT A/N:** Okay, so if any of you had thought that my short but frequent updates the past week were a little suspicious, then whoever did think that get's a gold star. I was kinda hoping to spoil all of you and butter you up because . . . well . . . it's probably going to be **at least two weeks** until you get the next update. That **will** be the Second Task however.

So, I'm sorry but I have good reasons and I hope that you'll read them and understand:

**1.)** This Friday is my literal graduation from High School (my school usually has commencement in October) and I'm not going to have much time to write

**2.)** Added on to 1.) is the fact that it will be Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, and I'm going to have a lot of family stuff to do seeing as I haven't seen any of them in a while because this is my first year in university

**3.)** Adding on to 2.) since it is Graduation my twin brother who is at university in Nova Scotia will be home for the weekend and I haven't seen him in two months (longest time we've ever been apart, a.k.a. not living in the same house)

**4.)** After thanksgiving weekend my first ever university midterms start. Literally, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving Monday is my first midterm worth 25% of my grade. My five midterms will be over the next two weeks, and annoyingly enough I'll still have labs and weekly assignments due in every class so I won't have much time to write or update

**Okay,** so all of that being said, I have the **next chapter done**, and as soon as I have time I will update it, but I have to make a promise with myself not to go onto fan fiction during the two weeks that I need to study for midterms because if I do, well this happens:

Me innocently checking Facebook - turns into me checking fan fiction - I waste even and hour on Fan fiction - I then check Youtube - And since I'm on Youtube I end up spending at least two hours watching Vlogbrothers videos and before I know it the internet has made me procrastinate for three hours and I'll have an exam worth from 15-25% the next day, along with regular scheduled classes. So, yeah, no fanfiction for me for a little bit.

**However**, that isn't to say that I don't want your reviews. Quite the opposite actually. I'm going to get so stressed studying for classes like Calculus, Chemistry, and Anatomy and Physiology that getting emails about some lovely reviews will really brighten up my day.

**Alright, this is going long so I'll end it here:**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed the past week's worth of chapters and articles** (I really don't consider the articles to be chapters it was more of a way to move through time without boring everyone or taking a huge leap). **Your reviews, follows, and favourites mean so much to me and I'm extremely thankful that there are people out there who like my writing and my characters and who are patient enough to wait two weeks for the next update because they understand that my university schedule is so stressful.**

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, especially if you reviewed more than once in the past week :)

Until next time, if you're Canadian have an amazing Thanksgiving, and if you are a reader who's exams are also coming up, good luck with them!


	68. The Second Task

**A/N:** Hey! Well here's the next update everyone, and yes, it's what you've all been waiting for, the Second Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament!

I know that you're probably all anxious to read this after my two week hiatus, so I'll just let you get to it, but please read my **A/N** at the end of the story, because you'll are really going to want to 'hear' what I have to 'say' :D

**Disclaimer:**I do not own anything that you recognized it's all JKR's . . . unless of course this story has gotten to the point in which case all the characters seem like they're real, in which case I will take a bit of credit for Noelle and Konstantin ;)

* * *

**The Second Task**

_Something missing, something missing . . . well the only thing I noticed as missing this morning was my favourite pair of running shoes and that doesn't seem like something they'd use . . . but then what could it be?_

"Do you theenk zat eet could be people like last time?" a quiet voice asked as it broke through Victoire's inner musings.

She quickly turned around and was a little shocked at what she saw. Noëlle was standing at the mouth of the tent in an oversized light blue cloak.

Victoire and her fellow champions had been moved from the inside of the Castle to three separate tents stationed near the Blake Lake. Each champion had a separate tent so that they could change into their proper clothing for the task. Victoire had been given some type of crimson coloured latex wetsuit with the Hogwarts' crest on the breast. It was turtle-necked, had short sleeves, and the pant legs ended just above her knees. She knew that it would be much more comfortable to wear the skin-tight suit than an actual bathing suit in the Black Lake at this time of the year, but it annoyed her that the fabric was even tighter than the stupid track pants she'd had to wear in the first task.

Victoire had just finished changing into her suit when she heard Noëlle come in and speak.

"I don't think so. They kept using the word thing," Victoire told her honestly.

Noëlle crossed her arms over her chest and her movement caused Victoire to see that Noëlle was wearing almost the exact same suit that Victoire was, only in a powder-blue colour with the Beauxbaton's crest.

"Do you really believe zat?"

"I do. I don't fink vat vey'd be stoopid enouv to do vat vey did last time tvice," Konstantin said as he walked into the tent. He had on a dark cloak but Victoire could make out a similar wetsuit to hers' but in a deep almost brownish burgundy.

Her eyebrows rose in surprise. Not at what Konstantin said about the Ministry being stupid –she rather believed that the was on the mark there. She was just surprised that Konstantin had decided to come to her tent. Usually she and her fellow champions didn't interact. Especially not when they were only minutes away from going against each other in the next task.

"But vat do you fink Veektoire?" Konstantin asked her.

"Um, personally I think that Flannery's pretty stupid, but I don't think that the entire Department of Magical Games and Sports is stupid enough to do something like that," Victoire replied.

"'Ave you ever swam een zis lake before?" Noëlle asked her.

Victoire shrugged, "I've waded in to like my waist before but that was several years ago and we were just playing around. I've never done like a full on swim."

"Vat kinds ov creatures should ve expeect?" Konstantin asked successively.

_Ah, they think that I may have a home field advantage and they want to know what I know so that they can even the playing field . . . I guess that's only fair._

"There are for sure merpeople even though they usually try to avoid humans. There have been sightings of kelpies over the years but I'm not sure if they've been confirmed. The rumours about the giant squid are real, and as for other magical or non-magical creatures, I can't be too sure because we usually can't see into the lake. Hence the name: Black Lake," Victoire told him honestly.

The other two nodded at her but seemed deep in thought.

"Victoire it's time- Oh. You're all here," Professor Cooke said coming into the tent but stopping just at the entrance. Obviously, he didn't expect to see the two other champions there either.

Victoire smiled at her professor, "Yeah, we're just comparing notes before we go out."

Professor Cooke gave the three of them a brilliant smile, "I like that."

Noëlle looked at Professor Cooke stunned, "Wat? 'Ow so?"

"I like the fact that you guys are going to compete with each other yet you're trying to be civil and get along," Professor Cooke told her as he handed Victoire a bundle of black fabric. She unravelled it and was only slightly surprised to find that it was one of her winter cloaks.

"Zat eez eenteresteeng. Mozt people tell me not to get to cozey weeth ze enemeey," Noëlle told them honestly.

"Yes, well there are a lot of people who take this Tournament a lot more seriously than they should," Professor Cooke said.

Victoire nodded fervently and he frowned at her and amended, "And there are some people who need to take it a bit more seriously."

"Didn't you say that we needed to go?" Victoire asked trying to change the subject.

Professor Cooke nodded and within seconds, he'd had the three of them herded out of the tent and on their way to the Lake.

* * *

Victoire was really uncomfortable.

Really, very uncomfortable.

She was pretty sure that she wasn't the only one who was feeling uncomfortable though. Konstantin and Noëlle were in the exact same position she was in. The three of them were standing on the -newly constructed for the tournament- wooden platform above the edge of the lake. They were in nothing but their wetsuits, standing above the dark churning water, being attacked by the cold February wind. Behind them were the series of bleacher like seats that housed the entire population of Hogwarts and all of the other visitors who came to watch the Second Task. Almost directly above Victoire's head was three very large floating movie screens like from the previous task. She assumed that they would be used to show each champion's progress as they searched the lake below for their 'missing item'.

"It's too bloody cold out to do this," Victoire muttered to herself as she crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to get more warmth into her. She made a mental note to cast a warming charm on herself the minute she got into the water.

She stood at the edge of the platform with her two rivals on either side of her, but about a metre away. Her back was to the crowd. They were making a lot of noise but it wasn't a cheering type of noise; more the style where everyone was just talking to one another.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" A voice called into the magical microphone, "WELCOME TO THE SECOND TASK OF THE TRI-WIZARD TOURNAMENT! TODAY THE CHAMPIONS WILL BE COMPETING IN HOGWARTS' OWN BLACK LAKE. EACH CHAMPION WILL BE SEARCHING FOR A SPECIFIC THING, ALONG WITH –IF THEY CAN FIND IT- THE SECOND PIECE OF MAP THAT WILL BE ADDED TO THEIR SPECIAL SCORES TOTAL. THEY WILL HAVE ONE HOUR TO COMPLETE THE TASK BEFORE THEY WILL BE ASKED TO COME BACK UP TO THE SURFACE."

"SO NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, WE GIVE YOU: KONSTANTIN KRUM OF DURMSTRANG INSTITUTE."

Victoire watched as Konstantin stepped forward and waved his arm to the cheering crowd.

"VICTOIRE WEASLEY OF HOGWARTS."

She stepped forward and smiled a little at the fact that the cheering was loudest for her.

"AND NOELLE VARENS OF BEAUXBATONS ACADEMY!"

The crowd wasn't as loud as it had been for Victoire, but it still went nuts.

"NOW, OUR CHAMPIONS WILL DIVE INTO THE LAKE ON THE COUNT OF THREE,"

"ONE."

"TWO."

"AND . . . THREE!"

The minute she heard the word 'three' Victoire dove head first into the cold water of the lake. She kicked her feet out behind her and swam down as she pulled out her wand. She cast a quick bubblehead charm so that she'd be able to breathe for longer amounts of time, and then cast the quick warming spell that she'd made a note to do.

When she was more comfortable, she was able to focus all of her energy on looking into the murky waters.

_Okay Victoire, think . . . if I were an item that was taken form me and then hidden in the Black Lake, where would I be?_

"Well," Victoire said aloud to herself. She didn't know if this task would have a special spell in place for audio like the last one or not. But she knew that reasoning through it out loud would help her, "If I were an item I would either have to be heavy or dense enough to sink to the bottom of the lake, or I'd float up automatically. Unless of course it had a spell on it that increased the mass. But weight gaining spells can be tricky, and if done wrong they can crush the item itself. I don't know what they took, but if it was important enough that I'd be able to recognize it when I saw it then it must be a special specific item. If it's a special item, I don't think that they would have attempted to play with its weight in case they did the spell wrong. Ergo, either they are using a more crude way to weigh down the items, or they have some sort of special force field implemented to stop the items from floating up."

"Under this little lighting and constant pressure from the water, a force field would stick out like a sore thumb because the light and colour from its energy would be radiating to every crevice in this thick water. Therefore, it's more likely that they've used a more crude system to anchor down the item. Meaning that if I go along the bottom, there should be evidence of some sort of system of rope to keep the items anchored in place. Find the rope, find the items," Victoire reasoned as she started to swim deeper into the water.

Her arms felt like they were going to fall off by the time she got to what closely resembled the bottom of the lake. The seaweed was thick and Victoire had to make sure that she swam slightly above it while looking down in case the lost item was in the middle of the thick beds of seaweed.

She'd been scanning the lake for even the slightest traces of magic or something that looked out of the ordinary for at least twenty minutes when she stopped to rest her sore limbs. During her searching, she hadn't found anything that she would have considered pertaining to the task, nor had she seen even a glimpse of her fellow champions.

"Okay, time is quickly running out and I haven't found anything yet," Victoire said to herself, "I need to re-evaluate my searching system and fast. The lake has too much area to cover and there is not enough time. They hadn't given us many clues though as to where to find it. All they said was that it would be a throw-back to the Second task of the last Tournament."

Victoire's eyes were forever scanning the area around her for even the slightest hint of where to go. As she scanned the bed of seaweed next to the closest boulder to her, she saw a piece of wood stuck in the sand near the rock. A piece of wood wouldn't be considered unusual in this environment, but Victoire guessed that it caught her attention because it was sticking up out of the ground with two almost perfectly even in length arms sticking up from the top almost in a perfect V-shape.

_It almost looks like a fork-in-the-road. . . Wait a minute-_

Victoire quickly swam to the base of the rock and pulled out the stick. It was about three-quarters of a metre long from the ends of the v to the opposite end of the stick. The shape of the stick brought back a memory.

_She was fourteen and she was visiting Sandra at her house. Sandra lived in a strictly muggle community, but her family's house and farm were far enough away from it that any accidental magic Sandra might have done wouldn't be noticed by those who shouldn't have seen it. The two girls were running through some of the forest on Sandra's family's property, when they both decided to take a break so that they wouldn't end up collapsing from exhaustion. Victoire remembered telling Sandra that she wished that they were allowed to use magic outside of school (or that they were at least in a place where under-aged magic would go unnoticed) because she was really thirsty and wanted a drink of water. Sandra had mentioned that there was a spring nearby that they could get a drink from, and then proceeded to direct Victoire towards it. They were walking in the forest for a good half an hour before Victoire suspected that Sandra actually didn't know where she was going. Despite living in the area for all of her life, Sandra had always been horrible at directions, and Victoire had known this. It took her another ten minutes to convince Sandra to tell her the truth; that they were lost. Sandra had finally admitted it, but she quickly said that she'd be able to rectify the situation, and then spent another few minutes searching through the forest. Victoire had thought that she'd gone mad when she came back with a smile on her face and a stick in her hand. A stick that ended in a V-shape with two arms branching off. Sandra had called the stick a 'divining rod' and said that it was an ancient technique used to find fresh running water. Apparently if you stood holding the v-shaped ends of the stick to yourself, and pointed the longer end forward, it would direct you to water. Victoire had rolled her eyes but knew better than to laugh or even question her friend on her old muggle wives-tales. She followed Sandra for a few more minutes, and was about to complain when they ended up at a clearing in the forest, right next to a spring of running water. _

_Victoire had ended up shrugging off the event and assuming that they'd either found it by luck, or by some sort of accidental magic on Sandra's part, and hadn't thought about it until a year later during the summer of her fifth year. _

_Victoire's Aunt Hermione had been editing a book that a wizard wanted to publish about the legitimateness of different types of muggle myths and tales concerning magic. She remembered the 'divining rod' being one of them, and she remembered asking Hermione about her opinion on it. Hermione had told her that she believed that it did work, although most of the time it was with a mix of magic that was usually unintended by the user. Victoire had questioned how muggles without magic would be able to make them work, and Hermione had told her that there were some controversy studies being done that said that even muggles had the ability to perform little bits of 'magic'. She'd told her, what they would consider magic wouldn't be the same as others, and that some people's magical abilities were more locked up than others who were more opened minded. It had been an interesting theory, but all Victoire could remember by the end of the two hour long interview turned lecture with her aunt was the fact that Sandra's use of the diving rod had worked. And that it was probably because she was unconsciously using magic to make the stick direct her towards the water that she was looking for._

"Good Godric Gryffindor," Victoire said coming out of the memory, "Sandra Collins you are a genius."

Victoire pulled out her wand and then aimed it at the stick. She tried out an assortment of summoning slash revealing spells on it before deciding that she'd done all she could to. She held the stick within her hands and tried to focus more of her magical energy on thinking about finding the item that belonged to her.

If she did the spells correctly –and if whatever magic spells the ministry had used on the items would allow- the stick should direct her to the item that was taken from her.

When she focused on the stick, she did see it glow a bright pink, jump, and vibrate a bit in her hands. However, a few seconds later it stopped vibrating and fell still.

"Oh well, it was an admirable try," Victoire sympathized with herself before tossing the stick away. It had been a long shot but she really thought that her spell-work would have been good enough for her plan to work.

"New plan. In the last tournament, they had the champions find the merpeople's city because that's where they were. I don't think they'd be stupid enough to place the things in the same place twice, but I only have a half an hour left and it's my only lead."

Victoire decided that having a specific direction was better than searching aimlessly and began to swim to around where the mere people's city was supposed to be. She kept her eyes peeled open wide as she travelled there, but didn't see much.

Or, at least she didn't until she was about ten minutes away from the city.

A figure broke through the murky water and was coming up from the bed of seaweed a good five metres away from Victoire. She squinted her eyes and had just recognized the colour of the wetsuit to be powder blue when she saw a stick-thin arm come shouting out from the seaweed and grab who Victoire assumed to be Noëlle around the ankle.

Victoire fidgeted in her spot, she didn't know if she should get involved, or if Noëlle would even want her to get involved. It wasn't until Victoire watched at least a dozen more bony arms join the first in grasping and pulling that she shot across the five metres of space between them like a firebolt broomstick and pulled out her wand.

She shot a few stunners at the nearest kelpie even though she knew that it wouldn't necessarily stop them, only slow them down. The light from her wand seemed to attract the kelpies and their attention was then divided between the two girls.

Victoire had quickly become overwhelmed by the hoard of tiny, sickly looking kelpies as they grabbed everywhere at her. They pulled on her arms, her legs, and, most annoyingly, her hair as they easily broke the elastic band that was supposed to be holding her long hair back. They clawed and scratched at her until Victoire felt her wand being hit out of her hand.

She was done playing around then. She closed her eyes and clenched her now empty hands into fists until she felt them light up with Veela fire. She knew that she'd startled the kelpies when she felt them dig their claws into her sharper than before in surprise before they went swimming away from her.

She yelled out in pain as one particularly stubborn kelpie decided to dig into her right shoulder blade on her back and decide to hold on. She had to pull it off with her hand (her palms still on fire) before it came off and went swimming away into the thick forest of seaweed again.

When Victoire's bearings returned to her she saw that Noëlle was still fighting off her odd half a dozen kelpies, but that she'd found some help.

Konstantin must have entered the mix some time during Victoire's attack and was now trying to get the kelpies away from himself and Noëlle. Victoire threw some Veela fire in the direction of the kelpies –being sure to aim far away, from where Konstantin and Noëlle were- and smirked a little when they went swimming away back into the seaweed.

She swam over to her fellow champions and did a quick –almost automatic- assessment of their injuries.

"Are you guys okay?"

Both Konstantin and Noëlle nodded, but it the later who spoke, "Wat waz zat? I zought zat kelpees deed not leeve een packs."

Victoire shot the seaweed bed a worried look and answered, "They don't. They only ever attack in large groups when they feel threatened by something in their own habitat. It makes them crazy."

"But I deedn't do anyzing wrong. I deed not even know zat zey were zere," Noëlle defended herself.

"That's the thing. They shouldn't be. This isn't even their natural habitat," Victoire said.

"How do you knov that?" Konstantin asked her.

"Kelpies and merpeople don't get along. They usually try to avoid each other as often as they can. I don't know where the kelpies are supposed to live, but the merpeople's settlement is pretty resolute and it's only about ten minutes away. Kelpies, even a normal sized grouping of one or two, wouldn't live this close to them when they have the entire expanse of the lake."

"Zo, why were zey 'ere zen?"

Victoire frowned, "I don't know, but I don't think it was a good thing that they were."

"Ven let's get avay from here," Konstantin reasoned.

The three swam a bit farther up away from the grasps of the kelpies lurking below in the seaweed.

"Have any of you come close to finding anything?" Victoire asked them honestly. If she calculated it, they had about fifteen minutes left of their hour and so far all she's done was get attacked by kelpies.

They both shook their heads.

"I tried a revealeeng spell, but it did not vork," Konstantin added.

"Yeah I tried one of those too," Victoire said going for her wand to show him.

She scowled when her fingers just ended up grasping at the wetsuit she was wearing, "Bollocks. I dropped my wand when the kelpies attacked me."

"I can get eet for you eef you like," Konstantin told her.

"Nah, I got it," Victoire said flicking her wrist and wandlessly summoning her wand to her. A second later, it came zooming through the water and into her left hand.

"I tried summoneeng charm like you deed and eet deed not work ezer," Noëlle chipped in.

"Well I'm thinking that we should pool our resources because all of us getting points is better than none of us getting points," Victoire suggested.

The other two took longer as they considered her words but they eventually agreed with her. They each pointed out the section of lake that they'd searched, and then the three went off to search the part of the lake that been untouched.

They swam for a few more minutes before Victoire stopped suddenly.

"Vot's wrong?"

"I think I heard something."

"Like wot?"

"A swishing sound."

"We are under water you know," Noëlle said irritably.

"It sounded like tentacles."

"'Ow do tentacles 'ave a sound?"

"Maybe they-" Victoire's words were cut off by the moment that proved her hypothesis.

A huge dark tentacle arm came swinging around at the three. Victoire saw it coming so she moved down quickly to avoid it. Noëlle had been watching Victoire, so she swam up to dodge the arm. But Konstantin had been positioned with his back to where the tentacle came from, and had been ignoring the girls' argument as he tried to think of what they should do next. As a result, the tentacle swiped him.

Konstantin was knocked to the side and both Victoire and Noëlle swam right to him as he began to sink through the water. It took both of the girls' strength to keep him up and Victoire's blue-eyes widened when she saw that Konstantin's bubble-head charm had been broken and that his lungs were most likely quickly filling with water.

"We've got to get him topside A.S.A.P."

Victoire was only slightly surprised when Noëlle didn't complain and the two hurriedly swam Konstantin up to the surface. The minute she felt her head reach above water, Victoire could feel her own charm break.

"I'm going to apparate him to the platform; can you get there yourself when I'm gone?" She asked Noëlle.

"I 'ave never disapparated from water before, but I weell try."

Victoire muttered that that was good enough, and closed her eyes so she could focus on her destination. A loud crack echoed through her ears as she felt the space around her compressing her body, and the vibrations of the sound popped the water out of her ears.

* * *

Victoire landed on her knees with a hard _thwack_, onto the wooden platform. She could hear the sounds of the crowd around her but all she could focus on was laying Konstantin out on the wooden platform. When she was done, she heard another sharp _crack_ and Noëlle appeared right next to her. The force of her apparation also caused her to land hard onto her knees.

"Wat woz zat aneeyway?" Noëlle asked Victoire as she moved her ear to Konstantin's chest to see if she could hear him breathing. She couldn't.

"Dave," Victoire answered before swearing to herself over the fact that Konstantin wasn't breathing.

"'O'z Dave?"

At this point Victoire had started to do compressions on Konstantin's to see if she could force the water out, "The giant squid."

"Why deed you call 'im Dave?" Noëlle asked watching Victoire as she pumped Konstantin's chest.

"That's what my cousins named him," Victoire answered only partly wondering why they were having this conversation. Before Noëlle was able to ask another question, Victoire leaned forward and pressed her mouth to Konstantin's unconscious one.

"Wat are you doeeng?"

"Muggle C.P.R," Victoire huffed out in between the breaths she was breathing into Konstantin's lungs, and the compressions she was doing on his chest.

Victoire figured that she'd been preforming C.P.R. for about two minutes by the time she heard footsteps begin to rumble across the wooden platform. She could feel the vibrations from the wood under her knees but she was still focused on the C.P.R. When she felt bodies starting to circle around her, was when she first felt movement from Konstantin. She moved her face away from him, and moved her hands from his chest, to supporting his back so that he could cough out the water that was in his lungs. When he finished coughing, he seemed to pass out again and Victoire was starting to struggle with the dead weight in her arms.

"I'll take it from here Miss Weasley," a well-recognizable voice said.

Victoire looked up and saw Madam Pomfrey kneeling next to her along with several unfamiliar witches and wizards in medi-wizard robes. She nodded and knew that she needed to stand up but her body wasn't exactly listening to what her brain was telling her to do. She looked beside her and noticed that Noëlle was no longer there. Professor La Croix had come along and given her a blanket and encouraged her to stand up and to walk away from the platform. She was almost at the end of it where the judges were supposed to sit.

Victoire figured that she was supposed to do the same, but didn't move until she felt the thick and warm fabric of a blanket fall onto her shoulders, and a familiar pair of hands pulling her up by their grip on the bottoms of her arms. She moved automatically as she felt the hands lift her into a standing position and then guide her away from where Konstantin lay surrounded by a team of healing professionals.

"You're bleeding," the voice that belonged to the hands and the strong body that she felt closely behind her, whispered.

She shrugged her shoulders –not entirely sure where she could have been cut- but then groaned when she felt a flash of pain shot through her right shoulder blade. The hands moved from her arms to her back. One was at the small of her back, directing her forward. The other hand moved to gently run across her painful shoulder blade through the thick fabric of the blanket.

"I think that this was probably from one of the kelpies," the deep voice told her.

Victoire just nodded her head and kept walking forward. She stopped next to Noëlle and stood in front of the judges table. Professors McGonagall, Maxine, and Jaroslov were seated there along with Mr Granville (head of the department of Magical Games and Sports) and Minister Flannery. Victoire was surprised to see that they were whispering between themselves and that their conversations were getting louder and more heated.

Flannery was the first person she could hear, "It doesn't matter McGonagall, she didn't find her item, therefore she will get a lower score."

"I'm not saying that she completed the task perfectly, what I'm saying is that her actions concerning both of her fellow champions should be taken into account, because she showed great magical ability, and plain thought and skill when she helped them out," McGonagall countered.

"None of that matters, each task is to be done separately. She had no obligation to help Miss Varens, or even Mr Krum just a few minutes ago, that was at her own discretion. She will not be given extra points for it, and, if anything, she'll be given less points because she was the champion farthest away from where the items were. At least both Miss Varens and Mr Krum had come within a close distance to the items. She was farthest away, ergo she gets fewer points," Flannery argued back.

"And _she_ is standing right here and would like to not be talked about as if she weren't," Victoire said loudly causing each judge to look at her.

"Now, I really don't care what points you give me, because no, I didn't find whatever the item was that needed to be found. I would just like to know what kind of protection charms were placed on it, because I was certain that my wandwork would have been enough to give me the general area of where the items were."

Flannery looked at her confusedly, "Why do you want to know what charms were on them?"

"So I can see where I went wrong, re-evaluate it, and then hope not to make the same mistake in the future," Victoire said simply.

Flannery looked at McGonagall in disbelief, "Is she serious?"

McGonagall rolled her eyes at Flannery, "Yes she is. Completely serious at that. So just tell her the charms that were used and let us get on with it all."

"There were charms that wouldn't allow you to summon objects, but any type of revealing spell was fair game. It's not my fault that you didn't think to use one," Flannery told Victoire pompously.

Victoire looked back at him confusedly, "Um, but I did use revealing spells. A lot of them. Different types of them. None of the revealed an object that I owned."

"You didn't use the right type of revealing spell then, because what you were looking for is not something that you _own_."

"Zen wat were zey because we were under ze eempression zat ze objectz you 'ad 'idden were objectz zat we would be able to identeefiy eef we came eento contact wiz zem," Noëlle said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"You guys weren't thinking broad enough. The things that were hidden weren't objects."

Victoire narrowed her blue eyes dangerously at Flannery, "If they weren't objects, then what were they. It's not like you would have been stupid enough to use people again."

Flannery scowled at Victoire for the insult but he answered her anyway, "Well Miss Weasley that would be your opinion but we did use people this time. A specific person who would be very special to each Champion."

"Your idea of special and mine must differ greatly than, because I saw pretty much everyone who was special to me fifteen minutes before the task started and there is no way that you would have been able to get one of them in time to set this up," Victoire replied.

"Who deed you use zen?" Noëlle asked Flannery.

He seemed to ignore Victoire's criticism and answered Noëlle's question instead, "If you would like to know who was picked Miss Varens, we can show you."

Flannery gestured to Mr Granville and he stood up and waved his wand. Victoire could hear the water gurgling from the lake, so she turned around in time to see a wooden platform rise up out of the water on the opposite side of the lake. It was wasn't what she assumed the system would look like –then again she'd been under the impression that their things were objects not people- but she would have noticed it had she seen it.

The peculiar thing about the wooden platform was that it was empty.

"Um, is there supposed to be people on there?" Victoire asked not at all jokingly.

Flannery and Mr Granville frowned at each other before Flannery said, "I don't understand. They should be right there."

Mr Granville waved his wand again and the wooden platform came zooming away from the lake and materialized beside the judges' platform. Kingsley (whom Victoire hadn't noticed was there until this moment) walked towards the platform and jumped onto it. He walked halfway across it before he stopped, frowned, and then bent down to pick something up. When he straightened up, his face was livid.

_Well, that's not good. I haven't seen Kingsley that angry since the older muggle boy down the road from the Burrow purposely pushed me off the swing set when I was five and I ended up with a broken collarbone._

Kingsley ran back to the judges' podium with a piece of parchment in his hand, "It's a note."

Flannery moved from his seat and walked over to Kingsley, "What's it say?"

By this time, more of the Aurors had circled around Kingsley and Victoire could specifically pick out her Uncle Harry and her Uncle Ron.

"It says: If you want your hidden objects back, then the champions are going to have to finish the task. Go to the undersea cave, but if it's anyone but the champions, things will turn grave. A person per person is the exchange, come quickly before we become downright deranged."

"Woz zat a reeddle?" Noëlle asked.

"It's a kidnapping note," Victoire said shocked. Partly because, well, hey, it's a kidnapping note, and partly because she recognized that rhyme scheme. She was about to step forward and look at the piece of parchment herself when she felt Teddy move out from where he'd been behind her and move to read the piece of parchment over Kingsley's shoulder. The look he sent her back, stopped her movements and instantly made her feel ice-cold. He'd recognized both the rhyme scheme and the writing too.

Teddy spoke to Kingsley, "Victoire's right it's definitely a kidnapping note. The weird thing is that they don't want any ransom though. They state that all they want is for the champions to go and collect whoever belongs to them."

Kingsley nodded and looked at Flannery, "See! This is why you should keep me informed of what the tasks are going to be. If you had told me, what was going on I could have had measures in place to make sure that whoever was kidnapped would have been safe. However, it seems to be too late for that now. So listen to me, and listen well Flannery, I need to know who the three people who were kidnapped are."

Flannery hated it when Kingsley tried to be the authoritative one. However, even he wasn't too dim to realize that this was now something that should be handled by the Auror department, "Mr Krum's person was his brother."

Kingsley nodded to Harry who had somehow produced a small notebook and quill and was beginning to write down notes.

"Miss Weasley's was Lily Potter-"

"WHAT!" Was shouted angrily by Victoire, Harry, Ron, Kingsley, Teddy, and even McGonagall from where she was still on the judges' raised platform.

Harry definitely was the most livid, "My nine-year-old daughter? Why in the world would you have picked her! I didn't even give you permission for that!"

"We didn't ask you. We approached your wife when she went to leave with your daughter to come here this morning. She didn't want to use her, but your daughter liked the idea of being in the task and was confident that her cousin would be able to find her. We promised that everything would be fine," Flannery shot Victoire a look here that she reciprocated with a scathing one of her own.

"Oh, so because a nine-year-old wanted to do it you thought that it was a great idea? She still believes in the tooth fairy for crying out loud! And why in the world would you pick her? I have four best friends that you could have used who were all over the age of sixteen, along with two siblings and seven cousins who are at least old enough to own a wand to protect themselves! But no. You pick the most vulnerable family member that I have, and one of the only two who's not even old enough to own a wand yet. Are you an absolute nutter?!" Victoire yelled at Flannery.

Flannery shot McGonagall a look as if she could reprimand Victoire for talking to him like that. If she noticed the look, McGonagall didn't say because she was too busy giving Flannery an evil look herself.

"Who's Miss Varens'?" Kingsley asked in a deadly quiet voice.

_Yup. He's pissed about Flannery using Lily too._

"Miss Varens' was her cousin Bruno Lavoie," Flannery told them.

Victoire was legitimately surprised at the loudness of Noëlle's shriek, "Es-tu fou!? Comment pourriez-vous faire quelque chose comme ça? Pourquoi dans le monde serait-vous choisi? Tu es un âne, et un salaud, et un bite!"

Victoire's eyes widened as Noëlle continued to swear at Flannery in French. Flannery had no idea what Noëlle was saying, so he turned to Madame Maxine in hope that she would translate. She just shook her head at him.

"I'll translate for you Minister. She pretty much said everything I just did about why would you pick, him, but she's throwing in a lot more colourful names, and even some swear words that I've never heard of before," Victoire told him venomously.

Noëlle's heated words quickly ran out of steam and she'd started crying as she switched into her accented English, "'Ow could you do somzeeng like zis? 'E is eight years old but besides zat 'e is Auteesteec. 'E 'as enough trouble tryeeng to understand wat eez goeeng on around 'im on a regular basees. 'E's probably ready to 'ave a paneec attack right about now. Eet's not az zough ze people zat took 'im are going to understand 'iz condeetion. 'E's een even more danger because 'e just does not understand!"

Noëlle was quickly getting hysterical. Flannery was too busy drowning in his own brilliant ideas to notice, and the Aurors had turned their anger into coming up with a game plan on how to proceed. Victoire was the only one who saw how close Noëlle was to a panic attack of her own. She walked over to her, laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, and then used her other hand to _lightly_ slap her across the face.

The slap ended up echoing and sounding as though it did more damage than it was actually meant to, so everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the two blonde girls.

Noëlle's mutterings had ended, but tears were still streaming down her face from her previous sadness, "Wot woz zat for?"

"That was because you need to pull it together Noëlle. Yes. Bruno's been kidnapped, I understand what you're feeling. Yes, he has Autism. That makes the situation exponentially worse. But he needs you right now okay? And he needs you in your best form. You're not going to be of any use to him if you're having a panic attack of your own right now," Victoire told her sternly.

Noëlle didn't have a chance to respond to Victoire's words because someone else had been listening to the pep talk and wanted to ask their own question.

"What do you mean 'be of use' Victoire?" Kingsley asked her as his black eyes studied his goddaughter minutely.

"Don't play dumb Kingsley. The note specifically says that the champions are the only people that they're going to allow to take back the kids," Victoire said to him.

Kingsley frowned and Victoire didn't recognize his facial expression, "No Victoire, you're not going."

_Did . . . did Kingsley just say 'no' to me?_

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, so a few things:

1.) I can't believe that you all thought that I'd make her item so mundane as a pair of sneakers. C'mon people, you have to have guessed that something interesting was coming up, it's been a while since Vic got into trouble after all.

2.) I know, I know it was a bit of a cliffie but I had to end it there 'cause if I didn't it would have been _very_ long.

3.) I wrote the CPR scene without really thinking, but there are new CPR guidelines out there that state that when giving CPR you actually shouldn't place your mouth against the unconscious person's. I thought about changing the scene to match, but then realized that most people would only really recognize the traditional CPR movements, so I left it in. Just remember that putting your mouth against the other person's and breathing is no longer considered proper technique.

4.) Okay, the tooth fairy thing . . . if there are people out there who still believe in it. Just so you know, it's totally real. I just wrote that in so that Vic could get her point across . . . sorry if that stepped on anyone's toes . . .

5.) Thank-you guys so much for being patient while I had midterms. Because you were all so fantastic, I decided to update earlier (I was planning on keeping my regular Wednesday schedule but I decided I made you wait long enough).

6.) I really wanted to give you all something special for being to patient these past few weeks, but since giving you another chapter besides this one isn't very feasible, I did the next best thing. If you have me one your Author Alerts you'll get a memo about this, but if you don't I'll tell you here:

I have posted (Literally a minute ago) **a new Teddy/Vic one-shot** and that is your gift for all of you being so patient and supportive. It's called **Walks in the Forest and Birthday Surprises** and there should be a link in my profile, and if there isn't, we'll it's not really hard to find a new Teddy/Vic pairing story on this site. It takes place before **Try and Tri Again**, but it would take place after my first one-shot **Lunch Dates and Sneak-o-scopes**.

I hope that you all will give it a look, and that you like it and leave me a review on it :)

**Next update**: Well we should get to the bottom of that cliffie . . .

A huge thank-you again to everyone who has favourited / followed / reviewed / enjoyed / and read!

An especially big thanks to:

**flutegirl98, confusednikki24-7, As the Robin Flies, mellypotter1223, hufflepuffPartierPrincess, Addicted-To-Sugar-Quills, Diamondgirl3, Guest, TedandVic4ever, MuggleCreator, WitAngerandBravery, Eighteen Inches, brilliant incandescence, AzNeRd, emmagraceling, Lizaluvsdoggies, marmar8089, Annabeth2011, EsaRavenclaw, xSuperNovax, Kara Lingam, RoLouG, HarryPotterNut94, ksrli, Alfredo412, sequinsplash, Mixuela, **and especially** _alicenotinwonderland, and YukiLovestoWrite._**

**Annabeth2011**: Ontario! (what about you?) Born, raised, and that's also the province where I'm at university! My twin brother went to Nova Scotia, so you can tell how far away he is from me :( I hope you enjoyed your commencement ;)

**alicenotinwonderland**: Wow, thanks so much for the awesomely long review. Usually I answer back to the really long ones but I hope that you'll excuse me for not answering because I'm doing some updating. Thank-you though, and keep the long reviews coming if you wish. I promise I'll have a better response next time.

**DFTBA everyone :)**


	69. Captured

**A/N**: Okay, so I know it's been . . . well . . . a long time. So, I won't make you wait much longer, enjoy this chapter, but stick around for my A/N at the end so that you can hear my predicament.

P.S. Didn't have time to edit this before posting so please ignore any horrible spelling and/or grammar mistakes that I made.

**Disclaimer**: JKR owns Harry Potter and everything associated with it. I just took her characters and gave them a new story to play in.

* * *

**Captured**

"No?"

"No. It's too dangerous and it's playing right into the hands of whoever kidnapped the kids."

"That's the point! We're meeting their demands so we can get back what we want!"

"But that can't be all that they want. Think about it Vic. They didn't just kidnap the kids for fun, there has to be a bigger picture to this," Kingsley reasoned.

"I have thought about this, but going through with what the note says is the only thing that makes sense. There's no connection between the kidnapped kids besides their relation to the champions. Heck, they have Harry Potter's daughter and they said that they'd just give her right back. Whatever they want it's from the champions."

"This is exactly why it would be wrong for you guys to go. It would put you guys in danger also."

"But at least we signed up for this! The only person out of the three who can do magic is Valentin and we don't know if he's even in any state to do that!"

"We're not just going to leave them there. We'll send Aurors to go in-"

"But the note specifically says that it has to be the champions. If you won't let me go but you'll send an Auror, good luck getting them to look like me. You know perfectly well how my genes react with polyjuice potion," Victoire pointed out.

Kingsley did know how her genes reacted with polyjuice potion. Mainly that they didn't react well. At all. You'd be lucky if the potion didn't blow up in your face because the mix of Veela and werewolf genes wouldn't allow for her physical characteristics to be duplicated.

Kingsley sighed, "It's not like all of you champions can just go by yourself. Besides, Konstantin's down for the count right now and you two girls wouldn't be able to bring Valentin and the two kids back on your own seeing as we don't know what you're walking into."

Victoire crossed her arms in front of her chest, "What if Noëlle and I didn't go alone? What if we went with someone that looked just like Konstantin?"

"You already pointed out the flaws of polyjuice potion Victoire. Yes it would essentially work with Konstantin's hair, but it would take way too long to get a hold of, and it has to be taken every hour on the hour and we don't know how long this could take," Kingsley told her.

"So we won't use polyjuice potion then," Victoire answered easily.

Flannery decided to put his two cents worth in at this point, "Brilliant idea Miss Weasley. So, besides appearance changing charms which wouldn't make a person look exactly like Mr Krum, what do you suggest is done to have an exact duplicate of Mr Krum?"

Victoire didn't bother to acknowledge Flannery with an answer. She just looked at the tall Auror behind Kingsley's broad shoulder. Kingsley had followed her gaze and turned around. He was frowning when he looked back at Victoire, but oddly enough it looked more like defeat then disappointment.

"Fine. Auror Lupin will accompany both girls on a mission to get the kids back."

Flannery still looked confused, "I thought you said that polyjuice potion wouldn't work? How are you expecting your auror to look like Mr Krum?"

Kingsley nodded at Teddy as if to say 'show-him' and right before everyone's eyes Teddy transformed into Konstantin. He shrank a few inches, bulked up a bit, his eyes became green, and his hair shortened and became an even darker black than the one he'd been wearing that day. His nose grew out a bit, his eyebrows grew heavier, and his jaw became squarer. He looked just like Konstantin yet, somehow Victoire felt that there was something off.

"How'd I do?" Teddy asked. He didn't bother to put on an accent. Konstantin was a quiet guy and the fact that he didn't have the greatest grasp on the English language would come in handy. Victoire didn't know what they would have to encounter, but if whoever it was didn't expect Konstantin to speak much, then Teddy could get away without trying to put on a horrible accent that would just blow their cover.

"You look just like him," Harry said before motioning with his finger for Teddy to spin in a circle. Teddy looked like he wanted to roll his eyes but refrained. Whether out of professionalism, or respect because Harry's his godfather, Victoire wasn't sure.

"Zo, I 'ave a queztion," Noëlle said in a quiet voice commandeering everyone's attention.

"W'ere eez zis underwater cave zing?"

Victoire shrugged her shoulders and looked at everyone else, "I've got no idea."

Teddy shook his –now Konstantin's actually- head, "I don't know."

Everyone looked at Kingsley and McGonagall next, McGonagall answered, "There's a sort of crevice near the back of the lake hidden by boulders. If you would swim through the crevice and up, you would reach a cave filled with air. That's the only thing that I can think of that would be considered an underwater cave."

"Is it possible for us to _apparate_ directly into the cave?" Teddy asked McGonagall.

She shrugged, "Theoretically, yes. However, none of you has actually been there so I'm not sure how well that would work. Also, whoever these people are that took the children are probably smart enough to put up _anti-apparation _and _anti-disapparating_ wards."

"So we won't be able to _apparate_ directly there, but do you think that we'd be able to _disapparate _out from it?" Victoire asked.

"That depends if you think you'd be able to break down whatever wards they'll have," McGonagall told them honestly.

Victoire and Teddy shared a look. They both knew that if they had the chance or the time they'd try to see if they could break the wards down. It would give them a chance to get out of the place fast, and depending on how soon they did it, it could also help if they needed back up.

"'Ow are we goeeng to get zere zen? I don't zink zat apparateeng eento water weell be az eazy az dizapparateeng from eet," Noëlle asked.

Teddy shot Noëlle a glance. Victoire could tell that he wasn't sure about having her come with them. Not only was he probably worried about her safety, but also he was also probably worried about whether she'd be of practical use. He knew that she was a formidable witch in her own right, but he also knew that familial emotions could mess up even the most weathered and capable wizard or witch's capabilities.

"How do you feel about flying on a broomstick?" Teddy asked her giving her another considering look.

The corners of Noëlle's lips actually turned up a little, "Eet'z ze bezt."

Teddy nodded, only slightly surprised that she would like flying. Having known Victoire for his entire life he knew better than to judge people based on their appearances. He especially knew that most pretty girls were much different from what their exteriors may lead people to believe.

"Then we'll probably all take brooms there, but we'll have to use side-along _apparation_ to get out. Think you can handle that?"

Noëlle nodded, "Oui."

"Lupin?"

Teddy turned away from Noëlle to look at Kingsley who was walking over to him. Since he was about to go on what he guess could be considered his first 'solo' mission, he knew that Kingsley was about to give him strict instructions.

The head of the Auror Office's face was unreadable. It was an expression Teddy knew that Kingsley had to wear anytime he was doing something in a working capacity, "You're in charge of five civilians."

Teddy nodded.

"I know it might get personal since Lily's there . . . but you know what's expected of you."

Teddy nodded again.

"Any information about the people who took the kids will be helpful, but this is a recovery mission first and foremost. Get in, get the kids, and get out."

Another nod.

Kingsley sighed and Teddy thought that he might have seen a bit of a crack in his professional facial expression, "I'm going to tell Victoire that she's supposed to do everything that you say . . ."

"But you don't expect her to actually listen to that, do you?" Teddy asked shrewdly.

"No, probably not. It's just . . . she's good enough to be an auror as it is. Merlin knows that I pretty much made her go through a condensed version of the auror training program last summer as it was, but . . . she's not an auror. She's still a student and she's an impulsive one at that. You're going to have to work with her and you'd better take advantage of her skills and cunning, but you're the auror. You're in charge. She has to do as you say and you have to make sure that she knows that. I don't expect you to get into a problem with her, but if one does arise . . . you have to be assertive," Kingsley said.

He knew that Ted was a good auror and he trusted that he'd be able to get everyone back all right. However, he also knew that he had a habit of going soft on Victoire. Kingsley couldn't fault the young man for it. He himself and pretty much everyone else in his goddaughter's life from her parents, to her uncles and aunts, and even to her professors and McGonagall usually just let her do what she wanted. He knew that Ted had the capabilities to be strict with Victoire, he just wasn't sure if -after all the two had been through together- that Ted would use them.

Kingsley moved away from Ted to look at Victoire and Noëlle a distance away from him. He spoke a little louder than he had to Ted so that both girls could hear him clearly.

"Miss Varens, Miss Weasley, I take it that you both understand how dangerous this mission could end up being?"

Two blonde heads nodded.

"I also take it that since you recognize the danger that you will make sure to heed Mr Lupin's every warning and that you will do everything that he says."

Noëlle nodded her head quickly but Victoire just narrowed her eyes at Kingsley suspiciously. He sighed, he knew that this was going to take a lot of convincing, "Right Victoire? You're going to do _everything _that Ted tells you to do?"

"Of course," Victoire answered easily.

"Good. So you promise –you swear- to do everything that he tells you? To follow his every instruction?"

"Do you doubt that I would?"

"Premeditatedly? No. In the moment of things because you think that you could do something that would help even though he has instructed you not to, yes," Kingsley answered simply.

Victoire looked at him in frustration, "But if I _can_ help-"

"No Victoire. That right there is what I'm talking about. Ted makes all of the final decisions and you will do what he says. There will be consequences if you don't."

Victoire gritted her teeth. She knew that Kingsley was just doing his job and was trying to make sure that everything would go down smoothly, but she hated how he was inferring that she'd just disobey every instruction she'll be given. She only let it slide because she knew that he was probably freaking out over the idea that something bad was going to happen on this mission.

"Fine, I swear that I'll do anything that Ted tells me to do."

Kingsley nodded; he knew that she didn't fully understand but that was a huge load off his mind, "Good."

* * *

"Is this it?" Victoire asked as she stopped her Firebolt above the murky water.

Teddy (still looking like Konstantin) and Noëlle came up quickly beside her on their own brooms. They stopped beside her and the both of them squinted as they tried to see through the dark lake.

"I think so. This looks like the area McGonagall described," Teddy, answered.

"'Ow can you guyz tell?" Noëlle asked.

Victoire shrugged, "McGonagall just said that it was about a ten minute broom ride out and that we should be directly across from the notch on the other side of the embankment."

"Wot?"

"Never mind. We just understood her descriptions. This should be the place," Ted said.

Since they'd decided that, it was the right place Teddy jumped into the water first and was closely followed by both of the girls. When they were all in the water, Teddy gave Victoire a signal to banish the brooms back to Hogwarts. He would have done it himself but they both knew that she was better at banishing charms than him.

The three of the dove down deeper into the water –all of them equipped with bubblehead charms- and began swimming to the bottom of the lake. Teddy had wanted to make sure that he was in front, and without him having to tell her Victoire made sure that she was in the back; keeping an eye out for any changes as they went. Once they got to the bottom of the lake, they converted into a smaller grouping. They swam to the large piles of rocks that were directly ahead of them, and when they were about five metres away, Victoire moved her hand out and grabbed onto Teddy's forearm.

He stopped swimming and raised an eyebrow at her, "Yes?"

"I should go in first."

Teddy frowned, "Victoire I'm the auror here-"

Even though she knew that it was rude to cut him off, she knew that it had to be done if they wanted to be quick, "I'm not disputing that Teddy. But you're also supposed to be Konstantin and out of the three of us champions I'm sure whoever took the kids would be expecting me to lead the way, and would be expecting me to do most of the talking."

He sighed. Her logic made sense. It didn't matter whom it was that took the kids; they would all expect Victoire Weasley to be the lead in the rescue group to get them back.

"Fine. But you don't do, or even say anything without me giving you a 'go-ahead' signal, got it?" he told her sternly trying to make sure that she understood the gravity of the situation. He didn't doubt that she did, but he needed to know for his own sake that he'd made sure that she understood the danger they may get into to.

"Got it."

"And you especially do not go off on your own."

Victoire's blonde eyebrows furrowed, "Do you think that I would?"

Teddy ran a hand through his –much shorter than normal- hair and told her quietly, "I don't like this situation. I especially didn't like looking at the _note_. There has to be a bigger plot to this, and I'm afraid that it may have something to do with you."

Victoire nodded. Neither of them was sure what the other notes she'd received had to do with any of this but she had to agree that the whole situation seemed shady.

"I promise not to go off anywhere by myself," she told his sincerely.

"Good. Because if you do I'm definitely going to get Kingsley and Bill to put you into a protective bubble."

He didn't wait for a response from her and just gestured for her to swim ahead of him to the outcropping of rocks. Once the three of them were there it didn't take them long to find the crevice that they assumed acted as the opening. At first glance, Victoire wasn't sure if Teddy would fit through the crevice but after she herself squeezed in, she felt both him and Noëlle coming through right behind her. They ended up in a semi-circular chamber filled with water. It was so dark that Victoire had to light her wand just so she could figure out which way was up.

"W'ere do we go from 'ere?" Noëlle asked Teddy quietly.

Victoire felt Teddy's eyes flicker to her face when he went to answer Noëlle, "I'm pretty sure that we go up."

Victoire moved her wand arm around a bit; letting her wand cast light on the walls around them, before she nodded in agreement, "We definitely can't go in any other direction around here. It's all rock. The only way out it seems, is either up or back through the way we came."

"I'm going to swim up first and look. If the coast is clear, I'll motion for the two of you to come up. Victoire should get out first, and then you Noëlle," Teddy told them as he pulled his wand out and lit it.

He was only gone for a few seconds before Victoire saw bolt of blue light shine down towards them from up above.

"That's his signal," Victoire told Noëlle before swimming upwards.

She only had to swim a few metres before she saw the bottom half of Teddy's body floating above her. She kicked her feet out a little harder so that she could swim up to him faster. She came up right next to him and took a deep breath as her head came above the surface of the water. Noëlle came up a few seconds later, also taking a deep breath. Her bubblehead charm dissolved as soon as it touched the air. Victoire looked around and saw that they were in a little pool of water right next to some sort of platform and a tunnel made of rock.

"So this is the cave?" she asked Teddy quietly over her shoulder as she swam to the semi-dry platform.

"Must be," he responded back as he swam with her closer to the edge of the pool.

She placed her elbows up on the surface of the rock ledge, but didn't know what to do next. The rocks right next to her were much to jagged for her to use as a foothold for her to pull herself the rest of the way out of the water and onto into the sort of dry tunnel.

As if Teddy could read her thoughts, she felt his hands move to her waist and grab a hold of her body there. He then used his muscles to push her body upward so that she could have better slightly better leverage to pull herself the rest of the way up to the solid rock floor near the entrance of the tunnel.

Once she was out of the water, she felt goose-bumps rise up on her skin. The air in the cave was much colder than the temperature of the water, even for February. She turned to cast a glance at the dark tunnel, and when she turned back, she saw Noëlle being helped out of the pool of water by Teddy in the same capacity that he'd helped her a minute ago. She didn't mean to but when she saw his hands on her waist, her eyes narrowed.

_Calm down Vic. This is not the time to get jealous. He's just helping her out of the water._

Sadly, Victoire was never the best at talking herself out of her own jealousy. She walked over to the edge of the pool again and made sure that _she_ was there to give Teddy a hand as he came out of the water before Noëlle had the chance to offer him _her_ help.

Once they were all out of the water, their attention went to the tunnel before them.

"'Ow far do you theenk zis tunnel goes?" Noëlle asked quietly.

"Not sure, but it's really dark and I think that we should only light one wand. We don't know what's on the other side of the tunnel or what we're may run into. We don't want to give away any chance we may have to have the opportunity of surprise," Teddy said.

"'Ow are we goeeng to get zrough eef we only use one wand zough?"

"We'll hold hands," Victoire said doing a good job of masking the sadness in her voice. She knew that if she were going to be in the front for this then Teddy would insist on being in the back. Meaning that Noëlle would be in the middle and that they'd both be holding her hands. Noëlle's eyes widened a little in surprise at the plan but Victoire didn't give her much time to think. She grabbed her hand and began to tow her into the tunnel. She knew that Teddy had attached himself to the line at the end when she felt her own faster pace slow slightly with his intervention.

Their walk through the tunnel was slow and quiet after Victoire thought to cast a few silencing charms on the ground below their feet. The tunnel had been rather straight so Victoire automatically walked slower when she saw that there was a bend up ahead. She stopped just before the corner, dropped Noëlle's hand, and pressed her front against the rock wall so that when she went to look around the corner only her head would be visible.

"Wat eez eet?" Noëlle asked.

"_Shh_."

Noëlle's voice hadn't been very loud but Victoire knew that any sound in the quiet tunnel would probably carry. It seemed that Teddy knew it too. He dropped Noëlle's hand took a few steps passed her and stood directly behind Victoire from where she was mushed against the wall. He placed his hands on either side of her head and breathed into her ear, "Let your light out."

"_Nox_," Victoire whispered quietly.

The light from her wand disappeared but then they were able to see that there was some light coming in from around the corner. Together Victoire and Teddy moved slightly so they could see past the edge of the wall and look around the corner.

Victoire had to bite her lip to stop an exclamation from escaping her mouth when she saw what was around the corner.

The end of the tunnel opened into a medium sized antechamber. It was square in size and just past the wider end of the room, the walls seemed to narrow again until it connected to another dark tunnel. The source of the light in the room came from the muggle-looking lantern that sat in the middle of the otherwise dark chamber. There wasn't much light but it was enough to make the three occupants of the room visible to both Victoire and Teddy.

Teddy clamped his hand down hard on Victoire's arm as they took in the scene. He wasn't too happy with what he saw either but he knew that she was three seconds away from running headlong into the room and he couldn't allow her to do that. At least not without checking to make sure that there weren't, any sort of detecting spells or wards between them and the three. He pulled his wand out and muttered the standard spells that he and every other auror before him had been taught to use when heading into an enemy's home field. The spells didn't let off any of the visual or auditory cues that would have accompanied a potentially dangerous or obstructing ward, so Teddy dropped his hand from Victoire's arm, took a step back from her to give her room, and let her dash off into the chamber.

Once Noëlle had seen that Victoire had entered the room she ran past Teddy without a word to see for the first time herself what was in the chamber. Teddy knew that the strangled sounding gasp he heard next was from her.

He shook his head and took a second to make sure that he was in 'auror mode' before walking into the room. His gaze skimmed the room and he felt his chest lighten a bit. Everyone looked fine. Closest to him was Noëlle. She was kneeling on the ground and whispering soothing French words into a little boy's ear. The boy had his hands around his head and was rocking back and forth on his heels as he cried. At first Teddy didn't think that the boy realized that Noëlle was next to him, but when she gently removed his hands from his head, he buried his wet face into her neck and cried into the tight embrace that she was pulling him into. A little, further into the room Victoire was doing exactly what he expected her to be doing. Little Lily Potter was clinging to her waist but she was oddly quiet as she watched her elder cousin with her big brown eyes.

Victoire was trying to calm Lily down with reassuring words all the while she was kneeling next to a conscious yet half-sitting half-reclining Valentin Krum who had blood on his head. When Teddy and she had first looked into the room, Victoire had wanted to gasp aloud at the sight of the blood near Valentin's head. What little they saw of the three before Victoire entered was Valentin trying to calm both children down, but he was still wincing every once and a while from the pain of whatever head injury he'd sustained.

Now that she was there, she'd gone into her own –untrained- version of her Aunt Angelina's 'healer mode' and was checking over Valentin's injuries. Teddy knew that Noëlle had her charge under control so he went to help Victoire with the other two.

He saw Valentin's dark eyes flash as they saw him and until that moment, he'd almost forgotten that he'd morphed so that he looked exactly like Konstantin. He knew that Valentin was probably gathering strength from his _brother's_ presence but he also knew that once he spoke to Victoire –and he had every intention to in the next moment- that it would shatter that feeling.

"What's the damage?" Teddy asked in a quiet voice. He had a little hope that it wouldn't travel enough for Valentin to hear, but they were at such close quarters that that hope was baseless.

Valentin's eyes narrowed in confusion but beside him, between him and Victoire, Lily looked up at him with wide brown eyes.

"Teddy?" she asked in a disbelieving voice before her elder cousin could answer his question.

Teddy let a brief smile cross his face for the nine year old's sake. He gave her a quick wink too, "Hey Silly Lily, are you okay?"

Lily's face brightened and she let go of Victoire's side so that she could throw herself into Teddy's arms, "Teddy! Did Daddy send you?"

Teddy nodded at her but then glanced back at Victoire. They needed to get out of there fast and he needed to know if Valentin was in any shape to move.

Victoire read his actions perfectly, again, and went back to preforming a spell over Valentin's head before she answered him, "He should be fine. Head wounds bleed more than pretty much any other wound. It's fairly superficial. I healed what was there, but he'll probably feel a bit light headed from the loss of blood. He'll need a blood replenishing potion, and probably a full physical by an actual certified healer or medi-witch when we get back."

Teddy nodded, "So he's good to move?"

"Yup."

"Vou are not Konstantin," Valentin said in a rough voice. It had most likely been a while since any of the three had had something to eat or even drink.

Teddy shook his head, "No, I'm not. I'm an auror. We got a note from whoever took you three that said that each champion had to come to get you three back. Konstantin's fine but he's not in any condition to come get you. I'm an auror that they chose to impersonate him so that we could get all of you back."

Valentin nodded; he still seemed a little distracted by the fact that there was a person in front of him who looked just like his older brother but wasn't, but he brushed off Victoire's offer to help him and he stood up on his own accord. She wasn't perturbed by this and left Valentin so that she could go talk to Noëlle and make sure that her cousin hadn't been injured.

Teddy stood up also and set Lily down on her feet so that his wand was more easily available. His movement caught Valentin's eye and the younger man sighed.

"They took your wand didn't they?" Teddy asked shrewdly.

"Ves, vey did not vant us going anvere," Valentin told him.

"Why weren't you all tied up or something though? The fact that you were all just lying around, especially when the exit is just over there, is very weird," Victoire said coming back over to the two men. She had her wand in her left hand and Lily's was clamping her right hand hard. Just behind them, Teddy could see Noëlle standing with her wand in her hand but with her younger cousin on her hip.

"Vey had us chained us up a virst but ven I convinced vem to let us go because I pointed out vat ve younger children would be more likely to hurt vemselves vrom such constriction and vey let us out," Valentin told her.

Teddy's eyebrow's furrowed and Victoire voiced his own suspicions before he could, "So they didn't want you guys to be hurt? But then how did you end up with that head injury?"

"I tried to vight vem off at virst but vey quvickly overpowered me and took my vand. Vey injured me ven because I vaould not play nice, but they did not vant us to get hurt anymore so vey let us out of the chains."

"Zose chains over zere?" Noëlle asked him pointing towards a series of ancient looking iron chains that were attached to the far side of the wall. There was one set that seemed to be lower to the ground as if it was to be used for ankles, and then there was a set that was much higher up and seemed as though it was made more for an adult than for a five year old and a nine year old.

"But that still doesn't make sense. Why place you so close to the exit, relatively freed? It made it too easy for us to come and retrieve you," Victoire said perplexed. The actions of the kidnapper(s) weren't making much sense to her.

"Well will you look at that; beauty, _and_ brains."

Everyone's head whipped to the tunnel on the opposite side of the room from the one they'd entered through. Standing there were five wizards with their wands drawn. The man in the middle must have been the one who had spoken because he had a sarcastic expression on his face. The two men flanking him on either side had harsh expressions on their faces and their wands were clenched tightly in their hands.

Victoire's blue eyes flitted over each man briefly before coming to rest on the man in the middle. For the life of her, she couldn't pick out specific physical characteristics about any of the men to commit to memory. They all seemed to be about the same build and height, with only varying shades of brown as hair colour, and with regular nondescript facial features. The fact that they were dressed in regular black wizard's robes with not even a design label visible made it even more difficult for her to try to fix on something to remember them by for when they left.

"I dearly hope that you're not expecting me to thank you for that compliment. Because it was rather anything but," Victoire said in an almost bored tone as she addressed the man in the middle. She might have put on an uninterested mask but she clutched Lily's hand tighter within her own. She had even shared a brief look with Teddy –to make sure that he knew that she was going to speak- before answering the men in front of them.

"I can't say that I expected you to thank me Miss Weasley. You seem to already be well enough aware of your charms that you don't need anybody to explain to you which qualities they believe you do or do not have," the man in the middle said with a half-smile as he crossed his arms against his chest. The look on his face made him seem as though he was there just to have a pleasant conversation, and it was in direct contrast to the hard looks on the other four men's faces as they stood with their wands pointed at Victoire's group.

"Az much az I'm enjoyeeng zis converzation. I zink zat eet's time zat we go," Noëlle said taking note of the men's wands but not with a very worried look.

"Ah, well I must thank you Miss Varens. You brought us right to the crux of our little problem," the man said.

"What problem? You said that if the champions came we could take our family members back," Victoire said slowly.

The man chuckled and then eyed the group interestedly, "I'm very sorry Miss Weasley, but I think you and your _friends_ read our little note wrong. I do believe what was written was '_A person per person is the exchange_'. Therefore, if you want your family members to go free, we'll need people to stay to take their place."

Victoire shot Teddy a panicky look. He gave her a more calming look back and then nodded at her to speak back to the man.

"Very clever of you. So you five are planning to keep us all here?" Victoire said contemptuously. She knew that keeping a cool façade in the eyes of these people was important, but she was really worried. It was five wizards with a wand to three of them. Sure, Teddy might be an auror and both she and he have practiced dueling more than one person at once, but they still had Bruno, Lily, and Valentin who were all without wands and whose safety they had to worry about.

"If need be Miss Weasley, yes we will use force. However, I don't think any of us want it to come to that. We kept up our end of the bargain and made sure that all of the children were taken care of . . . with the exception of Mr Valentin Krum's head injury of course. But he should have known better than to try to pull his wand."

"So you don't expect us to fight back? You expect the six of us to just stay here? What do you even want us for? What do you have to gain from the six of us?" Victoire asked; she needed to know these people's motive. She knew that her parents, Harry and Ginny, and the Krums might be considered upper class fortune wise, but she had no idea how much money Noëlle's parents had. She couldn't imagine though that together the six of them would be worth much if the concept of the kidnapping were monetary gain, which she didn't exactly believe.

"Miss Weasley I think you should get your hearing checked. I never said that all six of you had to stay," the man said an infuriatingly normal looking smirk creeping across his face.

If they weren't in such a potentially dangerous and rather perplexing situation, Victoire was sure that she would have moved forward and slapped the smirk off of the annoying man's face, "Oh, my mistake, you only need three of us, the three champions to be specific, and the only ones who have wands."

The man's smirk grew into a full-blown grin, "No Miss Weasley, that wouldn't be very fair of us would it? Especially, if there was only actually one person whom we truly need to keep. No, I think my men and I here would gladly allow five of you to safely leave for the trade of just one person. Sounds like a bargain does it not?"

"And 'oo exactleey do you want to keep? You muzt already 'ave an idea," Noëlle said unconsciously squeezing little Bruno closer to her.

"Yes, we do Miss Varens, and it shouldn't be too difficult for all of you to figure out either. Who, out of you three champions, is more than worth five others?"

Victoire didn't look at Teddy this time before answering, "What do you want with me?"

The man's smile was now blinding in its brightness, "That is for us to know, and for you to find out Miss Weasley. However, we will let you know when these other five leave."

Victoire frowned. Not at what the man said –which she more less expected to hear from him- but from the heat of Teddy's eyes on her back. She couldn't stand it so she turned slightly so that she could see his face.

Even through Konstantin's rather darker and harsher features, Victoire could see the anger on Teddy's face. He didn't like that the man had confirmed his suspicions about the kidnappers' ulterior motives, and he especially didn't like what he knew she was going to do about it.

She bit her lip and she turned her back on Teddy's strict face, "Fine. I'll stay. Just let everyone else leave."

Victoire closed her eyes as soon as the words were out of her mouth and expected the outburst that followed. She was just surprised for which quarter it came from.

"NO VIC!" Lily yelled anxiously letting go of Victoire's and hand so she could throw herself at her cousin and lock her arms around her waist, "You can't stay," she cried as tears began to leak out of her big brown eyes.

"She ees right Victoire, you cannot stay-" Noëlle started before Victoire cut her off with a pointed look.

"Well since it's the only way that all off you are going to be able to leave safely, I _am _staying," Victoire said facing Noëlle specifically even though Teddy knew that the words were meant for her.

_Please Teddy, just let me do this. Just get everyone else out safe before coming back to get me. Please just get everyone out first; I can handle whatever is going to happen._

Victoire beseeched with her eyes as she turned so that she was now facing him. She knew that he couldn't understand everything that she wanted him to know, but she _did_ know that he would recognize the pleading in her eyes.

"Alright, now that we have that settled, two of my men here will escort you out through the way you came, while I get better acquainted with Miss Weasley here," the man said speaking more to two of his men than to them.

Victoire wasn't very fond of the way the man said 'get better acquainted with' but she wasn't going to let neither the man, nor Teddy know that she was worried.

One man on either side of the man in the middle moved and gestured for Noëlle, Bruno, Valentin, Teddy, and Lily to go through the tunnel on the closer side of the room.

Victoire watched them leave until she couldn't even see a shadow on the wall of the tunnel. When she was sure that they were gone she turned back to face the three men who had stayed in the room with her. Her body seemed to be at ease but she still had her wand held tightly in her left hand; her knuckles were white from the strain of her hold on the smooth wood.

"Now Miss Weasley, I think that we're going to be spending a lot of time together now, so may I call you Victoire?" the man asked looking too relaxed to be in a kidnapping/hostage situation.

Victoire made a mental note to remember that he'd actually just pronounced her name correctly, before speaking, "You may if I could get a name by which I can call you. 'The man in the middle' just doesn't seem to fit your more animated presence."

The man was still smiling –what he no doubt assumed was- charmingly at Victoire, "Did a man not once say '_a rose by any other name would smell as sweet_'?"

Victoire narrowed her blue eyes at the man.

_Did he just reference Shakespeare? That seems very . . . Muggle for this situation. . ._

"Yes, however I have no name to call you in the first place."

"Very well," the man said, "For our purposes, you can call me John."

"John, how average of a name," Victoire responded in a lofty voice.

"Yet it's all that you're going to get out of me."

"Very well then. So where do we go from here?" Victoire asked her tone starting to get acidic. She was getting tired of the fake friendliness.

"How about we go straight to the part where I tell you what we want from you?" the man asked slowly take a step closer to her.

"Perfect. That's exactly what I've been waiting for, for the past hour," Victoire said taking a step back from his slowly advancing figure.

"However, there's one little detail we have to take care of first," the man said his eyes shooting to the long wand she held in her hand for the first time.

Victoire clutched her wand even tighter and cast a non-verbal counter-charm to the '_expelliarmus_' she expected to come.

Therefore, she was very shocked when she found herself flung against the hard rock wall, her wand scattered from her hand, and her limbs suddenly became incapacitated.

* * *

Yeah, I know, not nice of me to end it there. Sorry again but I kind of had too.

**A/N:** Okay, so I have this little problem. Apparently, in university there is no such thing as _'free time'_ when you're taking a science degree.

Who knew? So yeah, I literally don't have time to do you want to know why?

Well, I have at least one midterm or exam once a week for the next five weeks when my term ends (ergo I have eight more midterms or final exams in total until term finishes). And any 'free time' I would have had (meaning anytime after I finish all of my labs or assignments or homework) I'll be spending it studying for what ever test is coming up next, or eating or sleeping ('cause that stuff's important too).

So, yeah, no time to write. I'll try to squeeze in some time, but I don't know if it will be very possible. I'm not saying that it will be five weeks before the next update (I have one almost finished so I'll probably post it in two and a half week's time so that there's a bit of a reprieve in between) but I won't be updating as nicely as I had been.

Sorry again for the last hiatus, again, lots of school work. But thank you for everyone who has stayed with me, and I hope that you'll be patient for the rest of the story now that you know what the updating schedule will be like. (Basically that there really won't be one until term is done.)

As of when I updated this my review count was at 917 reviews and that is **so amazing**. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed (even if some of you were expressing your disappointment that I hadn't updated) and I hope that the next few that I get will be everyone saying what they liked about this chapter.

Oh, and to those of you who asked in your reviews, yes I've been watching Vlogbrothers, haven't seen them all yet, and I don't think I'm a complete Nerdfighter yet, more like a Nerdfighter in training, but I hope to get there before the year's out.

(For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about . . . if you like to watch English Youtube videos [not trying to be rude or ignorant or anything because I'm not sure how many people translate this] you should look them up, just type Vlogbrothers into the search bar and enjoy what you see.)

And Lastly, I know that this was a bad place to end it, but it was getting long and (I'll tell you this now) the next chap is a bit more of Teddy's view of things, so this was where I had to cut it.

Thanks again to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, favourited, and has been (and will hopefully) be waiting patiently for me to update next. You guys are the best and **DFTBA! **

(again, if you're confused, look up the Vlogbrothers and you'll understand that acronym)


	70. Rescue Mission

**A/N:** Well, here's the update, and you guys only had to wait three weeks! Enjoy, and please see my A/N at the end.

* * *

**Rescue Mission**

_I am going to kill Victoire._

_No, that's a lie._

_First, I'm going to go rescue her arse from whatever danger she's in right now. _

_Then, I'm going to help Kingsley and Bill force her into some sort of magical protective bubble. _

Then _I'm going to kill her for deciding to stay behind while she made the rest of us leave._

Teddy's mind was rambling in an attempt to calm himself down so that he didn't do something stupid like barging into the cave and being caught for the second time when he was actually trying to save Victoire. Whoever the men were, the two that had taken him, Lily, Valentin, Noëlle, and Bruno out of the cave couldn't have been a part of the planning of the kidnapping, because they definitely weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. The two men had walked them to the pool of water on the other side of the tunnel and told them to leave. They didn't even bother following them out to make sure that they had fully _disapparated_.

_Idiots._

Teddy had made sure that they had followed the men's instructions until they were out of the cave. After that, Teddy turned to Noëlle the same moment she had turned to face him.

He opened his mouth to speak but she had beat him to it, "You can't juzt leave 'er zere!"

Teddy barely allowed himself a minute to wonder about why Noëlle was worried about Victoire's safety when a month ago he was pretty sure that they hated each, before answering, "I won't, but I've got to get all of you back to dry ground first before I come back for her."

"No. Zey could move 'er before zat. I weell _apparate_ ze keeds back, and you weell go back zere right now and get 'er out," Noëlle said firmly.

"Do you think that you can _apparate_ all three of them back?" Teddy asked skipping over her commanding tone because if she were up to it he'd follow her rules and go get Victoire right now.

"I would 'ave to do eet separately but I weell try. I'll apparate Bruno back first while Valentin watches Leely. Zen I weell come back, take Leely, and zen I weell get Valentin."

"Okay. After you _apparate_ back with Valentin, make sure to tell Kingsley Shacklebolt about everything that you remember about this situation. Make sure that he knows that I'm going to get Victoire, but tell him that if we're not back a half hour after you get there, to send in reinforcements," Teddy said as he screwed up his face so that he could morph out of Konstantin's features and back to his normal ones. The only characteristic he kept was the black hair. It was always smarter to go inconspicuous when one was on a rescue mission.

Noëlle nodded, "I weell do zat."

"Good luck," Teddy responded before turning his back on them and swimming back into the hidden cave, and then up to the pool of water. He pulled himself out and then quickly cast a drying charm on himself so that not even water dripping off himself would cause a sound as he attempted to sneak back through the caves to find Victoire.

He was halfway through the first dark tunnel when he heard the low hum of people talking. Teddy quickly cast a disillusionment charm before slowly proceeding forward. A few feet in front of him in the dark tunnel were the two men who had 'escorted' them out a few minutes ago. Because of his disillusionment charm and the darkness of the tunnel, he knew that neither man could see him; and since he had put a silencing charm on the ground below his feet, he knew that they couldn't hear him either. He shot two wordless stunning spells at the men and made sure to put a silencing spell on the ground around them so that when they fell they wouldn't make a noise. He cast a swift _incarcerous_ on both of the men and then jogged past them to the corner right before the end of the tunnel. He flattened himself against the wall as he and Victoire had earlier, and then peeked around the corner. His stomach churned at what he saw.

Victoire was backed against the wall on the right of the room. Her wrists were chained against the wall with the ominous looking shackles that Valentin had pointed out when they were there earlier, and her wand was on the floor closer to where Teddy was at the edge of the tunnel than to her. He eyed her discarded wand worriedly. He knew that she was capable of doing magic without it, but he was also worried about how it had been lost from her. He knew that she knew better than to allow some simple _expelliarmus_ to take away her wand, so they must have really surprised her to be able to get her wand away from her and chain her up.

Victoire may have been chained up against the wall, but she didn't seem to be panicking yet. She was eyeing the man across from her –the one whom the other men had flanked and whom Teddy assumed was the leader, who was either elected to that position or not- with a haughty expression. She was looking him straight in the eyes and her ocean-blue orbs had done the impossible and turned to ice. The man was smirking back at her, obviously enjoying the superiority that her incapacitation gave him, and Teddy had to listen hard to catch the conversation between them that was going on.

"Alright, well while I'm here, how about you let me know why exactly you want me here," Victoire said airily as if she were there for some sort of family gathering.

"You mean besides for your charming conversation and personality?" the man asked as he crossed his arms against his chest. Teddy noticed that his wand was still in his grip, but it wasn't in a spot where he'd be able to cast a spell right away. Teddy considered that this could be a good thing; it meant that he didn't find Victoire a threat, and that he was underestimating her magical abilities.

Victoire moved her head and tried to flip away the silvery-blonde pieces of her hair that had escaped her ponytail over the chaos of the last several hours, "You didn't need to chain me up if you just wanted a piece of my sparkling wit."

"Au contraire Victoire. I don't believe that you would have given me let alone any other of my men the time of day if I'd gone up to you under any other circumstances."

Victoire finally rolled her eyes, "Let's just cut to the chase shall we? Why did you go through all of the trouble and hassle of kidnapping three kids, just to end up with little ol' me?"

"I've said it before but I'll say it again, you are much smarter than you look my dear. So you've already figured out that this whole crazy and elaborate plan was just so that we could get you alone and incapacitated?" The man asked tilting his head to the side.

"It doesn't take a Ravenclaw to figure that out," Victoire scoffed.

"Obviously not seeing as you're in Gryffindor," the man said still in conversational tone.

Teddy watched as Victoire's face pinched in concentration for a moment before it smoothed out back into her overconfident mask. He made a mental note to ask her about it later when he had her safe and sound back at Hogwarts –and possibly in a magical bubble but he'd worry about those particulars later.

"Seriously, let's cut the crap here. Why did you go through all of this, face the _personal_ wrath of half of the Auror department, just to get to me. What do you hope to accomplish?" Victoire asked snappily.

"I'm sorry Victoire but that's not information we can disclose. All you need to know is that as long as we have you tied up, then we mean you no personal harm," the man said his smile slipping a bit.

Teddy watched with interest as a smirk grew onto Victoire's face, "Oh. Well this all makes much more sense now. You don't know why you had to take me. You're just mindlessly following orders from someone else aren't you? You're just the little puppets who do the hard work and then whoever's giving you the instructions are the people who are ultimately going to reap the largest benefits."

The man's smile twisted into an ugly glower as Victoire taunted him, "Shut up! You have no idea how this works! I make my own decisions."

_Don't do it Vic._

Teddy pleaded even though he knew that it was useless: A.) Because Victoire couldn't see him or hear him; and B.) Because even if she had heard him, he knew that, she'd do it anyway.

"Oh, hit a nerve have we?" Victoire asked her face lit up with mirth.

The man's face darkened even more as he took three paces toward her –enough to close the distance between him and a chained up Victoire- and slapped her hard across the face.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the harshness of the slap across Victoire's face that shocked Teddy; it was actually the sound of the slap echoing in the cave that startled him. His hand had been resting on the rough rock wall next to him and in his anger from the man slapping Victoire, a piece of rock broke off from where his hand had been resting, and fell to the floor with a light clatter.

The man looked away from Victoire's still defiant looking face and to the tunnel, "Probably those other two idiots doing something they're not supposed too."

The man looked back to the two other men that were still in the room with him, "Go check and make sure that it was actually just their stupidity and that they haven't brought the other aurors on us yet."

The two men nodded and began to go to the tunnel. Teddy didn't want to move and lose his sight on Victoire, but if he moved farther back into the tunnel and used the opportunity of surprise, he'd be able to take out the other two men and that would just leave one man that he'd have to get through to get to Victoire. Teddy followed his hastily made plan and as soon as the second two men were stunned and tied up, he wandered back to the edge of the tunnel.

"What would you do if the aurors were here? Do you actually think that you could fight off the lot of them?" Victoire asked skeptically. How she kept her cool after she'd just been smacked across the face Teddy didn't know.

The man smiled again, but this time instead of looking charming, he was starting to look more than a little psychotic, "I wouldn't need to. I could grab you and _disapparate_ from this room before they'd have a chance to get us."

"So it's possible to disapparate from this room then?" Victoire asked in bored tone that she couldn't really pull off.

The man sensed her inability to keep her interest out of her last statement and smirked, "Yes, however don't think that you can just try wandless disapparation like in the last task. Not only would your dear godfather be extremely angry if his pretty little goddaughter splinched herself, but it's also impossible for you to apparate, with or without a wand, while your chained up in those chains. They have a counter charm on them to dissuade that."

"And what if they came in unannounced? If they were invisible? How would you even know that they were here?" Victoire asked.

Teddy narrowed his eyes at Victoire line of questioning. He even had to look down at himself to make sure that he was still disillusioned. She was asking the right type of questions as if she knew that he was there trying to help her get out.

If that was why Victoire was asking the types of questions that she was; then the man either didn't think of it, or he just really liked to brag about the cave's enchantments, "There are silent intruder wards that contact me and only me when broken. That's how we found out that you and your friends had gotten here earlier without you all realizing."

"So what you're saying is the minute that someone steps _into_ the room the wards go off?" Victoire asked casually.

The man rolled his eyes, "Yes. You know, you're being rather dense right now. I'm starting to wonder if the slaps you've taken across the face haven't rattled your mind."

From his position at the end of the tunnel, Teddy frowned.

_Did he just say _slaps_? As in the plural form?_

However, Teddy didn't have time to ponder the man's words before he noticed the man taking a few steps closer to Victoire. Teddy clenched his fist tighter around his wand and was about to step into the room and put the next step of his plan into action when he saw Victoire rapidly shaking her head from side to side. He stopped his movement and watched her closer, she couldn't have been signalling him, could she?

Her captor took in her actions, laughed, and made a comment about her not being as tough as she thought that she was. The moment the words were out of his mouth Victoire nodded her head, seemingly sadly, and then twisted her wrists that were still entrapped in the shackles until she was pointing her fingers at them.

The man assumed that she was responding to him and smiled wickedly, "Yes, I am about to let you out of those things. We've been here far too long. It's time to move you."

When Teddy watched the man as his wand moved up to, Victoire's shackled right hand and he instantly understood that Victoire's movements were meant for him and not for her captor. He didn't have time to wonder _how_ she knew that he was there, but he made a quick mental note to ask her when he got her out of there.

The man pointed his wand at her shackle while speaking to him, "It's a good thing that you didn't try a little wandless magic to get out of these. There's a specific spell that releases these shackles and these shackles only. If you'd tried any other it would have ended in some rather excruciating pain on your end."

Victoire rolled her eyes. He had released one of her hands and had quickly grabbed it so that she didn't try to hit him or anything else as he went to release her other wrist, "Yes, I'm sure you would have been so upset if I'd brought such pain unto myself."

The man snorted in derision, "I was more worried about the tongue-lashing I would have received if I'd let you get hurt."

"Oh, so your higher-ups don't want me injured? Then why would you slap me like that?"

"They don't want you excessively injured. However, I'm sure they'll understand my blow against you. You are an infuriating young woman. Anyway, it's all counter-redundant. I know already that you're never going to agree to their proposal, so there next step will have to be injuring you severely enough so that it will at least take you until the end of the school year to heal," the man told her releasing her other wrist before taking a step back and pointing his wand threateningly at her.

Teddy knew that it was his opportunity to act. A part of him wanted to wait a minute to see if Victoire could get him to talk more about whatever plan these people had hatched, but a bigger part of him knew that his window of opportunity was quickly closing.

Teddy ran into the room and made sure to stop at the far side near the darker part of the other tunnel. As he expected the man quickly turned around and his eyes searched the area near the tunnel Teddy had entered through. He was scratching his arm and searching the room restlessly. Teddy eyed the man's arm and realized that the revealing spell for the tunnel must have been some sort of person irritation spell that would only announce to him if someone had entered. The man's eyes skimmed the cave quickly before his eyes grew wide and he spun back around quickly as if he'd just remembered something.

It was too late though, when the man turned back, Victoire had her wand back in her possession and was in position in case she needed to duel him to get out.

"How did you do that?" the man asked not angrily but impressed, "How did you set the alarm off?"

"She didn't," Teddy said loudly as he removed the disillusionment charm that he'd put on himself earlier.

The man spun turned slightly his wand still pointed at Victoire but his gaze at Teddy. His surprised face quickly turned into a sour expression and he spoke curtly, "Auror Lupin. I'd say that this is a pleasant surprise, but it's not."

Teddy didn't answer. He was too busy watching Victoire move out of the corner of his eye to the other tunnel in the room. She knew without him telling her that she needed to cover the other exit. Her movements were guarded but her next words were seemingly light-hearted, "It's not charming?"

The man shifted his position until he had a good line of sight on both Teddy and Victoire who had their wands pointed at him, "No. It's not a surprise. I could have bet that they would have sent Lupin in with the other aurors to come recover you. The only question is where are the rest of the back-up? Shacklebolt wouldn't have just sent you to retrieve his precious little princess no matter how much nepotism he usually allows to guide his actions on the job."

Teddy kept an expressionless façade but Victoire didn't fare as well. She shot the tunnel behind her a quick glance before casting her eyes to Teddy. It was the first sign of weakness that she'd shown during the entire ordeal and Teddy felt a strong urge to run to her, take her in his arms, and make her promises about how everything was going to be okay and that he wouldn't let anything happen to her. But he couldn't, he was here as an auror, not her boyfriend or best friend. He needed to keep his wits about him and get her out of any of physical harm's way. He'd worry about her emotion pain when they were out of there.

The man noticed the break in Victoire's constantly haughty expression and the fact that neither had answered with a smart remark. A broad grin broke across his face, "You don't have reinforcements do you Lupin? You're the only one here."

Teddy glared at the man. It only caused to fuel his mirth, "Really? So all I have to get through is you? You're not even a fully-fledged auror yet! I've always said it, but I do believe that Shacklebolt has legitimately lost his mind. Only sending you, what a joke."

Teddy didn't want to throw out his plan to their opponent but he figured that it might stop then man from doing something drastic, give him a chance at leverage, and maybe calm down the worry that was beginning to grow in Victoire's ocean blue eyes, "Not a joke. I was just the first one here. Reinforcements are on their way. Not that I need it, Victoire, and I can more than handle you on our own."

The man nodded pensively, "I take it that you took out all of my men then? Don't be too proud about it, all they're ever good for is to be mindless muscle, none of the have much brains. And as for your other comment. Yes, I'm sure that both you and Miss Weasley would be able to take me, but will you be able to handle all of the back-up that I have coming right about _now_?"

On the word _now_, Victoire felt a large hand reach out and grab her wand arm from behind, before another hand could grab her other arm, she elbowed the man behind her in the gut and kicked back behind her at what felt like a rather solid shin.

When Victoire felt herself become released, she bolted across the room so that she could be closer to Teddy.

Teddy had moved closer too, and they met each other near the middle of the room. More men had stared to pour into the room from both tunnels and the original man started to cackle as the two realized that they were now more than triply outnumbered. Teddy and Victoire ended up standing back to back so that they weren't leaving a side open to attack.

"What's the plan?" Victoire asked as she eyed the rough dozen of wands that were aimed at them.

"Well we can't take them all out. There's too many."

"And?" Victoire asked noticing that there was something that he didn't say.

"And, I don't believe offering yourself up as some sort of bargaining chip again is going to help us out of this situation this time," Teddy said through clenched teeth.

He could feel her brief shudder from the un-masked anger in his tone but she quickly responded, "And if I apologized?"

Teddy knew that she meant to him for her previous actions and not to her captor but his answer was still the same.

"No."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he spun around and grabbed her to him. He ducked her head down into his chest and whispered into her hair for her to hold on tight before he spun them around quickly in a circle and _apparated_ them away.

* * *

Teddy felt his knees jar a bit as he landed them with a sharp _crack_ onto the wooden platform in the lake. He had been able to keep himself upright but he felt Victoire slump in his arms. He looked down at her and realized that she was unconscious.

_Bugger!_

Teddy didn't have time to wonder about why she'd fainted when he saw Kingsley running up to him with Bill, Charlie, Angelina, Ron, and Hermione close behind him.

"What happened?" Kingsley asked angrily as he saw Victoire still unmoving in Ted's arms.

"I don't know, she was fully conscious when I apparated us," Teddy told him worriedly.

Angelina was next to him now and was trying to assess Victoire as best as she could considering the fact that she was still drooped in Teddy's arms.

"I can put her down if you want . . .," he offered but she shook her head.

"No, just lean her closer to you I want to check the wound on her back shoulder and see if maybe when she healed it before leaving that she didn't do it properly. It might have opened again," Angelina said.

Teddy nodded and shifter Victoire in his arms. Her body was closer to his now but he could see her back now.

He hissed angrily at what he saw.

Before they'd left to rescue the kids, Teddy had reminded Victoire that her shoulder was bleeding. She assumed that when they were fighting with the kelpies one had gotten a hold of her and its claws had sliced her back. He had offered to heal it for her but she shook her head, aimed her wand behind her at her shoulder, healed both her shoulder, and repaired the broken fabric of her wetsuit where the slice had occurred.

The area where she'd been hurt was now a dark crimson colour as blood had started to seep into the thick fabric of her scarlet wetsuit. Teddy wanted to scold himself for not seeing it earlier.

Angelina removed the bloody fabric on Victoire's back so that she could look at the wound. One look at the amount of blood trickling out of the oozing wound and she swore under her breath before casting an immobilizing charm on the wound to stop the loss of blood.

"Did it open again?" Bill asked worriedly as he looked agitatedly at his unconscious daughter in Teddy's arms.

"No," Angelina answered angrily as she tried to clean some of the now dried blood away from the wound so that she could see how large it actually was.

"Was she hurt?" Ron asked looking at Teddy.

"Not that I saw," Teddy responded trying to think back. He hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary when he'd first gotten to her, but that didn't mean that she hadn't been injured before he went back for her.

"She wasn't," Angelina answered for them.

"How can you tell?" Teddy asked.

"Because, this wound hasn't been closed magically yet," she said angrily.

"What do you mean? She fixed it before we left."

"No. She put an immobilizing charm on the blood and then covered the wound up by fixing the fabric of her suit. She didn't actually heal it, and the immobilizing charm wore off, I'd guess about twenty minutes ago," Angelina said tersely, "Ted, carry her to the healer's tent for me would you?"

Teddy nodded and was about to scoop her up when he felt a large hand land on his shoulder and stop him.

"No. Bill and Charlie can take her, I need to talk to Ted," Kingsley said authoritatively.

Angelina shrugged and moved so that Teddy could pass Victoire off to her anxious father's arms. When he had left with Angelina and Charlie in tow, Kingsley turned to Teddy.

"What happened?"

* * *

Hey, so I hoped that you all enjoyed!

A/N: Thank you to everyone for being patient and waiting for my update, I know that it was hard but I truly to appreciate it.

Good news: My midterms are finally done!

Um, bad news?: Well, now final exams start and you won't be seeing another update for probably three more weeks because I have absolutely none already written up, and in the next three weeks while I have exams I will have absolutely no time to write.

Reviews: Thank-you so much to everyone who has reviewed / followed / favourited, and enjoyed my story. It really means a lot and when I'm done my exams and have time to do some writing it will be your reviews that give me the inspiration to write so more, so please keep them coming even though the updates will be a long ways away.

Okay, I think that's everything. Again I hoped that you all enjoyed and please review.

Bye!


	71. More Scores

**A/N:** Will you look at this? I just got back from Christmas Eve Mass and I'm updating! It took a lot of energy, and the chapter's not one of my favourites but it's something to read.

**I also wrote a little Christmas one-shot that I posted earlier today as a Christmas / late Chanukah / December Holiday gift for everyone! **

If you haven't seen it then you should probably add me to your Author alerts, or just go and search for it now. It's a Teddy/Vic one-shot of course and it's based off of_ Chapter 50_ of this story _Mistletoe Mishaps_ and entitled _**First Kiss**_.

If you guys remember in that chapter Teddy told Jilly that his first kiss ever was on Christmas when he was stuck under the mistletoe with Vic, the one-shot is that little incident, but because Teddy was seven and Vic was five, I actually wrote it in **Bill's POV**, which is definitely something different so I hope that you'll all go over and read it if you haven't already, and to those who have I hoped you enjoyed that present, and enjoy the second part, which is this update.

**Please** read my **A/N** at the end of the chapter because I have a little proposal for all of you guys.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything that you read below and recognize as JKR's

* * *

**More Scores**

Victoire groaned loudly and opened her eyes reluctantly. She was surprised that all she saw was complete darkness. Thankfully, it only took her a few seconds to realize that she was face-down, staring at her pillow. It explained why she couldn't see anything. She rolled over, and then moaned out in pain. The movement had caused a series of painful pricks to begin on her back near her shoulder.

"Sore?"

Victoire's mind stopped focusing on trying to remember how she'd injured herself, and her attention moved to the right of her bed (which she sadly realized was a hospital cot) and focused on the person standing there.

Kingsley. And he definitely did not look happy.

Victoire swallowed thickly.

_I am in _so_ much trouble._

As if he could read her mind, Kingsley spoke again, "Yes, you are in trouble. A lot of it in fact."

Victoire ignored the searing pain in her shoulder this time as she sat up. Pain was nothing in her books compared to the look of disappointment that was presently gracing Kingsley's face. She absolutely hated that look; knowing that she'd somehow put it there.

"Look I know that I shouldn't have just offered myself to stay like that but it was the only way that everyone else-"

"That's not what you're in trouble over. Although, now that I think about it I'll have to come up with some sort of punishment for that too," Kingsley said crossing his arms against his chest and giving her another frustrated look.

Victoire's face scrunched up as she tried to figure out what else she could have done that would have made Kingsley so upset. If he wasn't talking about disobeying his orders and offering to stay behind in the cave with the kidnappers while everyone else left, than what was he alluding to?

"What am I in trouble for then? It's not as if it was my fault that the kids were kidnapped in the first place, or that I'm in the healing tent right now . . . what happened anyway? Why did I pass out?" She asked.

"Actually, it _was_ your fault that you passed out. Well, you and the kelpie that attacked you," her father's voice called out in a steady tone as both he and her mother walked into the tent that she remembered seeing set up near the Black Lake for healing purposes earlier in the day. It was a rather smaller tent than she expected, but that was probably because her bed was the only one in it, and it looked like some sort of private quarters just for her.

"How so?" Victoire asked her father confusedly.

Bill looked at her sternly, "Angelina assumed that it had something to do with the fact that you lost so much blood from the laceration on your shoulder from the kelpie's claws that you fainted."

"How is that my fault?" Victoire asked still confused. She usually wasn't this slow. Must have been the blood loss.

"It's your fault because you led everyone to believe that you'd healed the cut when really all you did was put a temporary blood clotting charm on it," Bill answered narrowing his brown eyes at his eldest daughter.

Victoire looked down shyly at her hands that were lying in her lap, "I knew that I wouldn't be able to fully close the laceration without seeing it and that I shouldn't do that anyway without cleaning it out first to make sure that it didn't get infected. So I figured that an immobilizing charm on the blood would last until I could get it properly treated. It must have re-opened when I was thrown against the rocks in the cave."

Fleur's previously stony expression has softened a bit when Victoire had mentioned the rescue mission, but Bill's expression seemed to harden even further, "That's another thing we need to talk about. Why in the world would you just offer yourself up as bait like that? They could have hurt you, or taken you somewhere else, or Merlin forbid-"

Victoire interrupted her father before he could get any farther, "I thought you said that I wasn't in trouble for that," she said looking directly at Kingsley.

Kingsley studied her minutely, "No, I said that I forgot to come up with a punishment for that, not that you weren't in trouble. Maybe that's something your parents can work on while you try to explain to me what exactly you were thinking."

"Thinking about what?" It was official, it wasn't Victoire that was making no sense; it was everyone else.

Kingsley didn't say anything; instead, he took out a small piece of thick parchment paper and handed it over to her silently. Victoire's hand shook as she accepted it. She knew what it was but she couldn't very well not take it from him. It was the note that the kidnappers had attached to the platform that came out of the Lake that the kids should have been on. The one with the same rhyming pattern as the other notes she'd received earlier in the year. Upon further inspection, she could see that the writing was the same too.

_At least I know who was sending the notes now . . . or more that there were actually people who were writing me notes and that it wasn't some sort of joke._

"Recognize that?" Kingsley asked.

When she looked up at him, she finally realized why the expression on his face was so familiar and why she didn't place it sooner. It was the mask he put on when he was working with a suspect. Only he was interrogating _her_ right now.

"Yes," Victoire answered truthfully, "Although I've never seen _this_ one before."

Kingsley nodded, "I know. Ted already told me everything about them."

Victoire frowned and felt her heart constrict a little. Teddy had already told Kingsley about the notes she'd received? Without even talking with her about it first? It wasn't his secret to tell in the first place; it was hers.

"Oh did he?"

Kingsley cut her off because he knew where her train of thought was going, "Don't start Victoire. Ted's an auror it's part of his job description to report anything dangerous. And I'd say that the fact that you'd been receiving anonymous threatening notes counts as something dangerous. I'm just upset that he didn't come to Harry or me with the knowledge of this the first time you showed him the first note. I can't believe he waited so long and left you in that potential danger."

Victoire's temper was starting to heat up. She didn't like the fact that Kingsley was angry with Teddy. True, she was angry with the metamorphmagus herself, but she had a right to be. It was her secret and he didn't have a right to tell it. However, she couldn't let Kingsley be angry with him. First, because Kingsley was Teddy's boss and she didn't want something that had to do with her affect his career. Second, because it was an ingrained instinct within her to defend him from criticism.

"Don't blame Teddy for this. It's my entire fault. I made him promise not to tell, and I even downplayed everything so that it wouldn't seem as threatening –which I still believe that it wasn't. But please Kingsley, don't yell at him for this, I take full responsibility because it is all my fault. Even if I didn't believe that it was any of your business," Victoire said anxiously.

Kingsley sighed, "I'm not going to discuss Ted with you right now. What I want to know is why you didn't come to me with this earlier."

Victoire looked down at her hands again. Even though she must have been out of the water for at least an hour, the light skin of her hands was still slightly wrinkled from the amount of time she'd spent in the lake.

"I thought that it was a joke."

"They were threats!"

"No, the first one sounded like a prophecy more than anything," Victoire defended. She wasn't sure to what capacity Teddy had explained the notes to Kingsley.

"So you're saying that Ted lied to me when he told me that the notes told you to drop out of the Tournament or something bad would happen? And he also lied to me when he told me that whoever wrote the note was aware of the Manticore attack even though that incident wasn't public knowledge?" Kingsley questioned in a tone that was rather bitingly sarcastic.

Victoire swallowed thickly, "No. But just because they knew about it doesn't mean that they had anything to do with it!"

"Are you actually trying to defend those people?" Kingsley asked aghast.

"NO! I-I just . . . look I'm sorry that I didn't tell you and that I manipulated Teddy into not telling you also. But in the grand scheme of things, it didn't look like the notes were important. Yes, the manticore attack did make the notes seem more suspicious, but Teddy and I looked through them and the attack itself didn't seem to fit in with the note. Whoever sent me the notes at first were trying to warn me about danger. Whoever released the manticore clearly did not seem concerned with my safety."

If Victoire couldn't tell by the way her voice broke near the end of her last sentence that she was about ready to cry, than the look on Kingsley's face as he watched her would have tipped her off. His hardened expression had turned to one of hesitation. He knew that he needed to be tough on her if he wanted to get the information that he needed, but he also had a seventeen year-old habit of shying away from doing something that would make her cry.

"Alright, I will give you that one. But you two should have told us after your attack at the Ball. Heck, you should have told us before the Ball," Kingsley said in a slightly less angry tone.

"But you were already stressed out about not being able to figure who it was who attacked me after the Ball, telling you that it may or may not have been connected to a peculiar string of anonymous notes that I'd gotten a month before the incident, and that ended before the incident occurred. If I had, there is no way that you would have allowed me to walk around the Castle in the relative freedom that I have now. Heck, you might not have even wanted me to attend the Yule Ball if you knew about the notes . . . wait. Stupid me. I could have gotten out of the whole stupid ball thing if I'd just told you about it," Victoire rambled on, mostly berating herself at the end because that would have been a perfect excuse to _not_ attend the Yule Ball.

Kingsley rolled his eyes when she finished speaking, "A little too late for that then Victoire. But you were right about one thing. I wouldn't have let you go around without such little protection as you did. But all of that's going to change right now."

"But-"

"No buts Victoire. We now know that there is someone out there who wants to kidnap you . . . or something. I'm not going to let that happen. There's going to be a big change in how the security details are done in and outside the Castle now."

Victoire opened her mouth to argue with Kingsley again and remind him that she didn't _want_ anybody following her every move, when someone new walked into the tent.

"McGonagall said that if you're up to it, she would like to join the other Champions back near the Lake because the judges want to give you guys your scores," Xavier Wood said as he walked into the tent, ignored Kingsley, Bill, and Fleur's eyes on him, and stood next to Victoire's bed.

Victoire turned to look confusedly at the Quidditch player, "Scores? They're still going to give us scores after everything that happened?"

Xavier shrugged, "If it was any of the other champions' that had been kidnapped, probably not. But because it was you Flannery seems to think that it's fine to just brush everything under a rug and get on with everything. I think that he thinks that stuff like this is just expected by now with you."

Victoire frowned, "Oh, so he thinks that I can just pop right back from a near kidnapping experience and be right as rain to do whatever he wants?"

Xavier shoved his hand into the pockets of his black slacks, "That's the gist of the conversation I heard him have with McGonagall, yes."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Whatever. I'll be right out. Unless of course you have more that you want to discuss Kingsley?"

Kingsley sighed, "You should know that we're nowhere close to done Victoire. However, I'll let you get your scores because what we have left to discuss is going to take a while and Flannery's not going to wait for very much longer."

Victoire nodded and then slowly moved out of hospital-like bed and onto her feet. She swayed a little as she stood and was grateful when Xavier grabbed her arm gently and steadied her. Kingsley, her mother and father each gave her a worried look but she brushed it off by mumbling that it wasn't anything important, but that her legs had just fallen asleep from the lack of use they'd had the past however long she had been passed out. Xavier had helped her almost all the way to the entrance of the tent when she stopped to look down at herself and make sure that she was somewhat presentable for a meeting with the judges, no doubt in front of the entire school's population not to mention visitors. She gave herself a quick glance and sighed in relief when she realized that her clothes had been patched up of any rips she'd gotten before and that she was actually dry despite the fact that she'd spent at least three hours that day underwater.

Xavier noticed her inspection and chuckled, "Everything good?"

"Yeah . . . um has the cut on my back been dealt with?" She asked him as she took a few steps ahead of him but not necessarily out of the tent yet.

He was quiet as he gave her a quick inspection and then stepped forward so that he was at her side again, "The shirt's been patched up over it so there's nothing to worry about . . . although Angelina did tell Ally and I that she fixed it but there will most definitely be a scar where it was because it took you so long to get it healed . . ."

Victoire nodded her head, "Just one more to add to the collection that started earlier in the year."

Xavier didn't respond but offered her his arm so that she could lean on him a bit as they left the tent with Kingsley, Bill, and Fleur following quietly behind them. Victoire was thankful for Xavier's gentlemanly proposal and gladly used it. The strenuous activities she'd been through during the day had really taken a toll on her and was staring to show through her sluggish and slow movements.

A quick walk to the edge of the Black Lake and Victoire found herself standing in front of the judges' podium again. She had her back to the stands where the audience was still sitting rather quietly and was staring down at her feet to avoid looking at the judges in front of her because she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what they were thinking based off of their facial expressions.

A minute later Victoire found herself almost knocked over by a tackle that seemed to have been disguised as a fierce hug. She would have started to worry about who held her captive currently, until her ears tuned in on a high-pitched voice babbling away in a teary string of French.

When she was able to move her head she saw her hypothesis as corrected when she noticed that Noëlle was attached to her and crying out a mess of French that she recognized a few minutes later as a speech of thanks. Victoire patted her back gently and was able to pry the Frenchwoman off her after only a few minutes.

"Really Noëlle, it was no problem. It was just the right thing to do. Really. I don't need the thanks," Victoire mumbled both quietly and embarrassedly.

Noëlle was dabbing her eyes with a light pink handkerchief and had seemed to have calmed down enough to feel comfortable enough to try to speak in English again, "Really Victoire. You 'ave done so much for uz."

"It was no problem Noëlle. Is Bruno okay?" Victoire asked worriedly. Something like what they'd just been through could really traumatize a child; with Bruno, she wouldn't doubt that it could be exponentially worse.

"Oh, 'e seemz to be doeeng fine for now. Eet eez a leetle to soon to tell for sure of course, but for now 'e seemz good. I am not entirely sure eef 'e even really understood wat waz goeeng on, zo zat might 'elp," Noëlle replied.

Victoire nodded and a minute later, the two were joined by a now conscious Konstantin. He had a thick white piece of gauze wrapped around part of his head -but besides that- he seemed to have recovered from the whacking he took from the Giant Squid.

"You look like you're feeling better," Victoire told him in a slightly forced tone of joviality.

He gave her a smile but it quickly faded when he gave her a closer look, "Um, Vic. Vat happened to you? Does it hurt?"

Victoire looked down and gave herself another quick once over before looking back at Konstantin in confusion, "All of my cuts are healed, so what are you talking about?"

"You 'ave a beeg bruise on your face," Noëlle said jumping into the conversation.

Victoire move d her hand up to the cheek that the two seemed to be staring at and gingerly touched it with her fingertips. A trickling of pain rippled out across her skin from where she touched and it brought back the memory of the man in the cave slapping her across the face.

"Oh. I got slapped and I guess when I was getting healed they were focusing on my bigger injuries instead of the bruise on my face . . . does it look really bad?"

"No, no."

"Not at all."

"Liars," Victoire said crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Time for the scores!" The booming voice of Minister Flannery announced affected by what Victoire thought was a shoddy at best volume enhancing charm.

The three champions turned so that they were facing the judges; Minister Flannery, Headmistress Maxine, Headmaster Jaroslov, Headmistress McGonagall, and Mr. Granville, the head of the department of Magical Sports and Games from the Ministry of Magic.

"Alright," Flannery began, "Now since the task didn't end quite the way we were hoping, the scores that we give will have to be presented relevant to the skill that each of us thought that the champion showed. So, without further ado, we will get the scores for Mr. Krum out of the way."

"So Mr. Konstantin Krum, since you were not able to finish the task, it should be no surprise to you that your scores will be lower than in the first. I have given you a six," Minister Flannery said.

"It's a five from me," McGonagall told him.

"Six!" Jaroslov said frowning at the lower score from McGonagall.

"Four," Headmistress Maxine said evenly.

"Five from me," Mr Granville said.

"Which means that you have a total of twenty-six points from this challenge," Flannery told him.

Konstantin nodded, and then took a step back so that he was in line with Victoire and Noëlle again.

"Now for Miss Noëlle Varens," Flannery began gesturing for her to take a step closer.

"You were not able to fully complete the task either because of the . . . incident, however you did not end up getting injured like your two other fellow champions, and you displayed an impressive bit of magic by being able to apparate out of water while apparating someone else. So, I'm going to give you a seven."

"It's a six from me," McGonagall said.

"Five," Jarosolov announced grumpily.

"Eight!" Madame Maxine called smilingly.

"Seven," Mr Granville said.

"So you're score is a thirty-three then Miss Varens," Flannery told her.

Noëlle gave the judges a brief smile before stepping back in line with Victoire and Konstantin.

"Now for the Hogwarts Champion Miss Victoire Weasley," Flannery said giving her an apathetic look.

Victoire took a step confidently forward even though she was feeling anything but and locked gazes with Minister Flannery as she waited to hear what score he was going to give her.

Flannery stared at her back and then began speaking, "Well Miss Weasley, I will tell you one thing, it wasn't easy trying to figure out what score to give you. But, taking into account the mediocre magic you showed during the task, along with the fact that you had gotten yourself injured and shown that you were in need of help to be rescued, I'm giving you a three as your score."

Victoire's eyes widened.

_Is he insane?_

Apparently, Victoire wasn't the only one who thought that Flannery was being unfair, because the crowds in the stands that Victoire had momentarily forgotten were there started to yell and 'boo' and hiss at Flannery's announcement. Even Konstantin and Noëlle began to argue with the Minister about the score they gave Victoire.

"Meenister, Victoire saved both Konstantin and I from ze kelpies, tried to save Konstantin from ze squid. Not only zat but she alzo waz ze only reason zat everyone elze made eet out of ze cave. You cannot just geeve 'er a score like zat w'en she 'az done so much more," Noëlle argued.

"Ves, vis vouldn't have ended like it did if Victoire hadn't helped-" Konstantin began but was cut off by Flannery.

"ENOUGH! I am the judge so my score is made at my own discretion. McGonagall, what are you giving the girl?"

McGonagall glared at Flannery before looking at Victoire. In that moment, Victoire could tell that McGonagall wished that she could give her a higher score to help cover up the horrid one Flannery had given her. She also knew that McGonagall would never so blatantly do something that would show favouritism towards the champion of her own school, that she would attempt to have people believe that she had given Victoire her score based of off her skills and not bias.

"I give Miss Weasley a seven," she said evenly; her face rather stoic.

Jaroslov was next, "I give her a four."

Victoire had to abstain from rolling her eyes. McGonagall seemed to be the only Head not scoring based on bias.

"Six," Headmistress Maxine announced. It was Victoire's score but she was eyeing Noëlle with interest. Victoire guessed that it was because she was surprised that Noëlle had defended her so hotly.

"I give her a seven," Mr Granville announced seeming to agree with McGonagall that she deserved a higher score as opposed to Flannery's low one.

"And that Miss Weasley means that you have a twenty-seven for this task," Flannery said giving her a pompous smile.

"With the final scores from this task added to the ones form the first, Miss Varens is in the lead with a sixty-six, Mr Krum is in second with a sixty-three, and Miss Weasley is close behind with a sixty-two," Mr Granville announced to the benefit of the crowd.

"Yes," Flannery said joyously, "And since the task didn't end quite the way we all had hoped that it would we were not entirely certain how we should assign the special points. So, it has been agreed that each champion will receive two special points each which may aid after the scores of the next task are compiled."

McGonagall spoke next but she seemed directed her instructions to the crowds and visitors of the school.

Victoire turned to speak to her fellow champions, but was unable to because almost directly Noëlle's Professeur La Croix and one of Konstantin's Professors came right up to the trio and hauled away their respective students. Victoire was only alone for a moment before she felt a large and warm hand touch the shoulder that hadn't been slashed open from the kelpie.

"Victoire, Auror Shaklebolt asked me to come and get you and to take you back to the Castle."

Victoire turned around and looked into a pair of ocean-blue eyes that she had for the first time realized were probably a shade very close to her own, "Alright Professor."

Professor Cooke smiled at her and kept his hand on her shoulder as he gestured for her to move forward.

"So . . . do you know how much trouble I'm in?" Victoire asked him in a timid voice.

"Well, I can't be sure seeing as I'm just a school professor, but I'm fairly certain that your family is going to use all of their connections in the Auror Office to increase security," Professor Cooke told her seriously.

"How would it be possible to increase the amount of security they already have?" Victoire asked him seriously.

"Well, they could always assign someone to follow you specifically around."

Victoire gasped and stared at him wide-eyed, "You can't be serious."

He shrugged, "All I know is that McGonagall has informed all of the professors that we are to have a meeting later tonight with Auror Shaklebolt regarding security. I'm just assuming that it has to do with some sort of new policies that the professors would have to be aware of."

Victoire's stomach clenched and she was certain that her face was green, "Merlin I hope that you're wrong Professor."

* * *

**1st:** I hope that you all liked that even though it wasn't one of my most exciting chapters, they needed to get their scores, and now you'll know the standings for all of them as they go into the last task.

**2nd:** Who thinks that Kingsley's going to go proverbially crazy now with Victoire's safety?

**3rd:** I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, had a Happy Hanukkah, or just plain old Happy Holidays.

**4th:** READ MY NEW ONE-SHOT PLEASE (_**First Kiss**_) IT'S A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR ALL OF YOU SO PLEASE REVIEW IT AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT!

**5th:** Thanks to everyone who has reviewed my past chapters, I know you had to wait a while for this update but I hope that you all understood why it took me so long and that you will still review for this one especially because . . .

**6th Item:** Okay, now one of the reason's this chapter took so long to write was because it wasn't one of the most fun to write even though it is necessary for the story I ended up having a little writer's block because of it, and it was only finished because I really wanted to get it posted in time as a Christmas present to all of my awesome readers.

**7th Item:** What does that have to do with you guys you may ask? Well, I had a little thought that the reason why I'm having a bit of writer's block is because I know exactly how this story is going to play out so when I write it it's not really new to me like it is to all of you who read it.

**SO my proposal is that**, since we're so far into the story but not done yet, you guys leave in your review's (or you can PM me if you want) any questions you have had concerning the plot line of this story, the characters, my writing, things about my one-shot,s anything. **Really** **any questions at all** and I'll add the next chapter to this story as a question and answer thing in about a week, and hopefully after that I'll be able to replace that chapter with the actual next chapter to the story.

The reason I want to do this is because it's been a while since I started this story (and unless you're all re-reading the entire story every once in a while you may forget some of the things that happened or missed it the first time) so me answering your questions about the story and characters **may give me the little push I need to get past my writer's block and remember that even though I know where this story is going, all of you guys still have a lot of unanswered questions at this point.**

So, please leave me absolutely every and any questions you have about the story, characters, my writing or anything else at all that you want to know about. If I don't feel as though that I want to answer it, I won't (but if that's the case it usually something about the plot that you'll figure out by the end).

_**So, leave me all and any of your questions (along with your name so you can get credit) and I promise that I'll answer them all in an 'interview' chapter later in the week, and hopefully the question and answering will help me break my writers block :)**_

_**P.S. Even if you feel as thought the question has been asked before or you have asked me the question before please feel free to ask again because this question and answer 'session' will be for all of the reader's of this story and some people may have the same questions as you. Please, don't be shy about asking a question, or more than one, and remember, there is no such thing as a stupid question!**_

_**Thanks everyone, get your questions in, Have a Merry Christmas, and DFTBA!**_


	72. Kyle's Advice

**A/N:** Okay, so here's the next update, I hope that you enjoy it! An actual chapter this time.

**Disclaimer:** JKR owns everything!

* * *

**Kyle's Advice**

If privacy was to be considered a privilege, then Victoire's was completely revoked. Kingsley had been so upset about the kidnapping and what had ensued after, that he was about ready to convince Flannery to somehow pull Victoire from the Tri-Wizard Tournament. She was able to persuade him otherwise however, after half an hour of arguing, ten minutes of crying, and even fifteen minutes of pleading. The only reason why Kingsley allowed to let her stay in the tournament was because she'd ended up coming up with a good argument as to why she should stay in it, and once she had she had employed that along with her big eyes to convince Kingsley to listen to her, he was a goner. Her argument was rather valid however, because she reminded him that her attack from the manticore and during the Ball wasn't necessarily because of the Tournament itself, and that her resigning from the Tournament wouldn't stop whoever it was that had tried to kidnap her, if the other two events were anything to go by. She ended her argument saying that she would attempt to go along with his new security measures if he let her stay in the Tournament –after all there was only one task left to do.

Kingsley had agreed to the compromise but Victoire had definitely not been the one to get the most out of it. According to Kingsley's new rules she was to be followed everywhere she went inside the Castle, and she was only to be allowed outside of the Castle under very strict and special reasons. Victoire had tried to argue with Kingsley about the latter half of that condition, because she would still need to go to Herbology class at least four times a week, and the greenhouses_ were_ outside the Castle. Kingsley had seen her argument coming however, and had said that McGonagall and Professor Longbottom had made arrangements to hold classes for her year inside the Castle for the remaining months of the school year.

Kingsley's previous rules had been that Victoire was only to be followed closely if she were walking the castle alone. Conversely, with his new rules it didn't matter if Victoire were with every one of her friends for the entire day (which she was, because after the kidnapping Ally, Sandra, and especially Kyle were very adamant about her not walking around the Castle alone anymore). Because she had at least two different aurors rotating each day around not only her school schedule but also they were now following her everywhere she went during her free time too.

They would follow her as soon as she stepped outside of the Fat Lady's portrait, into the Great Hall for meal times where they would stand against the wall near Gryffindor table and watch her until she finished her meals, follow her to every class, and stand outside the classroom doors until she left for the next class where the same routine would continue. The only time Victoire ever got a semblance of time to herself was when she would enter into Gryffindor tower because her 'bodyguards' were instructed that there was no need to follow her there. They followed her everywhere else she went, though. To the library, behind her when she had her Head Girl patrols and duties, they even followed her when she had to go outside to the Quidditch pitch for practice. (Thankfully, Kingsley had agreed that she was making enough sacrifices and didn't ban her from playing Quidditch, not that he would think that if he had that it would have worked anyway.) But they did have a team of about four aurors flying just outside the pitch while she conducted practice, along with a several situated within the Quidditch stands at the same time.

Throughout the entire change in protection protocol Victoire kept up her end of the bargain and didn't complain –or at least not directly to Kingsley, Ally, Sandra, and Kyle were another story all together. Nevertheless, there was one invasion of privacy that Victoire would not agree to. During the day when she would decide to use the lavatory, it didn't directly bother her that her bodyguards would follow her inside because usually it was just the woman who was assigned to follow her, and when she went into the stall, she could pretend that someone hadn't actually been following her. But, because of the shortage of female aurors in the department who were assigned to stay in the Castle overnight, usually the aurors assigned to follow her after classes were male. Victoire hadn't found a problem with it until she decided one night that she wanted to take a bath in the prefects' bathroom.

She had walked all the way to the bathroom and had even walked a few feet into the room until she realized that she was still being followed and that the aurors hadn't stopped outside the door like she'd expected. After she had yelled at them to leave, they had insistently told her that they were not allowed to leave her in a room by herself because it was dangerous. She had angrily asked them what could be so dangerous about a bathroom, and they had informed her that since Hogwarts security was breached with the evidence of the manticore and the kidnappers getting on Castle grounds without notice, and the man who had attacked her at the Ball specifically apparating away, that Shacklebolt wasn't taking chances of letting her be somewhere alone. There was no way that Victoire was going to have her a bath with the aurors so close, and no matter how much she yelled and how bright her hands lit up with Veela fire, she couldn't convince her bodyguards to let her alone.

So, it was to Kingsley's frustration when a –literally 'red-hot'– Victoire came striding into the Auror's Break room, in her knee length ice-blue silk dressing robe, and started yelling at him about her security detail. The issue was made even worse when Kingsley spent the first fifteen minutes of Victoire's tirade trying to convince her to come into his office to speak about the whole situation privately. If only so he wouldn't have to try to talk things through with her while attempting to ignore all of the male aurors' stares at his goddaughter's state of 'dress'.

Victoire just ended up laughing at Kingsley when he mentioned the word 'privacy' and asked why he felt that all of a sudden she was entitled to some.

By the time they finally worked through the issue, Kingsley had decided that as long as the aurors did a thorough sweep of the bathroom before leaving her alone, then she should be fine to have a few minutes of time to herself without an auror being present in the room.

After the bathroom issue had been resolved, Victoire was only left with one problem. The fact that Teddy hadn't been assigned to be on her rotating shifts of bodyguards. This led to the fact that she hadn't had a chance to talk to him about the Second Task or the notes, except for the argument they had right after she had met with Kingsley to first hear the changes he had decided to make regarding to her safety.

_She wasn't proud of it, but the first of many talks she'd had to have with Kingsley before they made their compromise had ended with her walking out it. She had stormed out of his office in Hogwarts and slammed the door behind her. Even though the room outside of his office was filled with younger aurors, which she could tell were staring at her, she was certain that the aura of absolute wrath that she was exuding stopped them from trying to say anything to her. _

_She had made it out of the Aurors' break room and ten paces down the hall before she heard the sound of the footsteps running behind her to catch up. A warm hand had grabbed her left arm from behind and she would have completely wrenched it out of the person's grip if the voice that had called out right after the clasp hadn't stopped her dead in her tracks._

_"Victoire."_

_She was completely frozen from the indifferent tone of the voice, so it was easy for the man to manipulate her until she was turned around with her head tilted up so that she had to meet his eyes._

_"What?" Victoire asked in a small voice as she tried to find his reasons in his sapphire blue eyes._

_"Why?" He asked his hand still under her chin so that she'd be forced to look into his eyes._

_"Why what?" Victoire asked, truthfully not entirely sure what he was talking about, but mostly just stalling._

_His eyes hardened, "Stop with the word games Victoire. I just want to know why."_

_Victoire gulped and tried to ignore the feeling in her eyes that made her want to tear up, "Teddy . . . I-I'm so sorry-"_

_"I don't want to hear apologies Victoire. All I want to know right now. Is. Why?"_

_"Teddy please. I'm not . . . I mean I know I did but I didn't mean for it to get like this-" Victoire tried to explain but her throat was suddenly very dry._

_Teddy sighed and closed his eyes; breaking off their visual connection but still not releasing Victoire's chin from his grip, "Victoire if you can't explain to me right now why you . . . I just don't know-"_

_Victoire knew that she should intercede, but her heart started to ache in her chest and the pain took her breath away. Teddy's eyes snapped back open when he didn't hear her answer like he'd expected her to. He recognized the look on her face as pain and could guess that it was because of the same sudden aching pain that he had started to feel in his chest also. But he couldn't baby her anymore. He'd asked her to explain herself and she hadn't yet. He couldn't just assume anymore that she had meant well and that her motives had made complete sense. It was her turn to give the answers. And if she needed a little time to come up with the answers, then he'd give her some time to think them up._

_He gazed into her ocean-blue eyes for a few seconds before breaking their connection for the last time and placing a delicate kiss on her forehead. Then he turned away and didn't look back._

It had been a week and a half since Victoire had stormed out of Kingsley's office and had her _discussion_ with Teddy, and besides the bathroom incident that had occurred four days ago; her life had been quiet. _She'd_ been quiet. And no one had called her on it until that evening in the library.

It was about six o'clock and Victoire was immersed in a book that she had to read to write her essay for Transfiguration that was due in a few days. Beside her, was Ally buried in a Potions essay, and across from her were Sandra and Kyle quietly helping each other with that night's Arithmancy homework. Despite the fact that he was intermittently making Sandra giggle loud enough to earn them a couple of evil eyes from Madam Pince, Kyle had evidently decided that their table was too quiet.

And being Kyle, he didn't bring about the topic in a discreet way either.

"Vic, did you know that you've been a real Prat lately?" Kyle asked as he leisurely scribbled down the answer to his homework question.

Victoire was so surprised that the book fell out of her hands –luckily, it was only two inches above the table- and onto the ink-stained wooden surface, "What in the world Kyle? The last thing I've been lately is a Prat. I haven't yelled or hexed anyone in the past four days, I haven't argued with Knott or Pennington –even though there is always something that I can get angry with them for. I haven't intimidated James or Freddie for any of their pranks, I haven't told you and Sandra off for what seems like your guys' attempt break the record for the most amount of hours spent snogging of any couple in Hogwarts history. I haven't done anything that would qualify me as a Prat lately."

Kyle smirked, "And that's the problem! Colton's ego's been getting bigger because you haven't been challenging him in class and knocking him back down to size. Pennington's become an even bigger git because you haven't yelled or hexed him in a week –bloody Hell Victoire he blatantly ogled your arse yesterday and you just shrugged it off. Ally said that you've been having a hard time controlling James, Freddie, and that new annoying Keeper on the Quidditch team, because you haven't been intimidating enough during practice-"

Victoire shot Ally beside her a raised eyebrow but her younger cousin didn't see it because she buried her nose even closer into her ink blotted parchment paper as Kyle continued.

"You just walked right by Dom yesterday when we saw her snogging that seventh-year Slytherin in the hall and didn't say a word. You haven't interfered with Louis' relationship with Cecilia or good-naturedly embarrassed Baxter in a week. Heck, I'm getting chapped lips from all the extra snogging Sandra and I have been doing just for your benefit-"

"My benefit?" Victoire asked unbelievingly as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well yes, snogging in public isn't as much fun if you don't let on that it annoys you, and we've only really snogged in public this last week because we thought if anything could snap you out of this funk it would be yelling at us of our disgusting public displays of affection," Kyle reasoned.

Victoire sighed and rubbed her eyes, "Let me get this straight Kyle. You're saying that I'm acting like a prat, because I haven't been acting like a prat?"

Kyle didn't answer her but looked beside him to his girlfriend. They did that thing where they had a conversation with just a series of looks, and it ended with Sandra glancing at Ally and asking, "Ally, your essay's on the use of puffapods in modern potions, right?"

"Yes," Ally replied.

"I wrote one similar to that last year. Come with me and I'll find you a text that I used that was rather helpful."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Sandra and Ally got up from their seats and swept away; leaving Kyle and Victoire to themselves.

Victoire was about to open her mouth and ask Kyle what that was about, when he stood up himself, and moved around the table so that he could sit in Ally's vacated chair. She watched him shoot a look to the two aurors who were leaning against a wall about five paces away from them, and then scooted the chair even closer to her so that they wouldn't be overheard.

"We're worried about you," Kyle said plainly.

Victoire sighed again, "Kyle, maybe I'm just tired of making a spectacle of myself with others."

He eyed her in disbelief, "No seriously, what's going on?"

"I don't know. I just, I feel so defeated."

"Good, that's good. Build on that," Kyle said excitedly.

She rolled her eyes at him but continued, "It's just, I mean I promised Kingsley that I wouldn't complain. And I haven't-"

"What do you call yelling at him in front of a dozen odd aurors in you dressing gown?"

"That was an issue. But besides that I haven't-"

"Did you not just spend an hour last night complaining to Ally about how you felt like your bodyguards were stalking you because they were following your every move?"

Victoire frowned at him until he mimed zipping his lips, locking them, and then throwing away the key.

"What I was saying was that I'm not complaining about the security, but I still don't feel right about it."

Kyle's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean? Are you saying that you still don't feel safe?"

Victoire sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, "I don't know. It's not like I feel that something's going to happen or anything. I just don't feel right about the whole thing . . ."

He eyed her worriedly for a minute before his face softened, "Vic . . . do you think that maybe you don't feel right about the whole thing because you feel the need to talk about what happened?"

Victoire looked down at the surface of the table. She had explained to her friends what had happened in the cave and about the notes that she had found, but she still hadn't told them how she felt about them. She pretty much just summarized the events in a detached voice, sat there as their shocked expressions turned into ones of worry, and was eventually accompanied by words of comfort. She had explained everything, but she hadn't dealt with her emotions about it yet.

Every time one of her friends tried to get her to talk about how she felt about the whole experience, she made some excuse to put it off. The first couple of times it was her meetings with Kingsley to come up with her security detail. After that, it was meetings and practices to find a new keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team –something she had been putting off even after she knew that Xavier had taken the deal with Puddlemere, and after that, it was homework, Head Girl duties, and anything else she could come up with to distract her friends from her real problem.

"I just don't think I'll feel right talking to you or Sandra or Ally about it," Victoire told him.

Kyle smiled a little, "Honey, how long has it been since you spoke to Ted?"

Victoire scowled she had never said anything about their argument to her friends, but it was also a little too much to hope that her friends wouldn't notice that she hadn't talked to Ted in more than a week, "Kyle you really don't want to talk about my love life do you?"

"Nice try Vic, but you're not getting out of this conversation. Have you talked to Ted at all, about what happened in the cave? Have you talked to him since he told Kingsley about the notes?" Kyle asked her seriously.

Victoire wanted to lie to Kyle but for some reason the look on his face made her think twice about it and then blurt out the truth, "No."

His face creased, "Why not?"

"Because we haven't talked at in in a week and a half let alone talked about what happened. We tried . . . but I couldn't tell him what he wanted to hear."

"I doubt he wanted you to repeat back all of his ideas to you Vic. I'm sure that he just wanted to hear your side of things," Kyle reasoned.

She sighed, "I tried to tell him that I was sorry but he didn't want to hear it."

"Did you apologize before you tried to explain?" He asked her.

"Yes but I don't see-"

Kyle interrupted her, "Just trust me Vic. Talk to him, don't even let the sentence 'I'm sorry' leave your lips, and if that doesn't work kiss him a bit and you two should be good to go."

Victoire looked at him oddly, "Is that what you do when you and Sandra fight?"

"Yes. Although I usually add a good dose of begging for forgiveness into the mix because usually I'm the one in the wrong. You however, can't do that because if you did Ted would think that something rattled your brain," Kyle explained.

"Kyle I don't think-" She began only to be quieted by Kyle pressing his finger against her lips.

"Just trust me Vic."

* * *

"I hate people!" Dom announced as she stalked into her elder sister's dorm room and plopped down beside Victoire on her bed.

Victoire had been lying on the bed on her back and had been staring up at her ceiling when her sister burst in. She had to move over a bit to allow Dom to lie on the bed beside her.

"What people?" Victoire asked still gazing at the plaster of the ceiling above her.

"All people. My dorm mates to be specific," Dom replied.

"Why?"

"Because they called me a 'witch', but replace the 'w' with a 'b'."

"Why?"

"Because I yelled at all of them."

"Why did you yell at all of them?" Victoire asked even though she had an inkling of why Dom's dorm mates would have called her a name.

"They were making so much noise and I have a mother of all headaches, and my body aches, and I was grumpy to start with," Dom told her.

Victoire just shrugged, "Well it _is_ that time of the month."

"UGH! I don't know how you can stand it. You get everything I do, but the manticore venom makes you want to vomit too. How do you handle it?"

"Alcohol."

"Really?"

"No."

"Then what?" Dom asked seriously.

Victoire closed her eyes, "There is a potion that would help you know-"

"Oh _Hades_ no! I will not willingly drink that crap. No way," Dom announced stubbornly.

Victoire cracked an eyelid and looked at her sister. The indignation on Dom's pale and freckled face made Victoire smile just a tiny bit. Her face was so similar to what she assumed her own face had looked like the first time someone had suggested to her that she take the potion to help with this time of the month. In fact, Dom's face probably looked similar to how hers looked the first and only time she actually _took_ the potion.

"Okay Dom, okay. It doesn't hit you as hard as it hits me anyway," Victoire conceded.

Dom sat up and looked at Victoire speculatively, "You don't actually want to take that nasty potion for it do you?"

Victoire sighed, "I'll try anything that will keep me from vomiting every forty-five minutes."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Then why don't you get some for yourself?" Dom asked grabbing one of Victoire's pillows and fluffing it before laying her head atop it.

Victoire bolted up right in her bed and looked out the window next to her bed. The sky was an inky blackness that was only lit up by the pinpricks of stars and by the light reflecting off the large full moon.

"I think I will."

* * *

Victoire only hesitated a minute before knocking on the cool oak surface of the door. Once she did, she took a step back and folded her hands behind her back. She was expecting a surprised look on the face of the person who opened the door, but the one she got was just plain hilarious.

Kurt Williamson opened the door a few seconds after Victoire knocked and the minute he recognized her standing in front of him, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped, "Wha- what are you doing here?"

"Oh hi, nice to see you too," Victoire replied in a sarcastic tone with one blonde brow raised.

Kurt was still staring at her a few minutes later when she heard a female's voice from behind him, in the sitting room, ask, "What are you doing Kurt? Who is it?"

The question wasn't needed because the owner of the voice walked up behind Kurt and her face took over an expression of surprise rather similar to Kurt's.

Jilly was able to recover from her surprise faster than Kurt however. Not three seconds was spent staring at Victoire before her eyes focused again and she looked out behind Victoire before grabbing her arm lightly, pulling her into the sitting room, and then closing the door behind her.

"Why weren't there aurors behind you in the hall?" Jilly asked Victoire in a tone that made Victoire think that she must be a good asset to the department when they needed to interrogate someone.

"Invisibly cloak," Victoire said as she motioned to her arm where she had a silvery cloak was draped. She was very glad that she thought to 'borrow' it for the night from James.

Kurt tilted his head as he looked at the cloak, "So it is real. I thought Ted was kidding when he'd mention it."

"Nope," Victoire said wringing her hands in front of her a little uneasily.

"That doesn't matter!" Jilly snapped at Kurt with a frown before looking worriedly at Victoire, "Do you know how dangerous that little stunt could have been?"

Victoire frowned, "Listen I'm certain that I'm in for a long lecture from Ted tonight, so could you just skip it Jilly?"

Jilly's expression actually softened at her words instead of her getting angrier like Victoire thought she would, "He's in his room. You might want to put a privacy charm on the door when you go in though if you don't want Kurt to be listening in on your conversation."

Victoire gave the elder woman a small smile, "Will do. Thanks."

She turned her back on them and walked to the door that led to Teddy's bedroom. Behind her, she heard Kurt asking Jilly why she had to go ruining his fun by reminding her to put silencing charms on the door.

After the door was firmly closed behind her and all the appropriate privacy charms were placed on the door, Victoire looked around Teddy's room. He wasn't there. The steam billowing into the room from the not-so-fully-closed bathroom door proved that he was there though; most likely in the shower. Victoire smirked to herself for a minute before turning her back determinedly on the bathroom. A bunch of papers strewed out across Teddy's desk in the corner of the room near the door caught her attention. As she walked over to the desk she quietly told herself that if the paper's on his desk were official auror business that she'd look away. The fact that she thought that papers on his desk could be referring to anything else displayed how anxious she was for distraction until Teddy came out of the bathroom.

She recognized some of the papers as lists of people names, a random list of places, and most interestingly, some sort of schedule. Upon closer inspection, Victoire realized the schedule as the one for the aurors who were guarding her. There were four on the desk. One she noticed with names of the aurors who had followed her yesterday, including the extra ones needed for Gryffindor's Quidditch practice last night. The one next to it was the schedule of the aurors who were watching her today. The third had to be the schedule for the next day because there was an extra pair scheduled around the time that she had Head Girl patrol duty that night. And, with a start, Victoire realized that the last half-finished schedule with the still damp ink must have been the one that would be used for the day after the next, because the aurors were being worked around her Saturday morning five-hour Quidditch practice.

_Why is there a half-written schedule in Teddy's handwriting and still damp ink, on his desk?_

Victoire thought it, but she didn't want to dwell on it without talking to Teddy about it first. She didn't want to create another argument when they already had enough to discuss. She tried to distract herself by looking at something else, and had figured that she had hit the jackpot when she spotted the old weathered parchment paper that was spread across his desk. Victoire took out her wand from the front pocket of her royal-blue knit sweater dress and tapped it against the paper while whispering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

A map in a brilliant black ink immediately materialized on the parchment paper. She scanned through the black dots quickly, but a bright red one caught her eye. When she looked closer, she read the name aloud that went with the different coloured dot.

"Victoire Weasley."

_Why is my dot in a different colour?_

"Mischief managed."

* * *

Okay, so I hoped that you all enjoyed that. I know it stopped a little abruptly, but it's actually a good thing that it did. Because that means that I've written past this point, and that I've written enough to cut this down into two chapters (which I did) so that means that the next chapter is in fact written, and will be able to be updated next week! :)

I hope that everyone had a fantastic winter holidays and that those of you who have gone back to school or your respective studies (or others who had to travel distances) have all gotten back safely.

Happy New Year everyone, and if you didn't read the Q&A that I wrote last wee than please notice this

**I AM NOW ON TWITTER FOR THIS STORY (my brother and cousins made one for me even though I kinda didn't want too because I didn't think that anyone would follow) SO THANK YOU TO THOSE NINE (last I checked) WHO ARE FOLLOWING ME!**

**SO PLEASE FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER TryandTriAgain. (It's all one word on there)**. And you'll be able to see via that when I've posted, I can answer questions, and if I get a lot of people following I may even be able to post a line of two as a teaser for the next chapters (IF I get a lot of followers that is.)

And thanks again to everyone who has reviewed / followed / and or Favorited my story.

An especially big thanks to** TedandVic4Ever for being my 1000th ****reviewer**! Wow, that's a lot, and to** rockon88** and **beacauseginger** for being reviewers 1001 and 1002 respectively. :)

DFTBA everyone!


	73. Pleasant Distractions

**A/N:** Hey, so here's the next chapter!

**Disclaimer**: I do not own _Harry Potter_.

* * *

**Pleasant Distractions**

Victoire whirled around and was only slightly surprised that she ended up running face first into a hard chest. She wasn't surprised that Teddy was behind her because he had said the closing words for the map quietly but loud enough to make her jump; ergo he had to be very close to her. What did surprise her was the fact that she could feel that the skin of his chest was still slightly damp. He wasn't wearing a shirt. Surprise.

Victoire kept her gaze at her eye level, which gave her a view of his Adam's apple.

"Why am I red?" She asked in a quiet voice.

She saw Teddy take a step back from her and eye her worriedly, "Oh- um . . . I can put a shirt on if you feel uncomfortable . . ."

Victoire sighed and ran a hand through her blonde hair, "No! I-I mean. I'm not talking about me right now. I mean, why is my dot on the map red and everyone else's is black, like they should be?"

Teddy took a few more steps back and because he moved back so far, Victoire was forced to look at his face. His hands were also in his hair, "So . . . is that a yes or a no on the shirt?"

Victoire smirked for a minute, as she eyes looked him up and down without her express permission. He had on a pair of drawstring pajama bottoms that were riding low on his hips, but he still didn't have a shirt on. She hadn't noticed it a second ago, but his hair was also dripping a little; still wet from the shower.

"Um, you have to know that if it was up to me that I'd try to convince you to never wear a shirt again," Victoire told him starting to sound a little bit more like herself.

Teddy smiled a little but went to his dresser and pulled out a short-sleeved white t-shirt and pulled it on, "I don't think that that would be a good idea. We have some things to talk about and we wouldn't want you to be distracted the whole time."

Victoire grinned wickedly at him, "You know, if you stayed shirtless, I probably would have just agreed with everything that you said because I would have been preoccupied."

Teddy frowned for a minute, "Damn. That could have really worked to my advantage."

Victoire licked her lips, "Yup."

There was bit of uncomfortable silence before Victoire asked again, "Why is my dot red?"

Teddy sighed, "I changed it to red because it made it easier to pick you out of the crowd."

"You were able to interfere with the magic of a map made by three very powerful wizards?" Victoire asked half-jokingly and half-doubtful.

The corner of his mouth turned up a little, "Okay. I had McGonagall help me turn your dot red so that it'd be easier to pick you out of a crowd."

Victoire nodded and tried to ask her next question non-accusingly, "Why is there a half-finished schedule for the aurors who are following me on your desk?"

"Because I haven't finished it yet," Teddy said walking back over to his desk so that he could fold up the schedules that she had been looking at and place them in a folder.

"Why are you making them then?"

"For the same reason why I have the map open at almost all times to make sure that there's someone with you at all times," Teddy replied tidying up a few more things on his desk but also pulling out a fresh piece of parchment paper.

"And that would be why?" Victoire asked tired of him sidestepping her questions.

Teddy gestured for her to sit down on his bed before he answered. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.

"It's because I'm in charge of your security."

Victoire's eyes widened in surprise, "What?"

He sighed and ran a hand agitatedly through his turquoise blue fringe, "Vic . . . I'm in charge of making the schedules up for the aurors to follow who are guarding you. I'm responsible for making sure that there are enough aurors following you and that they work around your practices and Head Girl duties. And when I'm not making schedules and moving people around my eyes are practically glued to the Map to make sure that everyone is where they're supposed to be and that you aren't off somewhere by yourself –how did you get here anyway? You wouldn't have come to my room if you were being followed by other aurors."

She smirked, "I wasn't being followed by aurors."

Teddy rolled his eyes, "What did you do?"

"Invisibility cloak," she replied pretending to be more concerned with the places on her nails where the yellow polish was chipping.

He frowned, "Damn. Why didn't I think of that as a potential concern? And why would you even do that! You know how dangerous this little solo trip could have been!"

The former part of Teddy's statement had been more to himself than her. However, he fully expected an answer for the later part.

"I know that it could have been dangerous . . . to some people's minds. But really, I snuck away from the two aurors who were stalking me to come see another auror, while guessing –accurately at that- that there would be at least two other aurors nearby. As for why. Well I'm obviously going mental because Kyle told me that I needed to talk things out with you, and for some reason I agreed. That's why I'm here. It's not as if I would have had a chance to talk to you otherwise. I haven't seen even a glimpse of you since almost two weeks ago," she told him evenly.

He looked down at his feet with an expression that looked very similar to contrition, before lifting his face and meeting her eyes, "I know. Trust me it hasn't been too easy on me either. It's just that Kingsley gave me this task and I can't say no to him especially since I know that it's also part punishment for me-"

Victoire had decided to interrupt him the minute she heard the word punishment, "Punishment? Why would this be a punishment for you? Why would Kingsley want to punish you?"

"Victoire . . . you can't tell me that you don't think that Kingsley doesn't have a right to be upset with me after what happened."

"After what happened? After you saved me from being taken away from those kidnappers!"

Teddy groaned quietly and sat down on the chair closest to his desk. He positioned it until he was facing her from her spot on the end of his bed, "Victoire look at it from his point of view. I didn't tell him about the notes. I didn't tell him that his goddaughter was receiving threatening notes from some outside source that may or may not have been connected to the manticore attack where realistically she should have died, or from being attacked and who knows what else could have happened at the Ball, also on Hogwarts property."

Victoire swallowed thickly, "Teddy it's not your fault. I asked you not to tell him and you were just following my wishes."

Teddy pulled at his hair a bit, "But that's just it Vic, it is my fault. That is exactly why I am at fault. I let my feelings for you . . . the circumstance of our relationship, I let it all influence me, and it caused me to go against my better judgement and keep it all a secret. Lily, Bruno, and Valentin being kidnapped could have been avoided if I'd just told him like my gut was telling me to."

She was getting angry now, but mostly with herself, "No, the only thing that would have stopped the kids from being kidnapped would be if I wasn't in the Tournament at all. Which is what Kingsley would have tried to make me do if you had told him about the notes. You and I, and even Kingsley know that I would have never agreed to that. Teddy, everyone makes mistakes. I still don't think it was a mistake, but obviously, you do. That being said Kingsley shouldn't be punishing you for something that is just as much my fault."

"It's not so much a punishment . . . just listen. Kingsley and I spoke after everything that happened at the Second Task and we both came to the conclusion that maybe me being directly involved with protecting you wasn't the best idea. I saw it so it was no doubt that he also saw that my judgement could become clouded when it comes to you. And it's not just because we're dating. The sixteen years of friendship before that would still have been enough to make me putty in your hands when you asked me to do something. Kingsley himself admitted that he has a hard time going against you, that's why you're _still_ in the Tournament even against _his_ better judgement."

"But that being said," Teddy continued, "We both agreed that taking me out of patrolling rotation when concerning you was probably the best idea. Therefore, he gave me this new job. He knew that I'd still want to be involved with your protection, so he gave me the task of creating the schedules and moving the aurors around for your extra security detail. He figured that the extra time would also give me a chance to check the map and make sure that you were following your security detail and that if there was something wrong, I'd be pretty much free to run in and fix any of the problems."

Victoire nodded, "So what part of this is punishment then?"

Teddy sighed, "Well, besides the fact that this job would stop me from seeing you very often, he figured that it would affect my conscience. Me making all the schedules and being in charge of all of the aurors that were essentially taking away all of your privacy and probably royally pissing you off. Which trust me, it does, but not even to make me stop."

Victoire cracked a bit of a smile. Leave it to Kingsley to come up with a job for Teddy that he needed to be done, that could double as a punishment for both him and her. She thought that she had her godfather wrapped around her finger but apparently, he had enough of a mind of his own to get his wishes done and to irritate both her and Teddy with the same task.

"Sounds like something Kingsley would do. Well I guess then-" Victoire stopped her thought abruptly when a wave of pain flashed through her head. Her hand reached up to grasp her forehead at the same that a roll of nausea rushed through her stomach and up to her throat.

"'Scuse me," she mumbled out before jumping up from her spot on Teddy's bed and sprinting into the bathroom.

She reached the toilet in time to vomit violently; which caused her head to ache even worse. Near the end of her heaving, she realized that she wasn't alone in the bathroom. Teddy's warm body was kneeling beside her and he was using one of his hands to hold back her long hair, and the other to gently rub her upper back where she hadn't realized had started to ache from the movement of her heaving. When she mercifully stopped, she felt Teddy get up from his position beside her and walk over to a little cupboard in the corner of the bathroom where he grabbed a pale grey washcloth. As he wet it and filled up a cup with mouthwash, she lay back on the cool tile of the floor.

After rinsing her mouth and washing her face, she groaned and started to pull at her now too warm wool knit dress.

"What's wrong?" Teddy asked as he watched her rolling up her sleeves and pulling at the blue fabric at the neckline of her dress.

"Too hot," she panted.

"An uncomfortable hot?" he asked.

She scowled at him, "No. An enjoyable hot, that's why I'm ten seconds away from practically ripping my clothes off."

Teddy ignored her snipe and walked out of the bathroom only to walk back a second later with his Puddlemere Quidditch jersey in his hand that she'd worn the night of the Hallowe'en Ball to sleep in. He tossed it to her, told her that she could put that on instead, and closed the door behind him as he walked out.

She peeled her clothes off and put his jersey on in replacement. It fell to just above mid-thigh like it had the one other time she'd worn it, and like before the wide neck slipped to reveal a large portion of pale skin near her shoulder when she bent down to pick up her wool dress and the black leggings she'd worn underneath it from the floor.

When she opened the bathroom door and walked back into the bedroom, she saw Teddy standing at the open window of his room and quickly shutting the glass when he noticed her entrance. She was about to ask his what he was doing when he walked over to his desk and grabbed something before turning and walking towards her with two glasses in his hands, both filled to the brim with a sinister looking slivery-grey liquid.

Victoire accepted the drink without as much as a word of complaint. She was just about to raise the glass to her lips before Teddy asked her suspiciously.

"You're not just going to drink that are you?"

Victoire quirked an eyebrow up at him, "Are you really complaining that I was about to take the wolfsbane potion without a protest?"

He sighed and ran the hand that wasn't holding on to his own glass of potion through his hair, "I-I just expected a bit more of a fight. Why are you suddenly so gung-ho to drink it?"

She shrugged, "I hate the taste, but it did help my symptoms when you made me drink it in October. I didn't feel anything with the November full-moon because I was recovering from the Manticore attack, the December full moon was crap because I was still feeling mostly the effects of the Manticore venom, but it was the last one in January when I started to realize that the vomiting from the venom wasn't the worst anymore; I was starting to notice the headaches and body aches again and the venom in my system seemed to be making them worse. It was Dom complaining to me an hour ago about her own pain from the moon that made me decide that I wasn't about to go through the same pain from last month."

"So you finally figured that the taste is worth it to get through the pain?" Teddy asked.

Victoire lifted her glass up and Teddy mimicked her actions even though she didn't give him a response. They clinked their glasses together before Victoire returned hers to her lips and downed it. Teddy gave her a surprised look before starting in on his a little slower than she did.

As Teddy finished his potion, Victoire finally answered Teddy's previous question, "Yes, the painlessness did outweigh the taste from the last time, but I think it's because of the other thing you did last time that got me over the taste so sufficiently."

He winced a little as the last of the potion washed down his throat and gave her a confused look, "I'm sorry to disappoint but I don't have a chocolate frog to wash the taste down for you this time."

Victoire smirked, grabbed the front of his white tee shirt, and pulled him close to her. She whispered to him before she pressed her lips to his, "I wasn't talking about the chocolate Teddy."

He barely registered her words before kissing her back roughly. It had been about two weeks since they'd last seen each other, therefore it had been just as long if not longer since they'd last kissed each other. Victoire's arms were wrapped around his neck with her fingers tangled in his turquoise hair. One of Teddy's hands moved to her face to tilt it so that he could use his height advantage to have better access to her mouth, while the other started at the back of her head and slowly travelled down her through her long blonde hair.

Victoire moaned and Teddy would have smirked if it weren't for the fact that his mouth was employed in a much more enjoyable task. She was about to deepen the kiss even more when she heard a light scratching sound on the glass window. They broke apart and both of their heads whipped around to the window to look at the large white owl that was sitting on the other side of the glass.

Victoire easily recognized it as Teddy's owl. He paced over to it quickly and took the piece of parchment paper that was attached to its leg. He read the words hastily before crushing the paper up in his fist and sighing.

"What was that about?" Victoire asked walking closer to him.

He turned around and shoved the crumpled up paper into the front pocket of his pyjama pants while saying, "Nothing."

"But-" Victoire was unable to finish her question because Teddy suddenly grabbed her face with both of his hands and crushed his lips to hers again.

She gasped because she was ill prepared for the kiss and he took the opportunity to push his tongue into her mouth, ensuring that she couldn't ask any more questions. She closed her eyes and both of her hands automatically delved into his hair as she tangled her tongue with his. Teddy's hands stayed on her face as they kissed even though one of Victoire's hands began to slowly travel from the back of his head, down his back, and to his waist. She slipped her hand into the front pocket of his pants and attempted to smile against Teddy's mouth as she felt her fingers curl around the crumpled up piece of paper.

She pulled her hand out of his pocket, her tongue out of his mouth, and her face away from his in the same moment before turning her back on him and running to the other side of his room while she tried to straighten out the note she'd stolen from him. She could hear Teddy coming up from behind her but she was too busy reading the quick note to worry about him trying to get it back from her. The minute he got within reaching distance he plucked it from her hands and vanished it.

It was too late though, Victoire already read the words written in the very familiar handwriting.

"What was that about?" Victoire asked turning to face Teddy with an angry look on her face.

"What was what?" Teddy asked hoping that he'd gotten the paper out of her hands before she could finish the entire note.

"That reply from Kingsley, what was it about?" Victoire asked crossing her arms in front of her chest. The writing that was worse than even chicken scratch because at best it looked like a series of bumpy lines could only belong to her godfather.

Teddy sighed and ran his hand through his fringe, "I just let him know that you left Gryffindor Tower without your aurors, and that we really should have thought about the invisibility cloak before. I also let him know that you're safe and here with me, and that I gave you some Wolfsbane potion and that we're going to see if that will help with your symptoms tonight. Because you know, if it does we should look into getting you a prescription for your own Wolfsbane potion-"

Teddy had started to ramble so Victoire gave him a look that stopped him mid-word, "You told my godfather that I'm in your room right now? That I'm probably going to stay the night? Are you insane?"

"He's my boss Vic he needs to know that there was an unforeseen breach in your security-"

"Do you ever turn it off Teddy? It's ten-thirty right now; I think it's safe to say that you're off the clock."

"You're out of your room, so no, it seems that I'm not off the clock."

"I'm safe! I'm with you and there's two other bloody aurors outside the door. You don't have to be Mr-Head-of-my-security-right-now," Victoire told him angrily.

Teddy looked like he was about to pull all of the hair out of his head, "I'm not trying to seem like that. I'm just letting the people that would worry about you know that you're safe-"

Victoire cut him off once more, "Wait! People? As in plural?"

Teddy swallowed thickly, "Um . . . we'll I only owled Kingsley but I'll need to owl your father some time tonight-"

"You're unbelievable," Victoire scoffed before moving away from him and pacing towards the door. She threw the door open and called Kurt's name as she stepped into the living room that the two aurors shared.

Kurt and Jilly had both been sitting in the living room arguing over something that had happened during one of their patrols that day. However, Victoire's entrance had both of their attention drawn to her. Jilly because she was surprised that Victoire would ever willing call Kurt to do anything. Kurt because Victoire had shown up wearing only Ted's jersey.

When Kurt remembered that Victoire had called to him he –with great effort- lifted his eyes from the very bare skin of her lower thigh and to her face, "Uh . . . yes Victoire?"

Victoire could hear Teddy coming up behind her to see what was going on, but she ignored him and focused her attention on Kurt, "If I was in your room at night who would be the last person you would tell?"

Kurt's eyes bugged out of his head, "Um . . . ugh . . . what?"

Victoire rolled her eyes and ignored the huff of annoyance that escaped from Teddy behind her, "Pretend that I was in your room right now-"

"Doing what?" Kurt asked his eyebrows narrowing over his hazel eyes.

"That part's not important! But pretend that I'm in your room right now. Who would be the last person that you would go tell?"

"Ted?" Kurt said more like a question than an answer.

Victoire shook her head, "No. There's a person who you would hate to tell more than Teddy."

Kurt thought for a moment before saying, "Shacklebolt!"

Victoire nodded and then exasperatedly turned to Teddy, "See! Even Kurt understands that the last person you want to tell that I'm in your room is Kingsley! But no, he has to be the first person you tell! Really Teddy? And not only that but you're ten seconds away from owling my father too!"

Teddy gritted his teeth and grabbed Victoire's forearm lightly, "Excuse us." He told Kurt and Jilly before pulling Victoire back into his room and shutting the door behind them on his friends' expressions of confusion. He quickly redid the privacy charms and shot Victoire an incredulous look.

"Was that really necessary?"

"That depends. Have you realized what you did wrong?"

"Victoire I'm sorry that you're upset that I told Kingsley but I ignored my better instinct the last couple times and it got us nothing but trouble. I had to tell him this time, I don't want anything to happen to you," Teddy said stepping close to him and taking her face in his hands. He stroked her cheekbones gently as he waited for her answer.

"Teddy I didn't mean to put you in a hard place but I have so little privacy as it is. And while I understand all the other stuff you and Kingsley have set up, I feel like me spending time with you should be something that is between us. _Not me, you, Kingsley, and my father_. Just the two of us. I'm the one you're dating; not my father or my godfather. I mean, if you actually got the owl off to my father, who would be next? You planning on writing to Uncle Charlie too? Uncle Percy? Don't bother writing to George because he'd probably find more humour in it than anything else. Oh, you could owl Xavier, he'd give you a nice reaction," Victoire said sarcastically.

He looked into her ocean-blue eyes and waited for the fire that was in them to die down, "Vic, I just want everyone to know that you're safe in case something happens. I mean did you tell even Ally or Sandra that you were coming to see me so that they wouldn't be worried when they didn't see you the rest of the night?"

"I told Dom, and Kyle was the one who actually convinced me earlier today to make sure that I spoke with you," Victoire replied.

"Vic, please. I did the thing with the notes all wrong. Please just let me owl you're dad, tell him that you're safe. Then I promise that they'll be the last person I tell I'll we'll spend the rest of the night as just you and me, okay?" Teddy begged.

"I have a condition of my own," Victoire told him cautiously.

Teddy's eyes lit up, "What is it?"

"I know that we still have to talk about what happened in the cave . . . and we still have stuff to say about the notes . . . but can we please leave that until tomorrow and not talk about it tonight?" Victoire asked.

Teddy shot her a confused look, "Then what do you expect us to do tonight?"

Victoire laughed before grabbing a hold of Teddy's white t-shirt and pulling him closer to her. She reached up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips delicately to his. She let the kiss last for a few seconds before pulling away and whispering, "That."

Teddy's sapphire blue eyes were wide for a minute before he pulled Victoire back to him and captured her lips. As she pressed her mouth harder to his she, felt his arms move to go around her waist, and he held her steady as he slowly backed her up to where his bed was.

Victoire felt the bed touch the back of her legs and sat down. She'd placed her arms around his neck so she pulled him down with her. Their mouths were still connected as Teddy pushed her down so that she was lying on the bed and he was half kneeling above her.

Victoire broke her mouth away from his to breathe but continued to press kisses down his neck. It seemed that the new resurgence of oxygen had the opposite effect on Teddy though. Instead of continuing to kiss Victoire, he moved off of her and to his feet.

"Nice try Vic," he told her panting hard as he ran his hands through his hair, "But I'm still going to write that note to your father."

Victoire –still lying on her back on his bed- groaned in annoyance as she watched him walk away from her and to his desk. He sat down at his chair, grabbed a quill, and started to write his note to Bill. Victoire grumbled from her spot on Teddy's bed before getting up and walking slowly over to him. In the back of her mind, she knew that the chance that she'd be able to distract Teddy from sending the note would be slim, but she also knew that there was no harm in trying.

When she was standing right behind his chair, she bent and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind. She let her head rest on his shoulder as she tried to see how far he'd gotten on the note, and was pleased to see that he had only written the greeting before setting his quill to the side.

"Can't go through with it?" Victoire whispered, her lips lightly brushing the shell of his ear.

Teddy brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, "No. I'm just not sure how much I need to tell him. Kingsley's more aware of my involvement with your security than your father is. He's aware of course, but I haven't kept him as in the loop with it as I have with Kingsley."

"I don't think that the information that you are required to tell my father though, involves the fact that I'm probably going to spend the night with you," Victoire told him in a husky voice right before she placed a kiss low near the back of his neck.

"I beg to differ," he replied a firmly.

Victoire moved her lips to the spot behind his ear that usually drove him crazy and pressed a long kiss there, "Do you really?"

"Yup." Teddy's voice shook but his hand was steady as he grabbed his recently discarded quill and began to write his note to Bill.

Victoire figured that her gentle approach wasn't working on him, so she needed to up her game if she was going to stop him before he posted his note. She released his neck and moved to stand next to him instead of behind. She sat sideways in his lap and then re-looped her arms around his neck, but from the front this time.

Teddy's arms moved to the side so that he could make room for her, "Victoire, you're just a little bit in my way Sweetheart."

Victoire put on an innocent look, "Am I? My bad Babe." She moved off his lap and sat down on the edge of the desk behind her; situating herself right on the note he was penning to her father.

"Better?" She asked with a smirk.

Teddy considered her for a while before locking his sapphire blue eyes on her ocean-blue ones, "Well I do have a much better view now."

Victoire felt her face heat up and couldn't believe that his simple words could reduce her to a blush when she hadn't blushed in weeks, "And wouldn't you rather look at this than write some silly little note to my father?"

Teddy shot her his sexy smirk, "I can't say that I wouldn't."

He stood up from his chair, placed one hand on the back of her head, and then one at the small of her back. He used the one at her head to bring her face close to his. His eyes stared at her lips for a few seconds as he listened to her breathing deepen. Once she'd closed her eyes in anticipation, he leaned forward and captured her plump bottom lip between both of his. Victoire poured as much passion as she could into the kiss and threw her arms around his neck again and her legs wrapped around his waist in an attempt to get her body as close to his as possible.

Victoire pressed her tongue against Teddy's lips and he opened them as he granted her access. As she focused on twisting her tongue with his she could feel the arm resting at the small of her back move lower until it was underneath her and he was able to use it to help him lift her up off the desk. She couldn't exactly focus on what he was doing besides the late realization that he must have lifted her up and carried her over to his bed because one minute she sitting on the hard wood of his desk and the next she was lying on her back again on his bedspread.

Teddy broke his mouth away from hers and began to pepper light kisses down her neck. Victoire was breathing hard by the time he got to the base of her neck and her body was so warm she wouldn't be surprised if she can gotten caught on fire.

"Teddy," Victoire moaned even though she wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to say to him.

"Yes?" He replied in between the kisses he was leaving on her skin.

"I-I-" She still didn't know what she was trying to tell him, or why she was even attempting to move his attention away from what he was doing to her neck.

"You what Victoire?" He asked. And even though she couldn't see his face, she knew that he was wearing her favourite smirk.

"I-I love you," She told him shakily.

She felt him press a smile into the skin of her neck before he moved his face back to hers and covered her mouth again.

This time the kiss was slow and sweet, and when Victoire tried to deepen it, he pulled back entirely. She tried to frown up at him for breaking their kiss, but the black spots of light that were dancing across her vision made her realize that she was probably only a few minutes away from passing out because of the lack of oxygen she'd been getting to her lungs. It seemed that in the heat of the moment, she'd forgotten to breathe.

Teddy smiled at her and kissed her forehead gently, "I love you too Vic. So, how about you lay here and get your breathing back to normal, and I'll go finish that note to your father?"

Victoire groaned in irritation at his response but she was too light headed from their kisses and her body felt too weak from his touch to properly get up and follow him to his desk to try to distract him from his note again.

_Ah well. I guess the sooner he finishes that damn note the sooner he can post it and the sooner we can get to activities that won't keep getting interrupted by us trying to distract each other._

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**A/N:** okay, so I know we didn't get quite so far into the explanations as we wanted, but hey, the two hadn't seen each other in a while, they needed some time.

**Next Chapter****:** There will definitely be explanations, a whole chapter, it won't end until they've talked things through.

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	74. Explanations

**A/N:** **Alright people. I'm sorry this is so late but my first round of midterms really suck up on me and I can't go on fan fiction when I'm studying or I'll just end up wasting a lot of time (seriously I still have two midterms left to go so I shouldn't even been on it right now, I can already feel the pull to go read some fanfics.)**

**However, my midterm schedule is going to be over the next two weeks, so I didn't think I'd find time to update by then and it has been a while.**

**That being said, my midterms are still going on, so I haven't had any free time to write, so the next chapter won't be out until a few more weeks. **

**I'm really, really, really sorry but that's the way the cookie-crumbles.**

**Thanks for taking your time to read this A/N, now onto the chapter!**

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**(P.S. Thanks for all of the reviews, follows, and favourites form the last chapter!)**

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**Explanations**

Teddy felt the oddest sensation, he felt as though he was being watched; it made him feel very uncomfortable.

Instead of the odd feeling gradually fading away as he attempted to avoid it, the feeling just got stronger. The sensation had started roughly at his cranial cavity, but then he felt it slowly start to move to his face, and then just as slowly spread out throughout his body until he could no longer ignore the tingling sensation in favour of trying to fall back asleep.

He cracked his eyes opened and smiled a little at the sight of the silvery blonde hair in his face. Once his still some-what asleep brain had awoken more, he lifted his head a little, looked, and then frowned.

He and Victoire had fallen asleep in his bed on their backs last night, with a wall of probably four or five pillows in-between them. (The pillow fortification was necessary for Teddy was having no luck trying to convince Victoire to go to sleep when he could easily see the manipulative pout that she'd placed on her face as she tried to get her way.) However, somehow, during the middle of the night, the pillows must have been scattered elsewhere as they ended up cuddling together. Or that is what Teddy assumed seeing as he just woke up with one arm stretched out under the pillow that his head had been resting on, and his other lightly resting across Victoire's waist, (they were both sleeping on their sides to the right with Victoire's back pressed against his chest), and his fingers had somehow entwined themselves with hers as they rested on the bed just beside her.

Teddy hadn't frowned at how their sleep positions had changed however; he frowned at the fact that he still had the sensation that he was being watched even though his quick inspection of Victoire's face had shown that she was still completely conked out. He was twenty seconds from just shrugging it off and lying down again to fall back asleep when he felt the urge to move his gaze from the sleeping blonde to his bedroom door.

_Bollocks._

Teddy kept his eyes locked on the figure at the door as he reached beside him and gently shook Victoire's shoulder. She awoke enough to grumble out some nonsense at him and roll over until she was lying face first on the bed. She gave a hard tug at the blankets as she rolled and ended up pulling them off of his body.

Teddy could feel his face heat up and he knew that his face and (most likely) his hair had turned red from his embarrassment; when Victoire had pulled the sheets she'd revealed that Teddy was only wearing a pair of pyjama pants (his shirt having been lost some time earlier before they went to bed).

Teddy tried to shake Victoire harder and threw in some vocals this time, "Vic . . . Victoire you need to wake up."

"_Pas maintenant_," she mumbled out as she pulled the covers up almost past her head.

"Yes right now," Teddy told her back firmly as she pulled the blankets back from her carefully. He made sure not to pull the blankets back too far so that the shortness of the jersey she wore to bed wouldn't be immediately realized.

Victoire rolled back over (thankfully in Teddy's mind the jersey didn't ride up as she did) and peeled back her eyelids to reveal a pair of upset ocean-blue irises. She sat up –her hair an attractive mess- and frowned at him, "Do you realize how little sleep I'm working with right now? You kept me up until-"

Teddy had just decided to get out of the bed so that the scene would look less inappropriate when Victoire had spoken. He ended up almost jumping at her as he moved to cover her mouth with his hand to stop her speech. Her half-asleep mind still hadn't recognized the third person present in the room.

"'Morning you two," the voice called gently from his spot near in front of the closed door of Teddy's bedroom.

Victoire's eyes widened as she recognized the voice and Teddy dropped his hands because he figured that she'd be too surprised to say anything else that might paint them in a worse light.

"Good morning Harry," Teddy replied in a flat voice.

Harry smirked at his godson –the first time he'd shown of any type of emotion since he'd entered the room and saw them asleep in bed- before shooting his niece a considering glance.

Victoire felt an unprecedented amount of guilt from her uncle's gaze, so she mumbled out, "Uncle Harry! We- I mean Teddy and I . . . we, uh, we were just-"

Harry cut off her brilliant explanation, "It's alright Vic. Teddy owled me last night and told me what happened."

"You what?" Victoire seethed as she grabbed a pillow and soundly _thwacked_ Teddy with it.

"How?" _Thwack_.

"Could you?" _Thwack_.

"First Kingsley!" _Thwack_.

"Then my father!" _Thwack_.

"And now Uncle Harry?!" _Thwack_.

Victoire's assault on Teddy hadn't just been with the poor abused pillow. She had slowly been moving closer to him as she hit him –for he had been moving away from her- and ended up almost lying on top of him as she tried to hit him with the feathered filled casing.

"Am I going to end up getting an owl from Xavier later too? Did you also take my sarcasm about that as literal?" _Thwack_.

"Do you two want me to leave?" Harry asked ironically, as he watched the two.

Teddy easily pushed Victoire off of him and got up from the bed so that it would be harder for her to retaliate.

"No. What did you come here for?"

Harry grinned, "I wanted to see how you two were faring because even with the potion you're not always the best after the full moon. Although it looks like Victoire is back to normal."

Victoire huffed and dropped the pillow she was using to attack Teddy with before lying back down on the bed with her back to the two men and pulling the covers up almost to her head.

Teddy sighed and shifted from one foot to the other awkwardly, "Um, I should probably get her out of my bed, shouldn't I?"

Harry shrugged, "She's your girlfriend not mine. Although I'm pretty sure that the aurors that are assigned to follow her today are probably very confused right now because they haven't seen her come out of Gryffindor Tower and head downstairs to breakfast with her friends yet."

"Shoot. I forgot about them. How am I supposed to get Victoire back there without them noticing?" Teddy asked.

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm not answering that because that was a very stupid question Teddy. Just make sure that she makes it to her first class on time. As Head Girl, she should be setting a good example for everyone else. Goodbye."

Once Harry was out of the room Teddy turned to look at Victoire as she was curled up under the blankets on the bed. He sighed for a minute as he contemplated how to convince her to get up without having her complain.

He quickly shook off that thought when he realized that there was no way that he was going to be able to get her to leave without her griping about it.

He walked over to the bed and had to kneel on it as he leaned in to shake Victoire's shoulder gently again, "Victoire you really need to get up now."

She flipped over so that she was lying with her back on the bed but her eyes refused to open, "No."

Teddy sighed, "Please?"

"Nope."

"If you don't you'll miss breakfast."

"That's fine."

"I'm not going to kiss you again if you don't get up," Teddy said as he tried to sound stern; hopefully his comment would make her decide to comply with his wishes.

She opened her eyes briefly to examine his expression before she closed them again, "No you won't. We both know that you don't have that kind of self-control when it comes to me."

He frowned shortly. He hadn't expected her to call his bluff so quickly.

"If you don't get up I will convince Kingsley that at least three other aurors will need to be added to your personal guard."

Victoire gasped and sat up so quickly that if she hadn't been more preoccupied with what Teddy had said then she would have found that her head was spinning, "You wouldn't."

"Try me," he answered back with a determined expression.

She studied him closely before saying slowly, "Kingsley wouldn't listen to you . . ."

Teddy chuckled, "Good one Vic. If Kingsley had his way you would be kept in a room full of aurors the entire day and night without so much as allowing you outside of the room until he figured out and apprehended whoever it is that is behind all of the incidents.

Victoire's shoulders drooped in defeat. Teddy had a very good argument and the only irritating thing about it was its validity.

"Fine," she replied in a desolate tone. She knew when she was beaten.

* * *

After the two had gotten dressed (Victoire in the bathroom back into the knit dress and black leggings she'd discarded the night before because of her high body temperature), Teddy opened the door to his bedroom slightly, before opening it up fully (once he had established that Kurt was nowhere to be seen in the kitchen or living space) and whisking Victoire out of their rooms. He had then covered the both of them up with the invisibility cloak and trekked quickly up to Gryffindor Tower. Upon coming to the corner of the hall that held the Fat Lady's portrait, Teddy slipped out from under the cover of the cloak and fulfilled his role in momentarily distracting the aurors who were stationed near the portrait, so that Victoire could sneak back into the tower without being noticed. After Victoire had gotten into the common room, she continued with her invisible self-up to her dormitory and only took the cloak off before opening the door and entering her room.

The lesson portion of Victoire's day had gone by quickly, and before she knew it, Ally was poking her –quite insistently- in the ribs from her spot beside her at Gryffindor table, in the Great Hall, during dinnertime.

"What is it Ally?" Victoire asked when she finished chewing her last bite of pudding. Oddly enough, without Xavier there to be annoyed with Victoire's poor table etiquette, Victoire hadn't been able to find it within herself to continue with said poor table manners.

"Weren't you telling me earlier Vic, that you wanted to have a bath tonight? After all, you switched your patrol with Shelley Alexander from Hufflepuff because she needs this Saturday off," Ally told her in a poorly disguised deliberate voice.

Victoire wasn't entirely sure what her cousin was talking about. Yes, Shelley had come to her during their Potions class to ask to switch patrols because she had a date for the coming Saturday and she needed the night off. But Victoire couldn't remember informing her cousin of a desire to now spend her unaccounted for free time for that night in a bath. Nor had any inclination for a bath come into her mind for she'd already had a quick shower that morning after she returned to her dorm room from Teddy's.

"Ally what are you- Ow!" Victoire exclaimed as she felt a sharp kick from Ally under the table.

Ally was giving her a much more measured look this time before gesturing with a slight tilt of her head to the two aurors who were leaning against the wall a bit of a distance from them. Still completely within hearing range, however.

Victoire belatedly figured out that whatever nonsense her cousin was trying to tell her about was something that she didn't want to be heard by the aurors. And if Victoire was going to get the issue out of Ally in plain words, they had to go somewhere where the aurors wouldn't be able to hear them.

"Yes, of course. Um, are you finished with your dinner too? We can walk back to the tower together."

Ally rolled her eyes at Victoire's bad acting skills but nodded yes. The two girls left quickly after that, with barely a goodbye to Sandra and Kyle who had been sitting across from them at the table, but in their minds, they seemed to be far, far, away in a place that only contained the two of them.

When the two girls had gotten to the dormitory, happily leaving Victoire's bodyguards with the portrait of the Fat Lady, they went to Ally's dorm room because the latter was certain that it would be empty, and Victoire finally had the chance to question her cousin.

"What in the name of Godric Gryffindor was that performance at dinner? If you wanted to talk to me privately you didn't need to mention that nonsense about a bath, we could have just left to come up here."

Ally rolled her eyes, "It's not me that you need to talk with. Although I'd love it if you did finally spill your guts about all of this, Teddy is definitely the person you should be discussing this with first."

"Discussing what?" Victoire asked still confused as to her cousin's real intentions.

"You told me last night that because you were still throwing up intermittently you and Teddy decided against talking about the last task in favour for a time when you were both feeling better, did you not?" Ally told her.

"Yes . . ." Victoire replied.

"Then I think that you should do that tonight. You guys need to get this over with because if you wait any longer your emotions over it are all just going to keep cooking."

"Understandable," Victoire replied grudgingly, "But what was that whole bath routine about?"

Ally sighed, she really thought that Victoire was smarter than that, "While you could use the invisibility cloak and slip out of here again and go to his rooms, I don't think it's the best idea. First, because it's too early in the night for the aurors to believe that you've decided to stay in for the rest of the night. And second, because I don't think that you and Teddy being in a room where there is comfortable furniture will promote forward discussion either."

Victoire didn't blush or even get the slightest bit embarrassed at the thinly veiled meaning of Ally's words; her cousin knew her too well, "Fine. But I still don't see where a bath in the Prefect bathroom comes in?"

"That's because you're still under the impression that you're actually going to have a bath. You aren't. You are going to go into the bathroom –the only other place where you can go without the aurors being five steps behind you except this tower- and then put on the invisibility cloak and slip out," Ally told her.

"Then where do I go from there? You said that I shouldn't go to Teddy's rooms –which makes sense because he might not even be there- but where can I go from there where he'll be able to see me and no one else will?"

"You will go to just outside the Room of Requirement. You will wait there for what I'm guessing will be no more than ten minutes before Teddy looks at the map and realize that your little red dot is all alone, and halfway across the Castle from the aurors who are supposed to be following you. He will then feel that it is his responsibility to come get you. Then you will go into the room and finally talk!" Ally told her the last sentence coming out more as a command than a suggestion.

Victoire regarded her cousin with a bit of surprise, "Hmm, good plan. And rather devious too. I must say, if I didn't know that you weren't always sweet as sugar I would have been astonished that you had come up with that."

Ally smirked, "I am George Weasley's daughter after all. Even if some people can't believe it upon first introduction."

Victoire agreed to the plan and then went to her room to grab her towels and dressing gown to make the whole plan seem more legitimate to the aurors.

* * *

As Ally had guessed, Victoire had only been waiting about seven minutes outside the room of requirement –underneath the invisibility cloak of course- after escaping from her bodyguards, when she saw Teddy hastily pacing down the corridor. Victoire didn't even bother taking off the cloak, she quickly asked the Room to turn into a place where she and Teddy could talk, and walked in. She knew that the sudden appearance of the door on the wall would confirm to Teddy that she was there even if he wasn't presently able to see her.

When she entered, she stopped and turned around so that she could watch Teddy follow her in. Like when she was in the cave and it had been he who was invisible –or more accurately disillusioned- Teddy seemed to know exactly where she was even though he couldn't see her. She guessed that he just had the same _feeling_ that she did when she was captured and felt his presence.

He stepped forward, reached out, grabbed a handful of the invisibility cloak, and then pulled it off her.

Victoire had clearly seen Teddy's expression of contempt when he entered the room, but now that the cloak was off of her, he was finally able to see her own expression of ease.

The angry metamorphmagus spoke first, "I think I'm going to revoke your right to use this cloak."

"Well that's going to make it rather awkward then isn't it when I go back to where my guards are and they see that I'm not inside the bathroom like they thought," Victoire replied simply.

Teddy sighed agitatedly, "Why do you insist on doing this? Can't you just let me have even a little peace of mind?"

Victoire archly raised an eyebrow at him, "Really? Allowing two dozen random men to follow my every move gives you peace of mind?"

He frowned at her, "It's the best course of action there is Victoire. I can't be trusted anymore to watch after you after what happened."

She scowled at the veiled mention to her –good-natured- manipulation of him with the notes, "Lucky for you that I don't plan on making running away from m guards my new hobby. As long as we get through everything that we need to talk about tonight, then this should be my last foray into the castle unguarded."

A glimmer of hope shone in Teddy's sapphire blue eyes and immediately made Victoire feel bad. Did the promise to not try to purposely detain her bodyguards actually give him that much peace of mind?

"Perhaps we should start with the issue you already alluded to?" Victoire asked trying to get them on track.

"I don't think there's really much more we need to talk about those. Kingsley's already come up with a punishment for both you and I for it, and he was also seamlessly able to use it to increase your security. I think he's very happy with himself on that respect," Teddy told her.

"Was he very angry with you when you told him? Have you found anything out about them?" she asked only really curious to hear the answer to the first question.

He sighed and ran a hand unconsciously through his turquoise blue hair, "He wasn't so much as angry as he was surprised, and then shocked, then –no wait, there was definitely some anger there, but I'm assuming that was mostly directed to whoever was threatening you. And then the last of his facial expressions was most definitely one of disappointment in me for not telling him the first time you brought it up to me."

She bit her lip, "I'm sorry Teddy, really. I never wanted this to affect you or your position of trust with Kingsley. If anything, I kept the secret from you at first because I was certain that it was nothing important and that investigating it would have been more of a waste of time than anything. I see now that I was wrong. I hope that Kingsley hasn't taken my lack of action out on you."

Teddy moved closer to her and grabbed her hand before squeezing it lightly, "Trust me, his anger mostly stemmed out of his worry for you. He's not upset with me anymore. If he still was do you think that he'd allow me to be in control of security for his precious Princess?"

The small smile he gave made her reciprocate with just the smallest one in return before it disappeared, "So I take it that there hasn't been any forth coming news in respects to the notes?"

"No. All the investigations Kingsley had going on them came up empty. I told him our previous suspicions about them and he has seemed to have come up with the same thoughts, except of course the fact that you seemed to think that the notes' claims were harmless," he told her.

She nodded her head, "The first one still worries me. It was most definitely the least threatening of all the notes, yet what it prophesised seems to be coming true. We're two tasks in, and both Konstantin and Noëlle have each won a task. If I win the next one –which I will try to do because I am still in this tournament- then the note will have come true. But how, how would they guess?"

Teddy shrugged his shoulders, "I really don't know Vic."

She sighed but then moved onto the next topic, "I am so, so, so sorry Teddy."

Tears then began to fall from her eyes and she threw her arms around his waist and buried her head into his red auror robes. Teddy stroked her hair gently as he waited for her tears to stop, but he didn't offer any words of comfort. When she'd collected herself better she moved her head away from his chest and looked up at his face, it was unreadable.

When he saw that the tears were no longer perpetually falling, he spoke, "I'll accept that response for the first topic Vic. But you know that that's not good enough here. Why?"

She knew what he was asking her with that simple why. Why did she allow herself to be kept back? What did she think it would help? How did she expect to get out of the situation?

"Teddy I-I had to do it. They wouldn't have let you guys leave any other way. Bruno and Lily were putting on brave faces but they were in both emotional and physical shock. And Valentin . . . I made his injury sound light but I was so worried about him. There were some many spells that they could have performed on him that wouldn't have shown any physical damage, at least on the outside, and he needed to get to a proper Healer quick-"

"And you didn't?" Teddy asked even though he didn't want to interrupt her explanation, for she had much more to describe before he would be satisfied.

Victoire swallowed thickly. She knew when she'd made it that her rash decision to just put an immobilizing charm on her injury instead of healing it fully that she'd be getting in trouble for it later. However, in her defence she didn't expect to be magically forced against a rough rock wall and then be held prisoner for half an hour either. She certainly felt that she'd been punished enough for that action though. The injury had been open too long and had even gotten deeper than it was before, so even though Madam Pomfrey had been able to clean and heal it fully, there was still going to be a scar where it was. And since her Veela genes didn't allow for charms to cover up scars to work, she now had a jagged white line adorning her right shoulder blade. Just one more scar that was quickly adding to her collection from the start of the year.

"It's a stupid excuse but I really thought that the immobilizing charm would have held until we got back. I mean when we set out I for one didn't plan on staying behind and letting everyone else go without me," Victoire told him.

"Lovely. It's great to hear that your decision to sacrifice yourself so that everyone else could leave was made in the moment and that it wasn't premeditated. Although I could have figured that out just fine on my own," Teddy told her derisively.

"Would it make you feel better if I told you that I had complete faith that you'd get me out of there?" She asked looking up at him from underneath her eyelashes.

He sighed, "Why? Because I'm so good at being not-even-a-fully-qualified-Auror?"

Victoire frowned; he was being too hard on himself, "No. Because when I get into too much trouble to get myself out of, you always come to my rescue and save me. Because I knew that it was _you_, I knew that you could get me out. Even if you aren't a fully qualified auror yet."

"Victoire-"

"No, listen to me Ted. I wouldn't have gotten out of there if it had been any other auror saving me. Because of you, because of us, I could sense that you were there in the cave. You can call it biological, emotional, or psychological, whatever you want, but I knew that you were there. There was a reason why I was goading that man. I knew that you were about to rescue me and that getting him angry with me might make him slip and reveal something. I wouldn't have annoyed him so much if I didn't know that you were there."

At this point Teddy shot Victoire an incredulous look and she backtracked, "Okay, I wouldn't have annoyed him so much that he resorted to physical violence. I would have stopped before it got that far."

"Then why did you, even though you knew that I was there?" Teddy asked.

"I was curious and suspicious. I don't know if you'll believe me, but I'm eighty-three percent sure that the man who had been in charge in the cave was the same man who tried to kidnap me at the Yule Ball."

"You could tell from the slap?" Teddy asked remembering himself how the man had used the plural when talking about slapping Victoire. His word verb tense would make sense if he had been the man who had assaulted her at Christmas.

"I'm fairly certain yes," she replied.

"Was there anything else you remember him letting on to?" Teddy asked forgetting momentarily that she was supposed to be grovelling for his forgiveness and showing that she was completely contrite in her insistence that she'd been wrong to offer herself up in the cave.

"Just part of his mannerisms . . . it's silly but when I mentioned that 'It wouldn't take a Ravenclaw to find that out', and he replied, 'obviously not because you're in Gryffindor', he was strangely at ease."

"What do you mean at ease?"

"It's a consequence of attending Hogwarts that one is very protective of their own house. Even the houses that get along well enjoy making fun of the others and trying to believe that they're the best. He brought up the topic of me being in Gryffindor, and consequently 'all brawn and no brain', but he didn't seem emotionally involved in his diss. Even the nicest Hufflepuff would have had some sort of mirth come into their eyes at achieving a snipe at another house, but he didn't. He didn't seem emotionally involved. Who wouldn't even revert to their adolescent self when making fun of another Hogwarts house?" Victoire asked.

Teddy saw where she was going with this, "Unless he didn't even attend Hogwarts."

"Exactly."

"But where else could he have attended, he didn't attend Hogwarts? Durmstrang? Beauxbatons? He could have been homeschooled but that isn't very popular," Teddy queried.

"Well, if I can put my two-sickles worth in, at one point, I don't remember what exactly I had said, but he replied with 'au contraire' with a perfect French accent. And I mean almost better than Louis perfect," Victoire told him.

"So you're thinking Beauxbatons?" Teddy checked with her.

"Yes, not that that narrows down a search at all."

"No, but when we do have a suspect this could help."

Victoire nodded, "Should I finish my explanation of the other stuff for you?"

"What do you think?"

"Teddy, I wouldn't have gotten out of there if it had been some other auror than yourself, you know how well we work together," she said as she attempted to add some levity into their conversation.

He frowned and took a step away from her. He needed the distance to help clear his mind, "Another auror wouldn't have hesitated to do what was obligated of him just because he saw that you were scared."

Victoire shot him a look of confusion, "Teddy, you never hesitated in the cave. You acted exactly as you should have, you distracted the man so that I could get my wand, you never let on that you were actually alone, and then you got the both of us out of there safely."

He sighed and grabbed two handfuls of hair from his head, "Vic, a couple of times in the cave I almost lost it. When he slapped you, when you looked so scared when he mentioned his own back up . . . my first instinct should have been to get you physically out of there, but in those moments I was so worried about your emotional state that I almost didn't know what to do."

"Teddy," Victoire said his name soothingly, "That wasn't because of our relationship, which was because you're such a kind and caring man. Aurors have to be able to turn off the majority of their emotions, and that's what they usually have the most trouble with. It happens to all of them, it happens to the best of them. You can't tell me that you don't think that Kingsley is emotionally invested in these investigations? Or Harry or Uncle Ron? Heck, Uncle Harry's very well known for letting his emotions guide him. And while as a rule it's not a good one to follow, it's not always bad. Besides that, it's impossible to turn off all of your emotions and become a robot. If you did that, you'd be Professor Linkwell."

The corner of his lips turned up at her last remark, "I just don't know if I'm fully cut out for this. Maybe I just get too emotionally involved in general."

She snorted, "Um, hello? Do you not remember the events of last night? You know when I blatantly tried to seduce you so that you wouldn't owl my father, and you ended up not only owling him but Uncle Harry also?"

"Don't forget Xavier."

Victoire gasped, "You didn't actually . . . did you?"

Teddy laughed at the absolutely horrified expression on her face, "That's for me to know Victoire."

She scowled at him but then went back to her original point, "See. You had the hottest girl in the castle in your room and you barely even looked at her until after you'd finished telling your superior aurors that she'd skipped out on her security detail and that they had to be more careful in the future about allowing her access to invisibility cloaks."

He smiled brightly, "There's no being careful about it, I am taking that cloak from you after we get you back to the other aurors."

Victoire rolled her eyes but continued, "So, are we good then?"

He sighed, "I guess we've discussed everything . . . well everything besides putting you in a bubble."

* * *

**A bit of detective work there. **

**Don't forget that I got twitter: TryandTriAgain**

**And if you didn't read my A/N at the top go back up there and do it now, because I don't want to have to repeat myself about when the next update will be :) **


	75. Valentine's Day

A/N: Hey everyone, I know I said it would be a while until I updated but I made a special exception because I actually had this chapter written.

If you're looking for good plot development in this chapter . . . Then I'm sorry but you won't find that in this chapter. This one is strictly Valentine's day at Hogwarts, and it doesn't contribute to the plot so much so that I almost uploaded it separately as an outtake, but I know not everyone has me on their author's alters so this just seemed easiest.

If you don't want to read some fluff, (and admittedly humor because there's always so when these guys are around) then don't bother reading this chapter. I'm telling you know that it's pretty much a fluffy, funny, filler.

But for those of you who do want to read that (And those of you who have been missing Xavier in particular) I hope that you enjoy!

* * *

Valentine's Day

It was a few days after Victoire and Teddy had finally discussed what had happened at the second task, when Victoire found herself being awoken from a rather enjoyable dream thusly:

"Awwww!"

"OhmyMerlinthat'ssothoughtful!"

"Eeeek!"

What Victoire's sleep laden mind had first interpreted as a grouping of banshees evilly trying to deafen everyone within hearing distance, turned out only to be a bunch of shallow harpies masquerading as her barely tolerable dorm mates.

She sat up in her bed rather sluggishly and then stared at the scene in her dorm with wide owlish eyes.

"Did somebody cast a defective _geminio_ spell?" She asked as she eyed the pile of red roses –large enough to fill one of the greenhouses- that were scattered around Pamela's bed.

Pamela, whose cohorts were standing with her around her bed and who were still '_oohing_' and '_awwing_' over the green and red botany, sent Victoire a scathing look, "Jealousy isn't becoming on you Weasley, even if you are part Veela."

Victoire was still a little slow on the uptake –partly because she'd just woken up, and partly because as much as she could remember it was a Tuesday morning and nobody was _all there_ on a Tuesday morning anyway. She just ended up shooting Pamela a genuinely confused look, "Then if you weren't experimenting with multiplication charms, why are there so many red roses?"

Pamela scoffed and flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder, "Because a few gentlemen sent them to me."

"Why? Is it your birthday?" Victoire asked even though she was fairly sure that Pamela had celebrated her eighteenth birthday earlier in the school year in September with a weeklong drinking binge.

"No. Godric you're dense this morning Weasley. It's Valentine's day, these flowers are from some of my _many_ admirers," Pamela told her in a superior sounding tone.

Victoire was a second away from informing Pamela that from what she'd heard her many admirers didn't need to shower her with flowers to get what they were after, when Pamela was distracted by another owl flying into the open window of the room. The owl was also holding a bundle of what seemed to be flowers covered in delicate white lace and white wrapping paper. However, the smug smile Pamela had placed on her face disappeared when the owl flew past her without depositing the cargo with her. The owl continued to fly into the room and only stopped when it landed on the short wooden table beside Victoire's bed.

Victoire was surprised at first when Pamela had informed her that it was Valentine's day. She knew that it was coming up but when she woke up, she hadn't realized that today was the day. But now that she knew that it was the 14th of February, the familiar owl holding the large package of flowers didn't come as a big surprise.

She took a step towards the owl; gently untied the wrapped flowers from the strings attached to its legs, and scratched the owl's black feathers before sending it on its way. She set the package aside on her bed and then moved to the foot of her bed where her trunk was situated so that she could pull out her robes and get dressed for the day.

She could feel Pamela's eyes boring a hole into her head, so she asked as she dug around for one of her Gryffindor ties, "Something wrong Pamela?"

"Who are those flowers from? Why didn't you open them?"

"Maybe she doesn't like to flaunt her personal life to everyone she sees like some people Pamela," Sandra's voice suggested as she came out of the bathroom that was adjacent to the dorm room, fixing an earring into her left lobe. Sandra had been idly listening to Pamela and Victoire's conversation as she fought with her unruly curls in front of the bathroom mirror.

Pamela raised a mocking eyebrow at Sandra, "Says the only girl in this room who's in a committed relationship, and yet has absolutely no Valentine's gifts yet to show for it."

Sandra's eyes narrowed and Victoire saw her best mate's hand twitch to the spot in her robes when she knew she kept her wand. She attempted to distract the two before Sandra hexed their roommate.

"I'll open it here; they should go in a vase with water anyway," Victoire said aloud for the benefit of the peace of the room before gently removing the white lace and paper wrapping.

Once the spotless barrier was removed, she smiled at the sight of the bouquet of jasmine and larkspur. Sandra smiled sweetly along with Victoire -knowing the emotions her friend felt as she gazed at the offering of love and devotion- and then transfigured a simple clear vase out of the teacup that sat on her bedside table so that Victoire could put the flowers in it along with some water.

"What? The guy couldn't even spring for some magically altered flowers? How cheap. Those won't last very long. Certainly not as long as the roses my admirers sent me," Pamela sniped even though Victoire knew that she was just trying to get her to retaliate so that she would satisfy her burning curiosity as to who actually sent the flowers.

Victoire wandlessly casted the _aguamenti _charm into the vase before putting the flowers in it, "It's not cheap. It's a symbol. The fact that he didn't send me magically altered flowers shows that he cares for me the way I am and that he loves me without any of the pernicious artifice that we are oft to see in everybody now-a-days. He sends me flowers the way they are because he cares about me the way I am, and he doesn't want me to be someone I'm not."

Pamela's mouth popped open but Victoire didn't want to listen to her as she scrambled to find a proper insult that would diminish the affection that the gift symbolized in her heart. Instead, Victoire grabbed the bundle of school robes that she'd gathered, went into the bathroom to change and run a brush through her hair, and then came out not four minutes later, grabbed Sandra's hand, and left the room.

The two girls walked from Gryffindor Tower to the Great Hall for breakfast –all the while trying to ignore the aurors following them (or more specifically Victoire). As they walked Sandra voiced the absurdity of Pamela being so interested in the flowers Victoire had received, when she had, in fact, gotten a bouquet of the very same flowers every Valentine's day for the last seven years from the same sender.

Victoire just shrugged it off and suggested that since Pamela -along with almost the entire school- was involved with the active mystery that was 'who Victoire Weasley was currently involved with', she had probably noticed it especially this time when the previous years she just shrugged it off as a gesture from one of the many blokes who were interested in the blonde part Veela.

The two Gryffindor's were still discussing their least favourite roommate when they walked into the Great Hall and sat beside each other on the bench and across from a cheerful looking Ally Weasley. The thinly veiled annoyance that was in their tones as they spoke about Pamela made Ally asked the following question.

"What's the Queen of the Cosmetically Enhanced Cows done this time?"

Victoire snickered at the title her cousin had bestowed on her roommate whilst Sandra answered, "She was just being nosey. She wanted to know who it was that sent the bouquet of jasmine and larkspur to Victoire this morning."

Ally smirked, "She's lived with you guys for seven years and hadn't noticed yet that Victoire gets the same flowers every Valentine's day?"

"That's what I told Sandra," Victoire laughed as she reached for the pitcher of pumpkin juice so that she could fill her glass.

Sandra was spreading raspberry jam on a piece of toast, "She's going to be really disappointed if she ever finds out that it's always Kingsley who sends you a bouquet of jasmine and larkspur on Valentine's day."

Victoire nodded in agreement at Sandra's words, but couldn't help but smile when she thought of the gesture from her godfather.

_Victoire was in muggle primary school when she had first really learned and taken note of the traditions of Valentine's day. As a child the day didn't develop much past making paper Valentine's and giving them to her friends and family members, but she did distinctly remember the occasion when she'd first learned about the idea of having one 'specific' valentine. She couldn't remember whom, but someone had told her that most women had a specific man as their valentine on the day. She had been confused at first because she couldn't think of who her valentine would be. Her father would have been a prime choice, but she was most certain that he was her Mamma's valentine. Her usual go-to-guy –even at that age- was Teddy but she didn't think that that was allowed since he already held the title of her 'bestest friend'. In addition, because when her Aunt Ginny had picked her and Teddy up from primary school that day, Teddy had given her a paper heart that he'd made for her and she had told him that she was very thankful from the special gift from her special valentine. (Although at the time Victoire was wondering, what her Uncle Harry would think if he heard Aunt Ginny call Teddy her valentine instead of him). She had come home from school and had been upset that she hadn't been able to figure out what man in her life was her valentine, until her godfather had decided to stop by for a visit and noticed how preoccupied she was. Once she had explained her dilemma to Kingsley, he had told her that she was the most important girl in his life and that he'd be honoured if she would consent to being his valentine. Young Victoire happily accepted and for the next few years –before she moved to Hogwarts- he would stop by and give her gifts every Valentine's day. The first year that she was a Hogwarts was when Kingsley started the tradition of sending her a bouquet of jasmine and larkspur._

And keeping with tradition Victoire had received a bouquet of the same flowers from her godfather for every year that she'd been at Hogwarts, and even though this year was very different from others, tradition had continued.

"She was just being rude and vicious Pamela like she always is. But you Miss Weasley, you look very happy this morning," Victoire commented as she saw that the radiant smile that had graced her younger cousin's face when they'd joined her hadn't abated yet.

Ally just smiled even brighter and hummed as she took a sip of her tea.

Sandra was suspicious of Ally too, and unlike Victoire, she wasn't distracted by the food before she could pick out the main difference in Ally's appearance from this morning to when they'd said goodnight to her the previous evening.

"My Ally that's a lovely flower that you have in your braid, would I be correct to assume that there are more from where that one came from?"

Victoire's attention shifted away from the eggs that she was eating to Ally's person. Her face was flushed a delightful red from the emotion that Sandra's question had brought up, and when Victoire shifted her gaze a little she was able to spot the miniature bright yellow sunflower that was affixed into her braided black hair.

"Yes there are more. And they're much larger too, I just shrunk this one so that I could carry it around with me today," Ally said shyly, her face still red but pleased.

"I take it that your room looked like a sunflower field this morning when you woke up? A gift from Xavier?" Victoire couldn't help but ask in a teasing tone.

Ally nodded at both questions.

Sandra rolled her eyes and whistled, "Smarmy little Scotsman isn't he?"

"I think he was going more for charming," a voice suggested from down the table.

A minute later the three girls were joined by Cecilia and Louis, the two sat next to Ally on the bench. Cecilia continued to come to her brother's defense, "It must be very difficult to find genuine sunflowers in Europe in February after."

Sandra inclined her head and Victoire asked Ally a follow up question, "Did he just send you flowers? Or was there a letter attached?"

Ally blushed an even deeper shade of red that made her light brown freckles stand out on her face.

Cecilia giggled, "Never mind Sandra, you were right. Xav definitely falls on the smarmy side."

Ally blushed even deeper but didn't deny the thoughts that she knew were travelling through her friends minds. She decided to change the topic of conversation away from herself, "So Cecilia, has Louis given you anything yet today?"

Victoire joined her cousin at looking wickedly at her younger brother. Louis' face turned a little red but Cecilia answered enthusiastically, "Louis wrote me the funniest poem."

"Funny?" Sandra asked surprised.

Both Cecilia and Louis shrugged, "We're only fourteen here Sandra."

"So who helped you with the poem idea then Louis? The only poetry you know is the French stuff Mamma's made us learn and none of that is particularly entertaining," Victoire said interestedly, "Dad? Mamma? Uncle Charlie? George? Uncle Harry or Aunt Hermione?"

_Hmm, now that I think of it none of them are really the best people to go to when looking for serious advice on relationships. They do the best in their own way, but our family is definitely one of a kind._

"Aunt Audrey actually," Louis said proudly.

Victoire nodded.

_Smart guy. Use the opinion of one of the only actually sane family members that we have._

"So what did Kyle give you Sandra?" Cecilia asked.

Sandra smiled lightly, "Nothing yet. We probably won't exchange gifts until later today anyway. He's not coming to breakfast this morning because he promised to help Professor Everill set up something for his Ancient Runes class later today."

The minute the words were out of her mouth the daily post owls flew into the room. Along with the owls was another bird, which confused the students who saw it. Nevertheless, the white dove flew around the Hall before gracefully descending in the direction of Gryffindor table and landing elegantly on the empty spot on the table right in front of Sandra. Before Sandra could voice her confusion the dove opened it beautiful white wings and flew away, leaving a small and equally pristine white box tied with a deep red ribbon in its place.

Sandra slowly reached for the box, unraveled the ribbon, and lifted the lid of the small box. From the case came an assembly of jewel coloured butterflies that flew out of it and then fluttered up and away. Once the wall of colour butterflies had dissipated into the rest of the Great Hall, Sandra was able to see the gold chain along with the large emerald pendant that was attached to it that was left in the box.

"Wow. Kyle's got some skill," Louis whistled as he took in the shocked and impressed expressions of the girls around him.

"And some taste," Victoire commented as she glanced at the necklace in the box. It was definitely a gorgeous piece.

Sandra was still speechless but she could sense that her friends were curious about her gift so she lifted it out of the box. She turned the pendant around in her fingers and noticed an inscription in the gold that the large golf ball sized emerald was set in.

"There's something written here," She finally vocalized, "But I think it's in French."

Victoire moved closer to her friend so she could translate the words for her, "For your heart's desire, from mine."

"Never mind, I think Kyle wins the smarmy contest," Cecilia commented.

Sandra looked at the pendant with wide eyes. Kyle had given her jewellery before, over the years, but he'd never given her something so ostentatious or antique looking before.

"You should probably put it on before those girls from the Slytherin table take it from you, they look downright jealous," Victoire told her friend quietly as she looked at the table across the hall from them. A good portion of the hall had noticed the scene when the numerous butterflies had left the box and were waiting to see what was in it. The emerald of the pendant that Sandra held in her hands was large enough to be seen from the few Slytherins across the hall who were looking, and at the sight of such a grandiose and antique piece of jewellery the girls who were watching had started to look rather envious.

Sandra nodded her head dully and Victoire helped her friend put the necklace on. Once it was clasped and resting on her skin Sandra quickly situated her robes so that it wouldn't be immediately visible.

"Okay then . . . so what'd you get Vic?" Cecilia asked turning the attention of the group away from a now red-faced Sandra.

Victoire rolled her eyes at Cecilia, "I don't need anything tangible Cecilia. I don't need flowers, or love letters, or poems, or jewellery and big romantic gestures –not that there's anything wrong with them- to feel loved on Valentine's day. I'm perfectly happy with something as simple as-"

"Bacon?" Ally suggested picking up a plate that was beside her and handing it to Victoire.

"Bacon?" Victoire echoed her cousin as she shot her a baffled look. Ally was still pushing the plate towards her though, so Victoire shrugged it off and took the plate, "Sure, bacon. That can make me as happy as anything else."

Victoire looked down at the plate in her hands before raising her head up and giving her cousin a skeptical look. Ally smiled brightly back so Victoire sighed and looked back down at the plate. On one side of the china was a stack of delicious smelling bacon, on the other side was a small bundle of lilacs. She picked up the lilacs with the intention to smell them –she absolutely loved the smell of lilacs- when she noticed that there was a white folded piece of parchment paper underneath it. She took the paper unfolded it and couldn't stop the grin that broke across her face as she read the words.

_-Happy Valentine's day Sweetheart-_

_-Love Teddy_

* * *

While Victoire's Valentine's day gift wasn't as imposing, nor were the flowers as plentiful, as Sandra and Ally's gifts, she was perfectly happy with the thought that it did show since seeing Teddy during the day had been less and less likely since her new security detail had been established. She was completely content with the lilacs she'd received at breakfast, even if they were all she was to receive for the day.

Which it turns out, they weren't.

She didn't get any more notes from the metamorphmagus during the day, but it seemed that everywhere she went she found lilacs.

After they ate breakfast Ally went to her Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and Sandra left to go to her Arithmancy class. In which she would see her smarmy boyfriend for the first time that day, leaving Victoire to walk by herself –along with the two aurors who were her bodyguards today- to the Herbology class that was now being held indoors on the second floor because Kingsley didn't want her to be outside any more than she had too.

Professor Longbottom had decided that since it was Valentine's day, his lesson would consist of giving everyone in class a different flower and they would take turns searching through their textbook to see which potions and salves they were used in. Victoire didn't think much of Professor Longbottom's lesson plan, (he was well known to have a sentimental streak), until she saw that he'd placed a rather large sum of lilacs on her desk. She looked up at him in surprise and he gave her a sly grin and a wink before depositing a white chrysanthemum on the desk of Shelley Alexander who sat beside her. At the end of the lesson, Professor Longbottom announced that everyone could take their flowers back with them if they wished.

Victoire had been able to convince herself that the lilacs Professor Longbottom had given her were just a coincidence. However, she found that she couldn't lie to herself as the day went on. After Herbology, she found Kyle and Sandra –they were holding hands and Kyle was looking rather pleased with himself- and then walked to their next class, Charms, which they had together. When they got into the room, Victoire saw another bundle of lilacs sitting on top of the desk that she usually sat in. She only looked up when she heard a snickering sound. She looked beside her to Kyle and Sandra, and while they both had humongous grins on their faces, they weren't making a sound. When Victoire did figure out from whence the sound was coming from, she was shocked to see that it was from little Professor Flitwick, whom was watching her with an indulgent smile.

The same size bundle of lilacs was waiting for her on her assigned desk when she entered Transfiguration too. She was perplexed with that one because Kyle and Sandra had been with her since Charms so they couldn't have done it, and the scowl Linkwell had sent her when he'd seen the flowers was full with its usual abhorrence so he hadn't been in on it. She puzzled it together though, once she saw the three heads of different colours standing by the door on their way out of the classroom as the seventh years continued to pile in. Baxter, Louis, and Cecilia each sent her a wink before hurrying out the room, and presumably to their next classes.

At lunch time Victoire found some lilacs in what she'd thought was her empty goblet when she went to pour herself a glass of milk, along with a few of the blossoms scattered underneath the plate where she'd chosen to sit next to Ally. They were across from Kyle who had already been seated when she and Sandra joined them at the Gryffindor table after a quick trip to the lavatory.

Such was that Victoire was actually surprised when she went into potions and didn't find any flowers at her table. She was even more surprised when halfway through their lesson, the memory potion that she and Kyle were brewing changed from its (correct) deep blue colour to a lilac coloured purple. She looked closer into it and noticed that there was something floating up to the surface, so she transfigured the cauldron's stirring rod into a ladle and scooped out the impurity. Once it was out, the potion went back to the deep blue and seemed to go back to normal. Kyle had laughed at the expression on her face when she had looked closer at the ladle and saw that what she scooped out was a perfectly intact bundle of lilacs. When Victoire had stopped doing a good impression of a fish with her wide eyes and open mouth, she cast a suspicious look to her partner. Kyle chuckled but lifted up his hands as if to say that he didn't have anything to do with it. She believed him because oddly enough the lilacs presence in the cauldron made sense. A few months ago she and Kyle discovered that Rose and Al –who have Potions class directly before them- always used the same station that they are usually assigned to. And said younger cousins had given her a very deliberate look when they'd passes her on their way out of the class as she was on her way in earlier, a look that had confused her until now.

The period after Victoire's Potions class was a free one, and she had a standing deal with Ally that they'd spend it in the library to work on their homework because Victoire usually had Quidditch practice planned for the team on Tuesday nights –which was scheduled that night still. She met Ally at their usual table and was halfway through her Transfiguration essay when she got up to look through some of the stacks and grab a book that she needed to finish her work. Once she was seated at the table with Ally again she opened the book up and a -slighter larger than the others- bundle of lilacs sprang up out of the book. Victoire was flabbergasted and was glad that Ally's astonished expression had matched hers. However, not ten seconds later she had heard three distinct sets of giggles and saw Dom, Molly, and even Lucy walking past them and up to Madam Pince's desk where they proceeded to sign out the books that they had in their arms.

By the time Victoire got to A History of Magic, hers, Kyle's, and Sandra's last class of the day, she was keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of the light purple flowers. By now all of her clothes –along with Sandra's, and to his disappointment Kyle's- smelled lightly of lilac so she couldn't use her sense of smell to figure out where she would next find them. She eyed her desk carefully as she sat down next to Kyle's, and even cringed back when she opened the textbook that Professor Cooke had handed her that everyone was using for the day's class (even though there were no flowers jumping out of _those _pages).

There was only about ten minutes left of class, and Victoire was actually starting to get a little disappointed when she realized that she probably wouldn't get any flowers during the class. Professor Cooke had just finished the last part of the lesson, and as soon as the words were out of his mouth everyone's attention was drawn to the large wall of windows that made up the right side of the classroom where a small series of bright purple and bright blue fireworks were going off. The light show seemed to subside as quick as it had started and when everyone turned their attention back to what was going on inside the classroom, Victoire was utterly shocked with what was in front of her.

When she had looked away to the window, her desk was empty because she had cleared it a moment before, but after the fireworks, it was piled with the largest bundle of lilacs she'd seen yet. It completely covered the surface of her desk and looked like it could have all come from one entire bush. Everyone, including Sandra and Kyle, was looking at Victoire desk with awe. Everyone except Professor Cooke that was, for he was sporting a smirk that didn't look much different from the ones she'd seen on Professors Lomgbottom and Flitwick's faces earlier in the day, if not for the fact that it was slightly bigger, in keeping with the larger number of flowers.

The collection from A History of Magic wasn't the last she received though. When Victoire had walked into the Gryffindor Quidditch team's changing room before practice started with Ally, she had opened up her locker and found herself passively attacked by a barrage of lilac buds that poured out of her locker and onto the floor around her. The quick-witted comments of James and Freddie as they came into the room directly after she was assaulted with the sweet and lightly scented buds confirmed the suspicions she had come up with over the course of the day.

"Was everyone in on this?" Victoire asked her cousins as she watched the three of them putting on their gear for practice.

"Pretty much, just not to the full capacity. We only knew about the part we had to play," James told her as he put on his winter Quidditch boots.

"Although, I must say that a good job was done to keep it a secret with that many people knowing about it," Ally commented as she put a pair of woolen gloves on her hands before sliding her beaters gloves over top.

"Yeah, but since we did keep it a secret and do such a fantastic job with it, what are the chances that you'll cancel Quidditch practice tonight Vic?" Freddie asked as he pulled his practice jersey on over the thick layer of his winter coat. It was a rather cold night even for February.

Victoire flicked her wand and all of the lilac buds disappeared from where they were strewn out along the floor. "Not a chance Freddie," she replied as the other members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team came stumbling into the room to get dressed for practice.

* * *

"OI! JAMES POTTER IF YOU DON'T START TAKING THIS PRACTICE SERIOUSLY YOU'RE GOING TO BE SORRY!" Victoire screeched at her cousin as she implemented a sharp turn on her Firebolt and flew over to where the second year was hovering near the far left keeper's hoop.

He gave her a cheesy grin and Victoire realized too late, what she'd said wrong.

"Victoire how could I not take this practice seriously? Sirius is my middle name after all!" James told her with a toothy grin.

Victoire face palmed before taking a deep breath and saying, "It might be your name, but it's also an oxymoron. Just stop helping Freddie in his attempts to knock Delaney off of his broom with the bludgers."

James frowned and looked towards the middle keeper's hoop where Ally was apologizing to Carson Delaney for allowing the bludger to get away from her and Freddie as they performed their practice batting drills with it.

"But he's such a berk. I can't believe you actually let him be on the team," James told her angrily.

Victoire sighed and ran a free hand across her forehead to sweep away the loose strands of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail and in her face. When Xavier left, she knew that she needed to find a new keeper and fast. She didn't have time to hold try-outs so she went to their head of house Professor Longbottom for some advice. He helped her narrow down a list of students that he'd seen flying around the pitch on weekends or that he'd heard were good. She then had those few players try out separately, and with just Caroline Hilbert attempting to score. Sixth-year Carson Delaney was a tall and solid bloke, with dark curly hair and a reach that impressed Victoire enough to give him the position. He was a fairly good player, but James and Freddie absolutely hated him.

"I know that he's no Xavier Wood, but we need a keeper and he's the best one Gryffindor is left with," Victoire tried to reason with James.

"But that's the thing! He doesn't realize that he's not Xavier! He thinks that he can just fly right in and take his place!" James countered angrily as he pointed to where Delaney was still speaking with Ally.

Victoire rubbed her eyes tiredly. James and Freddie could have forgiven Delaney if he was a just conceited duffer –seeing as the two of them had pretty big egos themselves- but what they absolutely could not stand was the fact that Delaney used every free chance that he had to try to flirt to or hit on Ally. Victoire knew that it upset James and Fred, and even she felt uncomfortable with his actions, but Ally insisted that it wasn't a big bother to her, and pointed out that we needed him on the team and that she could handle his attentions for the limited time that they spent together in practice.

But it wasn't just practice that he tried flirt with Ally, and that was the problem. They were in the same year and in the same house so Victoire knew that Delaney and Ally probably had a lot of the same courses together. She wanted to tell Delaney to back off herself because they all knew that Ally was too nice to, but they needed him on the team, and his attentions to Ally off the pitch –as much as she hated to admit to it- were nothing that she could control.

"James, Ally has promised that if Delaney crosses the line with her that she will tell me right away. And if that happens I will use whatever badge that I have to –either my Captain's one or my Head Girl one- to make sure that he's dealt with. But for now we have to pull this team together if we have any hope of winning the House Cup, understand?" Victoire told him.

James nodded his dark head numbly and flew over to where Roger Michaels was completing a passing drill with Caroline Hilbert. James took Caroline's spot and she flew over to where Victoire was still hovering on her broom.

"What do you think of Delaney?" Victoire asked Caroline as she stopped her broom beside hers.

"He's okay. No Xavier Wood but even Xavier Wood isn't Xavier Wood; he's Oliver Wood in a younger package," Caroline said.

Victoire cracked a bit of a smile at that, "What do you think of doing some real time firing drills with Delaney actually in front of the hoops?"

"Well, to be honest I don't know. I just don't feel as though I get the same out of it when it's not Xavier. He was so good that he always challenged us and made us work harder. After going against him the other keepers were a piece of cake . . . but now if we get used to going against Delaney I think we'll become complacent in our skills and I'm afraid that we might revert backwards instead of move forwards," Caroline told her truthfully.

Victoire nodded, "Any other worries?"

"Yeah, there are only so many times that James can deliberately aim the quaffle at the guy's –more sensitive- areas before he figures out that James is doing it on purpose."

Victoire smirked a little.

_James will be James._

She noticed that they sky was starting to get a little darker and that the clouds were staring to get heavier before she moved up the sleeve of her sweater so that she could check the time on her watch. She smiled at what she saw.

_Five to seven._

"What is it?" Caroline asked recognizing the mischievous look on her Captain's face and becoming more than a little scared of it.

"If it doesn't start raining in five minutes, make up some lame excuse about having to do a detention or something and leave practice early. Spread the word to Roger to," Victoire told her.

"Why?" Caroline asked in confusion.

"You'll see," was all Victoire decided to tell her before announcing to everyone that they needed to continue with their drills while she went to the team room to grab another quaffle.

She had flown to the team room and grabbed a quaffle –like she said she would, but on her walk back she'd brought something else back with her. She stopped at the bottom of the pitch and called for the attention on the six players who were still in the air.

"EVERYONE DOWN HERE NOW!"

The six quickly complied with her orders and out of the corner of her eye she noticed Delaney shooting the darkening sky an apprehensive look.

_Good._

"So, you guys will never guess what I found in our changing rooms," Victoire said in a teasing tone as she walked over to stand in between James and Fred who had put themselves in between Ally and Delaney when they landed.

"What?" Caroline asked wondering if Victoire's announcement would have anything to do with her order to come up with a believable lie.

"I actually think I'm more of a 'who' Caroline."

Everyone standing on the pitch recognized the voice. Their heads whipped quickly over to its source and everyone but one person stood there speechless as they looked at the newcomer; everyone but Ally that was.

"Xavier!"

Ally shot right away from the group and within seconds, she was in his arms. Xavier had picked her up off her feet as he squeezed her into a terribly tight hug and spun her around in a few circles.

"Go give Xavier a big hug like Ally did so that Delaney doesn't get too suspicious," Victoire whispered quietly to James beside her.

He gave her a nod before running up to Xavier and greeting him. Once he was there, Caroline and Roger sent Victoire a quick look before following James' lead and greeting their old teammate. Freddie gave Delaney a smug look before running and joining the rest of the team in the reunion.

Victoire looked at Delaney brazenly, "You know Xavier Wood don't you?"

Delaney nodded his head but it didn't escape Victoire's notice that _he_ noticed that, while Xavier had given everyone else a hug he still had one arm firmly wrapped around Ally's waist.

Victoire gave Delaney one last look that she hoped he'd take as a silent warning before walking over to the rest of the team and giving Xavier a big hug. She hadn't hugged him before when she'd met him at the changing rooms –like they'd arranged too- because she knew that he'd appreciate that it if the first hug he'd gotten was from Ally. Victoire was surprised though, when she felt Xavier lift her feet off the ground and twirl her around in a circle before she was set back on the ground and released. The surprise was mostly due to the fact that he'd actually let go of Ally long enough to spin her around with both of his arms.

"What are you doing here Xavier?" Freddie asked him even though he was almost certain that he knew the reason.

"Victoire asked me if I was free to stop by and maybe get in an hour and a bit of practice with the team," Xavier told him with a wink.

"But aren't you tired from all of your training during the day with Puddlemere?" James asked shooting Delaney a superior smile.

Xavier watched the exchange with a bit of confusion but answered, "I'm never too tired to spend time with my favourite team."

Ally blushed as she correctly read into Xavier's meaning and Victoire decided that it was time to get things moving. She sent Caroline a specific look and the girl jumped at her cue.

"Listen Vic, I got detention earlier today from professor Linkwell and I have to go do it right now, so I'll see you later," she gave Xavier a final goodbye and quickly walked away from the pitch.

"I promised my girlfriend that I'd leave practice a little early so that we could spend some time on Valentine's day together," Roger told them earnestly. As he left the pitch Victoire made a mental note to commend him on his acting abilities next time she saw him; he didn't even have a girlfriend.

"Well I guess if that's two chasers down then we're not really enough for anymore practice. Looks like it's going to rain anyway. The rest of you can leave," Victoire said to the three boys but to Delaney in particular.

"I'm fine to stay if you want to continue the practice Victoire," Delaney told her.

Victoire opened her mouth to reply but Freddie beat her to it, "But none of us want to practice with you."

Victoire then had to 'discipline' Freddie, or at least until Delaney had travelled far enough away from the pitch so that he couldn't hear them anymore.

"Really Freddie? I know that you don't like the bloke but we need a keeper," Victoire scolded him.

"Why don't Fred and James like the new keeper?" Xavier asked Ally.

She blushed but then gave him a sweet smile, "It's childish, really. They just don't like him. But it doesn't matter. _He_ doesn't really matter right now."

Victoire hadn't seen Ally and Xavier look at each other like that in a while so she thought that it was cute. Fred and James on the other hand, while they didn't want anyone coming in between Ally and Xavier, were very happy with not watching them give each other those looks, and left the pitch quickly.

When they were gone Xavier dragged his gaze away from Ally and then looked at Victoire, "Oh yeah, I'm supposed to give you this Vic."

He handed her a bundle of lilacs.

"Seriously? Is everyone in on this?" she asked in shock.

"You two can go now."

Victoire jumped a little when she heard the familiar voice several steps behind her. She spun around in her spot just in time to see Teddy –for the first time in a few days- sending the two aurors, who were supposed to be her bodyguards, away.

Victoire was still staring at Teddy in surprise as she watched him walk closer to her.

"Hey," he told her with a small smile.

"Hi."

The two continued to stare at each other for a minute before Victoire broke the silence, "So you're taking over for the other two aurors."

Teddy nodded his head and moved a step closer so he could wrap his arms around her waist and pull her close.

"So I'm guessing either Kurt or Jilly are going to be your partner for this?" Victoire asked tilting her head up so that she could see into his sapphire blue eyes at the closer angle.

He gave her another smile, "No. I think I can handle you on my own actually."

Victoire smiled brightly back and shot a glance at the lilac bundle that Xavier had given her, that was still in her left hand, "So don't you have anything to give me? It seems like everywhere I go today I'm finding lilacs."

Teddy chuckled, "I'm sorry to say that I'm empty handed actually. Personally, I thought that you'd like this gift better."

He moved one of his hands from her waist to her face, and tilted her chin up so that he could press his lips against hers. The moment their mouths made contact Victoire could feel the air escaping from her lungs in the sound of a sigh. The kiss fell to the more sweeter side of the spectrum, but if anything it just made her feel even weaker at the knees. She had to grab the front of Teddy's shirt to make sure that she kept herself upright.

Teddy broke the kiss what could have been seconds -or hours- later and gave her a smirk, "Better than flowers?"

"I'm not sure," Victoire teased him, once she'd replaced the oxygen in her lungs.

"It's a good thing that I gave you both then," he said with an even brighter smile.

Victoire looked down from his face to the front of his shirt where she still had a death grip on the thick material.

"Why aren't you in your aurors robes?" She asked in confusion as she noticed that he was in regular winter clothing.

He gave her his widest smile yet, "Because technically I'm not working right now. I'm off the clock."

Victoire's eyes immediately locked with his and it only took her a second to catch the deeper meaning of his words. Almost before the significance of his words registered with her, she'd thrown her arms around his neck and attached her lips back to his.

The kiss wasn't slow and sweet this time. It was hard and fast, and despite the connotation of Teddy's words and actions, it even felt a little desperate.

He broke off the kiss this time when he was out of air and used the position of his arm around her waist to bring her body tightly into his.

"_Je t'aime_," Teddy whispered into her hair.

"I love you too," Victoire spoke back into his chest, right where his heart was.

The two broke apart slowly and Victoire turned around because she he expected to be interrupted by Ally or Xavier, and they hadn't made a sound yet. Once Victoire had spotted them, she realized why they had been so quiet. The two were wrapped up in each other's arms and their mouths were currently busy trying to make up for the month and a half that they'd been apart. And from what Victoire saw, they were doing a rather efficient job of it too.

She pulled her wand out and waved it in the direction of the two as she and Teddy walked over to them, "_Rictusempra_."

She'd cast the spell directly at Xavier, so he was the one who ended up breaking the kiss between him and Ally, and directly after succumbing to uncontrolled laughter.

"Vic!" He tried to yell though the magically induced chuckles.

"This."

"Isn't."

"_Funny_."

Victoire waved her wand again and Xavier's laughing stopped. He took a minute to get his breathing rate back to normal before giving Victoire a deadly glare.

"And to think that a few minutes ago I actually thought that I missed you."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "The only thing you were thinking about a few minutes ago was wondering how long you could continue to snog Ally without taking a break for oxygen."

Ally's face turned red while Xavier shook his head laughingly.

Victoire continued, "Help me pack up the gear and take it to the changing rooms?"

* * *

"So how's the new keeper coming?" Teddy asked Victoire as they carried in the last of the equipment to the changing rooms. Ally and Xavier had gone ahead of them a few minutes ago, and they had just reached the door to the change room.

Victoire stopped where she was and blocked Teddy from going into the room. He raised his eyebrow suspiciously but didn't try to move past her.

Victoire shot the door behind her an anxious glance before answering his question, "He's a decent player but Freddie and James hate him because he keeps flirting with Ally."

"And you're not planning on telling Xavier this are you?"

"No. There would be no point. He's only here for tonight so that they could see each other on Valentine's day, and I doubt Ally would want him spending that time trying to track down Delaney and arguing with him."

"So you're just not going to tell him?" Teddy asked.

"Unless it becomes a big problem –which I can't see it being- than no. I know he trusts her, but he's not the best at sharing so we'll probably just forget that it happened. Besides, I'm surprised Delaney's interest has lasted this long. Fred and James have been trying to get at him every chance they could, on and off the pitch," Victoire said trying to hide the smirk that came to her face anytime she remember the time that the two had cast a sticky charm on the quaffles they were using for practice one day. Causing the scarlet balls to stick to him when the chasers threw them in quick succession for a drill.

"Vic!"

Both Victoire and Teddy turned their heads in time to see Kyle and Sandra coming around the corner of the hall and walking over to them.

"So is he here?" Sandra asked excitedly.

Victoire smiled brightly, "In the changing rooms." She nodded her head to the door she was in front of and pushed it aside with her shoulder so that the four of them could walk in.

Victoire rolled her eyes and sighed at what she saw.

Kyle was having a hard time keeping a straight face as he too took in the scene, "They haven't realized that we're here yet have they?"

Victoire rolled her eyes again. She really hoped that they would realize that they were standing there soon because she didn't really want to cast another tickling curse on Xavier. Therefore, she was happy when Kyle took charge of the situation.

"You guys do know that you need to breathe to continue all of the bodily functions connected to living . . . right?"

Ally broke away from Xavier's mouth as soon as she heard Kyle speak and she quickly and busily tried to hide her scarlet coloured face into Xavier's chest.

Xavier just rolled his eyes at his best mate and chuckled, "Sadly, yes. We do know that."

"Good," Kyle commented walking farther into the room so that he and Xavier could do one of those manly-one-arm-handshake-turned-into-a-hug-things, "Because we haven't seen you since Victoire's last task and I want you to be alive and breathing when I do get to see you."

Sandra followed Kyle into the room and gave Xavier a hug and a kiss on the cheek, "Yes, we thought we'd have to wait until Victoire had another near-death experience before we got to see you again."

"Hey!" Victoire called playfully from where she was on the far side of the room with Teddy putting away the last of the quaffles, "They aren't always near-death experiences . . . sometimes they're near kidnapping experiences."

"And it's proof that you have way too many of them when you can actually break them down into subcategories," Teddy commented dryly as he shut the door to the changing room's equipment closet.

Victoire gave him a sheepish look but changed her expression when she looked at Sandra and Kyle, "Okay, well Ally and I need to have a quick shower and change of clothes, so you guys can have Xavier for about fifteen minutes until we're finished and then he's Ally's for the rest of the night."

Everyone nodded and Ally gave Xavier a lingering kiss on the lips before Victoire playfully pulled her away and into the room with the girls' showers.

Two quick showers, two changes of clothes, and one hair drying charm later (Ally was too impatient to wait to allow her hair to dry even magically so she just tossed it up in a messy bun and ran out of the room) and Victoire was walking out of the room that housed the showers and into the team portion of the changing room.

She made her way over to where Teddy was standing by her locker pretending to be interested in the Marauder's Map that he had open in front of him. She cast the remainder of the room a quick look, rolled her eyes when she saw that Ally and Xavier were still in it, and that they hadn't made it to the door yet because they were making out.

"How long have they been at it?" Victoire asked as she tossed her practice jersey and pants into the locker.

"Only about the five minutes it took for you to cast the drying charm on your hair," Teddy told her in an uninterested tone as he folded up the map.

"I'm sorry I left you alone with them for even that amount of time," Victoire said as she closed her locker door and grabbed his hand.

He gave her a smirk and pulled her out of the changing rooms, "It's fine. It was actually somewhat cute to begin with. Plus, they haven't seen each other in a while."

Victoire smiled up at him as they walked down the hallway, "Yeah. I'm glad he was able to get the night off. They need this."

"Do you think they'll ever make it out of the changing rooms?" Teddy asked with an impish grin.

She laughed, "Right now I don't think that they even really realize that they're _in_ a changing room."

Teddy joined in her laughter as the turned down another corridor. They were still holding hands, and even though Victoire enjoyed the ease such a small sign of affection brought, she still had to ask, "Aren't you going to let go soon?"

Teddy gave her sweet look, "Nope. Not tonight . . . although I hope that it won't offend you if I ask you to put the invisibility cloak on?"

Victoire rose a blond brow up at him, "Are you going to be under it too?"

He laughed, "Yup."

Victoire nodded then and once the two of them were hidden under the fabric of the ancient invisibility cloak, they made quick time up to the Astronomy tower, with Victoire not even realizing that Teddy had been directing her up there.

Once they were there, they took of the invisibility cloak and Victoire started to giggle.

"What's so funny?"

"This is just such a cliché, the Astronomy tower. Pretty much everyone has been up her at some point to snog someone else," Victoire told him even though she knew that he was already well aware of the fact.

"Well sometimes you need a little cliché. Besides, have _you_ ever been up here to snog a boy?" Teddy asked her with a pointed look.

Victoire looked down at her toes and shook her head quickly. She'd had a handful of boyfriends before Teddy, and she may have kissed them every now and then, but she'd never really snogged anyone before him. And she'd never come up to the Astronomy tower before with any intention other than to learn astronomy from Professor Sinistra.

Teddy smiled and moved towards her so he could lightly kiss her forehead, "I didn't think so."

"So are you about to change that then?" She asked with an impish sparkle in her eyes.

Teddy moved his lips to the tip of her nose and gave her a quick kiss on the skin there.

"Nope. I'm here to do some astronomy," He told her with a grin.

Before she could comment, he moved away from her, waved his wand, and conjured up a thick blanket at one of the sides of the tower that was an open part in the wall for people to stand at the edge with their telescopes. He placed the blanket down on the ground of the opening and sat down sideways with his back to the edge of the opening on the right. He turned his head to the right so that he could see out at the sky, causing Victoire to lose sight of his face for the movement brought her the sight of the back of his head.

She shook her head at his silliness before walking over to join him. She sat down in between his legs with her back to the front of his chest and with his legs lying on either side of hers. She rested her head back into the crook of his neck and stared out at the black sky that had quickly filled with bright stars and a crescent moon.

She scanned the sky for a minute before pointing out, "Andromeda."

Teddy smiled and kissed the top of her head. He raised his hand and pointed to a particular star in _Canis Major_, "Sirius."

"Orion," Victoire said giggling as she needlessly pointed out one of the most well recognized constellations in the sky.

"Now I think we're just naming distant relatives of mine," Teddy told her teasingly.

Victoire chuckled and set her hand down onto the top of his right knee, "It makes it a little easier to remember the names that way."

"Yet you were also the one who enjoyed astronomy and not me," he countered.

"You're right. I actually think it might be a pureblood thing. The only other person I know who like's astronomy is Kyle."

"How does that make you feel, to know that you have so much in common with Kyle?"

Victoire shuddered playfully, "Godric you can't just say things like that. Ugh."

Teddy laughed and pressed a kiss into her hair. After their laughter died there was a serene pause before he spoke again, "So how was your day?"

"Interesting," She replied cryptically.

"Give me a little more to work with Vic."

"Fine. I didn't get the best wake-up call ever –half a dozen screaming harpies isn't exactly what a person wants to hear or see first thing in the morning, but after that it kept getting better."

"How so?"

Victoire rolled her eyes even though she knew that he couldn't see her because she had her back to him, "Well, it seemed like everybody was giving me things today. Kingsley gave me my bouquet of flowers of course, which really annoyed Pamela because I wouldn't tell her whom they were from. Ally gave me some tasty bacon and some flowers at breakfast. Professor Longbottom gave me some flowers during class –of course, he gave everyone flowers but it was still a sweet gesture. Flitwick gave me some flowers in Charms; I got some from Louis, Cecilia, and Baxter in Transfiguration. Sandra and Kyle worked some into my goblet at lunch, I got some during potions from Rose and Al. Molly, Dom, and Lucy gave me some when Ally and I were in the library studying, Professor Cooke gave me a verifiable bush of lilacs during A History of Magic. James and Freddie filled my locker in the changing rooms full of some blossoms, and then Xavier gave me some after I hugged him."

"And was there a particular moment that you enjoyed the most?"

"Yes actually. It was very sweet of Professor Cooke to give me such a large sum. Doesn't hurt that he's so good-looking either," Victoire told Teddy with a smirk.

Teddy moved his hands so that the held her waist and began tickling her sides.

"Very romantic of him, wasn't it?" He asked chuckling as he felt her squirm against him.

Victoire giggled out a form of positive response followed by a breathless plead for Teddy to stop his tickling assault. He stopped and his hands came to rest on her stomach.

Once her breathing had turned back to normal she asked, "How did you get everyone involved like that?"

"I can be very persuasive," Teddy, told her with a mock-serious tone.

"No really. Professor Longbottom?"

"Neville was one of the easiest ones. You know how much of a sentimental streak he has. Besides, he'd already come up with the lesson plan so it was easy to request that he just give you a specific flower."

"Professor Flitwick?" Victoire asked actually rather curious with that one.

"He absolutely loves me. And he absolutely loves you. And the only thing he would love more than the two of us separate, is the two of us together," Teddy told her seriously.

"Did he actually say that?"

"Pretty much, yeah. He's also rather glad that we finally told each other of our feelings because he said knowing how it is with our family that we could have been denying our affection for each other for a long time to come."

Victoire laughed. She could easily imagine tiny Professor Flitwick hitting his head on his desk as he dealt with their oblivious family members through the generations.

"Professor Cooke? You took a chance on that one. He knows that we're technically not supposed to be together."

"And he's technically not supposed to be with Jilly. Plus he said that the look on your face would be totally worth it."

"Okay, but how do you explain getting Lucy to help?" Victoire asked earnestly.

"You and I both know that Lucy isn't always that bad Vic."

Victoire turned around for a minute so that she could give him a disbelieving look. When she turned back to look at the sky she could feel Teddy's laughter vibrating though his chest.

"Okay, well once I brought up the fact, that none of the rules books state that flowers in the library are actually forbidden so she didn't have much of a chance to say no. I also asked her with both Dom and Molly there so they could convince her to help."

"So you manipulated and used peer-pressure on our impressionable young cousin?" Victoire asked sarcastically.

"Well yeah. That's also has I convinced James and Freddie to help," Teddy told her.

"And Louis and Baxter. This didn't really seem like their thing."

"This is completely true. However, Cecilia is a force to be reckoned with and the two of them really didn't have a choice once she knew about it."

Victoire giggled, "Well thank you for all of the manipulation and blackmailing. It was a very sweet gesture. And I can't believe that you remembered that I love the smell of lilacs so much."

Teddy sighed from behind her, "Vic, do you know what lilacs even symbolize?"

She shook her head, "Nope. I just thought that you picked them because you know that I hate traditional roses and that I loved the scent of lilacs."

"Well yes, I remembered that, but I would have thought that you would have looked up what the flowers symbolized. Or at the very least asked Neville if he knew what they meant," Teddy told her.

"Well then what do lilacs symbolize? I know red roses are for passionate love and the meanings behind the jasmine and larkspur that Kingsley always sends me."

Teddy leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss below her ear before whispering, "Lilacs symbolize first love."

Victoire turned her head to the left so that she could look at him and ended up nose to nose with him.

"Good, it took you long enough to realize that you loved me," She teased in a whisper.

Because she was watching his lips, she was able to see the smile where it began at the corner of his lips and as it turned into a full-blown smirk, "To be fair, I probably fell in love with you years before I even really knew what love was."

"You're so cheesy," She said kissing his cheek.

"But you love that about me."

"Very true," Victoire said as she placed a hand on the back of his head and pulled his face forward so that she could kiss him over her shoulder.

"Thank you," Victoire breathed in between kisses.

"For what?"

"For loving me."

* * *

**A/N:** 'Kay, so I hoped you guys liked my little Valentine's day gift to all of you readers. I appreciate you all.

Meanings of the flowers mentioned in this chapter:

Red roses: Passionate love, as most people know

White Chrysanthemum: Truth

Jasmine: Grace and Elegance

Larkspur: Beautiful Spirit

Sunflowers: Adoration (Cue all of the 'aww'ing sounds because of Xavier)

And Lilacs: Which I mentioned means first love

Who do you guys think had the best gifts? Vic, Ally, or Sandra?

Please follow this story on twitter, search **TriandTryAgain**

I'm not entirely sure when my next update with actual plot will be but I will get it up as soon as I figure out how I want to write it, and then find the time to write it.

A big thanks to everyone who reviews, favourties, subscribes, and reads!

Big, big thanks to: **RoLouG, MuggleCreator, cherrybubble, rockon 88, marmar8089, Ash, brilliant incandescence, pryce123, and xSuperNovax**.

And DFTBA, and Happy Valentine's Day!


	76. Rescheduling

**A/N:** What's this? I actually got a new chapter out even though I still have two weeks left of midterms? Wow. Go me.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything in this story besides a rather jealous Cecilia.

**Read my A/N at the bottom :) **

* * *

**Rescheduling**

"Okay so now you just-"

"OUCH!"

"Do that . . . Really Victoire? Is it too much to wait for me to finish my sentence?"

Victoire looked up and across the room a bit, so she could get a glance at Teddy. She took in his stance; his arms were crossed against his chest and his facial expression looked weary. She tried not to smirk.

"Sorry, but I've done that spell so many times that I could do it in my sleep," she told him apologetically before looking back down at what she was doing. Kurt stood beside her holding his right arm up with his left and was doing his best to stand still as she cast the counter-curse to the stinging hex she'd sent him a moment ago, under Teddy's incomplete directions.

"Yeah but you could at least pretend to listen to me. It kinda looks bad when I can't even control a seventeen-year-old girl," Teddy joked.

Victoire finished healing Kurt and then grinned at Teddy, "If it makes you feel better your superiors –a.k.a. Harry, and Kingsley- can't even control me. And at least you're not getting your arse kicked in a duelling match by me either."

Kurt frowned at her implications since _he_ was the person she was currently practicing her duelling with, "Hey! I am _not _getting my arse kicked by you. I'm letting you win so that your over-protective family can see that you can take care of yourself."

Victoire raised an eyebrow at him before smirking and quickly casting a stunner at him. He didn't have time to raise a shield or dodge it, so he fell to the floor of the room with a loud _thump_. She was smiling even wider as she walked over to where he was motionless on the ground.

"What was that about _letting_ me win Kurt?" She asked smugly as she lightly nudged him shoulder with the toe of her trainers.

Teddy walked across the office to where she was standing still gloating above Kurt's frozen form and sighed, "While him not being able to talk . . . or move is very nice, you should break the spell so his ego doesn't get any more bruised."

"But it's healthy to take a conceited person down a peg every once and a while. I would be an absolute nightmare by now if Xavier hadn't filled that role for me," Victoire laughed.

Teddy rolled his eyes, "Yes, well the last time you took Kurt down a peg he spent half a week trying to prove that he was so strong and manly."

"That was only last week Teddy."

"Yeah, and these weekly sessions seem to be a real hit to the poor guys' self-esteem."

Victoire waved her wand over Kurt's immobile form and cast a wordless counter-curse and she continued her conversation with Teddy, "Good then. We're all on the same page. You two can tell Kingsley that these extra training sessions are good for nothing else than ruining Kurt's self-esteem and I can leave and actually get on to doing some important things."

Kurt was groaning a bit now as he set up on the floor and rubbed his left leg, "Damn. Why do you always get me with your stunners?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Same problem as the last time we trained together Kurt."

"No. I've changed up my routine from the fall. It's not the same sequence," he argued.

Victoire crossed her arms against her chest, "Yes you have. But after a few goes you fall right back into the same pattern because your instinct is taking over. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I've just practiced with you so often that I can't help but see the pattern."

Kurt nodded and looked over at Teddy, "Maybe we should call it quits then and tell Kingsley that she's done."

Victoire's facial expression perked up. She'd been practicing duelling and spells with Teddy and Kurt for the past few weeks and she was really starting to get bored. Everything they had her do was so redundant and unnecessary. It was all the same things from the practice sessions she'd had with them, Harry, and Kingsley earlier in the year, because that's what Kingsley had instructed them to do. It was Almost the beginning of April, and even though the next Tri-Wizard Task wasn't scheduled until June, Kingsley has decided that after the past incidents it would be a good idea to allow the champions' another chance at duelling training before the task. He offered the use of some of the aurors to each champion, but allowed them to refuse since he wasn't going to make the extra training mandatory. Both Konstantin and Noëlle had decided that they would do extra training, but they preferred to do it with their own professors than with the aurors. Victoire wasn't going to agree to extra training at all because she'd gotten exponentially busier with Quidditch practices, studying for N. E. W. T. s, and with her Head Girl duties, but that was back when she thought that Kingsley was giving her a choice.

She should have realized that when he told her about the extra training opportunities that it wasn't a suggestion like it was with Konstantin and Noëlle, but an order. Victoire had only actually complained just a little bit after she realized that she had no choice. She knew that Kingsley was worried about her and that he was just trying to make sure that she was okay. Moreover, the training wasn't _that bad_, not an invasion of her privacy like the legion of aurors he still had stationed to follow her everywhere, it was just boring because she knew how to do everything that they'd asked of her. The only bright side of the training arrangement was that Victoire was now absolutely sure that she'd pass her Defense Against the Dark Arts practical for N. E. W. T.s in June with flying colours.

She heard Teddy sigh and almost forgot that he and Kurt were having a conversation, "I don't know. It's only the end of March and I know that Kingsley was hoping that the training would continue at least until the middle of April. He wanted her to get as much practice as she could."

"Yeah, but she has nobody left to duel with," Kurt pointed out, "She knows all of my moves, and even if Jilly weren't working practically every time we went to practice, Victoire could still probably beat her because she's grown to learn her moves too. There's no one else she can duel against."

Teddy nodded at the words. Kurt was right, Victoire did know his and Jilly's moves well enough to beat them almost every time. Kingsley didn't want her dueling against any of the other aurors –because about seventy-five percent of them were scheduled at some point or another to follow her around and he didn't want her memorizing their moves too just in case she decided to use it to her advantage later on. The only person that left them with was Teddy himself, but the two of them had tried duelling a few weeks earlier and it never worked out well. Either they couldn't take it seriously and started joking around, or they would take it seriously and then . . . well neither Teddy nor Victoire really felt comfortable when they had to duel against each other. They definitely worked better as a team than as opponents.

Teddy had asked Victoire if any of her friends would be able to help her practice duelling, but they ran into dilemmas there too. Both Sandra and Kyle were unable to help her because they were already studying for their Arithmancy N. E. W. T. that, for some reason, was to take place a month earlier than all of the other N. E. W. Ts. Ally was good with a wand but she was a year younger than Victoire and therefore hadn't learned all of the spells that Victoire had making them unevenly matched. It seemed the only person Victoire could think of that could have helped her duel was Xavier, and he was away in Ireland doing off-season training with Puddlemere United.

"I don't know what to do," Teddy said sadly. He didn't like not having a plan.

"Can I please just tell Kingsley that continuing to do this would just be a waste of all of our times. I've reached my training threshold. I could really use these practice times as extra Quidditch practices."

Teddy frowned at her.

"What? It's hard to train a brand-new Keeper halfway through the season. Especially since James and Freddie keep trying to send him to the Hospital Wing!"

Teddy tried not to laugh. He failed rather miserably.

"I'm serious not to mention the fact that-" Victoire's comment was cut off by a sharp knock on the door.

Teddy called 'come in', and the three of them were joined in Kingsley and Harry's office in Hogwarts by Dom.

"Dom, what are you doing here?" Victoire asked her sister as she strutted into the room.

"McGonagall said that she wanted to see you," Dom replied easily.

Victoire frowned at shot her younger sister a very specific look, "And when were you talking to McGonagall?"

"Just came from her office," Dom told her with a bright smile.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"Oh yeah, I believe that as much as I believe that Freddie and James weren't responsible for Delaney's mysterious rash at the last four Quidditch practices," Victoire huffed. She still didn't have concrete proof, but it couldn't have been a coincidence that every time Delaney tried to flirt with Ally during practice that he'd start an uncontrollable string of scratching.

"Don't compare me to James and Freddie," Dom told her sternly.

"Why not?"

"Because those two dweebs are only first years, they still have to work up to my level. Or at least they have to practice not getting caught so often," Dom snorted.

"Dom-" Victoire started.

"Don't worry about it Vic. It's taken care of. McGonagall just gave me a night of detention, totally worth it too. The look on Professor Linkwell's face would have been worth at least a week's worth of detentions," Dom laughed.

Victoire cracked just the tiniest smile, "Alright. I'll let it slide. So McGonagall wants to see me right now?"

"Yup. Oh, hi Teddy. I didn't see you there," Dom said as she smiled at Teddy. He had been helping Kurt move things in the office back to how they were before Victoire's training session started.

"Hi Dom," Teddy said walking over to her and giving her a hug.

"I'm stealing my sister for a bit, or I guess McGonagall's actually stealing her."

"That's fine. I'm tired of her anyway," Teddy smirked.

"Hey!" Victoire said faux-offended. Teddy let go of Dom, walked over to Victoire, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"There's only so much time someone can spend with you Vic."

"What, and seventeen years is your limit?" Victoire asked as she leaned into him and placed her hands on his chest.

"Yup. Give me about an hour and I should be good to go for another seventeen years," Teddy said as he looked into her eyes.

She smiled up at him and blushed.

Dom rolled her eyes at her sister and Teddy before noticing that they weren't the only ones in the room. She walked over to Kurt and smiled brightly.

"Hi, I'm Dominique, Victoire's sister."

"Uh . . . hi. I'm Kurt Williamson," Kurt said a little surprised by Dom's friendly and forward attitude.

"So you're Victoire's practice dummy them?" Dom asked lightly.

Kurt's eyes widened, "What-no. I'm not her practicing dummy."

"Really? Because you have a big bruise on your leg and your defensive manner a moment ago begs to differ," Dom said in a superior tone.

"Wha-"

"Kurt just leave it," Teddy called from where he was. Victoire and he had taken a time out from staring deeply into each other's eyes to listen to the interaction going on between Dom and the other auror.

"What? I'm not just going to leave it Ted-" Kurt started before Teddy cut him off again.

"Kurt have you ever won an argument against Victoire?"

"No. But what does that-"

"Then you're not going to win an argument against Dom. Don't feel bad though. They're Weasleys, they don't let anybody win in an argument against them," Teddy smirked.

Victoire scoffed and pushed Teddy's chest lightly. He grinned down at her and raised an eyebrow as if to say 'see-my-point'. She rolled her eyes before reaching up on her tiptoes and pressing a quick kiss against his lips.

"I'm going now. Tell Kingsley that if I have to come back into this office, or the other break room for that matter, it better be because someone's charging me with some sort of criminal offense and they need to interrogate me," She told him before stepping out of his arms.

Teddy nodded and Victoire and Dom linked arms before walking out the door. Their heads were close together and he could hear Dom giggling as Victoire told her how Kurt had gotten the bruise Dom had pointed out.

"Are they all like that?" Kurt asked as he came over to Teddy.

"Yeah. Great isn't it?" Teddy asked seriously.

"How do you handle it?" Kurt asked.

"It's easy for me. I grew up in it. It's harder for others who aren't in the family. I can't wait until the younger ones get older and start dating people who aren't children of old friends of the family. That will make for some very interesting meet-the-family dinners," Teddy said grinning at the thought. He was thinking about when Lucy in particular would get a boyfriend. That would be one dinner that he wouldn't want to miss.

* * *

Dom left Victoire at the gargoyle that guards the entrance to McGonagall's office. Victoire told it the password and it moved aside so she could walk up the staircase and to the office. She knocked on the door and was told to enter.

"There you are Miss Weasley."

"Sorry for the wait Headmistress. Dom had a bit of a hard time finding me," Victoire told her apologetically.

"Don't worry Miss Weasley, we're still waiting for a few others anyway," McGonagall told her with a smile as she gestured for Victoire to come closer to her desk and to sit in one of the four high-backed chairs that were stationed in front of it.

As soon as Victoire sat down, she regretted her seating choice.

"Yes, Weasley, for once you're not the last person here," a voice snarked from beside her.

Victoire rolled her eyes and addressed her neighbour, "Hello Knott. Lovely to see your face again, it's really been too long."

Colton sneered at her sarcasm. When Xavier left Hogwarts all of the Head and prefect patrols schedules had to be tweaked. McGonagall wasn't going to introduce a new head boy in the middle of the year, and since Victoire was still left, there was still a head student from each house, so they just adjusted the schedule so that someone would fill in all the spots where Xavier was supposed to be. Because of the switch, Victoire and Colton had ended up doing several of their patrols together. Mostly because they both couldn't work with other people. Colton didn't want to work with Shelley Alexander of Hufflepuff, because, well, she was a Hufflepuff, and Victoire didn't want to work with Austin Pennington, because, well he was Austin Pennington. McGonagall had warned them that if they were going to be so stubborn that they'd end up doing many of their patrols together because she wanted one male and one female in each pair. Grudgingly they both acquiesced to McGonagall's offer. Colton because even though he didn't want to work with Victoire, she was at least a pureblood, unlike the Head Girl from Hufflepuff, and Victoire, because even though she didn't like either Pennington or Knott, at least Knott wouldn't try to hit on her . . . or even try to talk to her at all for that matter.

A couple minutes of silence later and the door to the office opened and sixth-year Donnie Grant of Hufflepuff and fifth-year Gloria Dustin of Ravenclaw entered the room. McGonagall gestured for the two to sit in the empty seats and they did so. The lax if not comfortable silence that had been in the room because of Victoire and Colton's desire to not speak to each other as much as possible turned into more of an uncomfortable one with the entrance of the other two students. Even Victoire, who always tried to be nice to people -who weren't stuck-up Slytherins, pompus Ravenclaws, or hormone-riddled boys that is- especially to those who were younger, was feeling a little awkward. She'd never tried to get close to the two other students though, because they were both on opposing Quidditch teams, and in fact, this year they were both their respective houses' Quidditch Captains.

"Does this have something to do with Quidditch?" Victoire asked McGonagall now realizing that she and Colton weren't here because of something they need to do as Head students.

"Yes it does Miss Weasley; I've gathered you all here because I have a bit of a proposition. Since this June is going to be busy with at least three of you taking your N. E. W. T.s or O. W. L.s, and there's the Third Task to consider, I thought we'd move the Quidditch House Cup competition up to the middle of May. That way we could get it over with before you guys have to study for your exams," McGonagall told them.

Victoire tried not to smile. Moving the House Cup up a month would be very helpful to her. Sure, she would have less time to train Delaney, but that would also lessen the time that Freddie and James had to try to hurt or embarrass him.

"Sounds good to me," Gloria Dustin said quickly. Even though she was the Quidditch captain she was a true Ravenclaw, she liked her extra studying time for tests.

"I'm fine with that," Donnie Grant answered, ever the easy-going Hufflepuff.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter when it happens the outcome will still be the same," Colton said with a smirk in Victoire's direction.

She rolled her eyes at him before saying a quiet, 'thank-you' to McGonagall.

"Okay then, that means that the last two games of the regular season will have to happen soon. That would be Gryffindor against Ravenclaw and Slytherin against Hufflepuff. After that, your final scores will show the seating of the houses for the final three house cup games," McGonagall told them, "How about Gryffindor and Ravenclaw the first weekend of April, and Slytherin and Hufflepuff the week after. We'll need at least two weeks after that to figure out the standings and then we should be able to have the final House Cup game by the middle of May."

"But the first weekend of April is only two weeks away," Gloria Dustin said nervously.

"Yes it is Miss Dustin, you do bring up a good point though, Miss Weasley do you think your new keeper will be up to playing that soon?" McGonagall asked turning to Victoire.

Victoire noticed Gloria Dustin narrowing her eyes in thought. She'd obviously forgotten that Gryffindor was working with a new less experienced player and had to think about how she could use this fact to her advantage. Victoire rolled her eyes and answered McGonagall's question right away. She didn't need to think about it, she knew that no matter how much practice Delaney got he wouldn't be up to Xavier's performance level.

"That's fine Professor, we'll be ready for then."

"Okay then, the dates are set, you are all allowed to get back to your previous activities."

Everyone turned and moved over to the door to leave.

"Except for you Miss Weasley."

Victoire sighed but stopped where she was. Colton smirked and winked at her condescendingly before leaving behind the two younger Quidditch captains and shutting the door behind him.

"Yes Professor?" Victoire asked McGonagall when she moved closer to her desk.

"Are you sure that your team will be ready by then Victoire? I don't mind giving you a bit of an extension on the date. No one was prepared for Mr Wood to leave like he did," McGonagall said understandingly.

_Actually I was. He told me right after he found out about it. I should have been looking for a replacement back in December; I knew he would join the team._

"It's fine Professor. I don't want us to have any special treatment. You're doing this to help take off some of the stress of June and I'm very thankful for that. My team's ready to go. I know Delaney won't replace Xavier, nobody can, but we're as good as we're going to get."

"And Delaney is as of yet unharmed and you would like it to stay that way until the season's over?" McGonagall asked with a raised eyebrow.

Victoire's facial expression was one of confusion, "How did you . . . ?"

McGonagall smiled a bit, "James usually ends up telling me almost everything Victoire. Even though he really shouldn't, he's too much like his namesakes for that to ever be a good idea, but he doesn't lie to me. He owns up once he's been caught at something. And I have had Professor Longbottom in here several times over the past few weeks telling me of all of the detentions he's had to give both James and Fred for doing something to your new keeper."

Victoire face-palmed her forehead, "If those two weren't so bloody good at Quidditch I'd kick them off the team."

"I know," Professor McGonagall told her gently, "But if a problem does start, either because James or Fred, or because of Delaney himself I can help you will the discipline so it won't look like you're playing favourites."

"Thank you Professor, but I hope it won't have to come to that. Now if you excuse me I should probably go round up my team and tell them of the change in scheduling."

"Alright, goodbye Miss Weasley."

* * *

"Do you really need all of us here Vic? Because I was just about to-"

"Hold that sentence James I'd really like to have some plausible deniability, and yes, even though we're not in the changing rooms this is a Gryffindor Quidditch team meeting and there are some things that I need to tell all of you," Victoire said from where she stood at the end of the table.

It had taken her and Ally an hour, but they had finally managed to round up every player on the team, and get them to sit down at one of the long tables off to the side of their Common room near the windows.

"I just came back from a meeting with McGonagall and the other house Quidditch captains and the season's been adjusted."

"How so?" Ally asked from her seat on the right Victoire. She had run into her cousin earlier and had agreed to help her round up the team but she'd never actually had a chance to ask her why they all needed to meet.

"She's moving the House Cup finals to be done by the middle of May. Therefore, our next game against Ravenclaw has moved up the beginning of April, and the Slytherins' last game against Hufflepuff will take place the following weekend. After that there will be about a two week break and then we'll play in the final matches in May," Victoire told them all.

"So our next game is in two weeks?" James asked apprehensively.

"Yes."

"I don't know if we'll be able to be ready by then Vic."

"Nonsense James. We're a good team with some great players. We can do this."

"Yes, I know _we_ can do this, but I don't think Delaney can."

Victoire frowned at Freddie, "Freddie stop. We've gotten as good as we can with practice. If you don't think Delaney will be ready that is none of your business, it's between him and I as the captain of this team."

"I'm ready Victoire," Delaney spoke up, tired of people talking for him. He was sitting on Victoire's left, directly across the table from Ally. When he'd gotten in he had tried to sit next to her but James and Freddie had quickly snuck in and claimed the seat next to her and the other one on the same side so that he was left sitting on the opposite side of the table from her.

"Thank you Carson. Well I don't know if there's anything left to say besides to remind you that we have practice in two nights. You can all go now," Victoire told them.

Delaney, Caroline Hilbert, and Roger Michaels all left. However, Ally, James, and Freddie decided that they'd stay and help Victoire with some strategy for the game coming up.

"I wish it wasn't Gloria Dustin's first year as captain for the team. Her plays and styles are sure to be different from Logan Sampson's from last year," Victoire sighed after she scratched through another play that she and Ally had been toying with before realizing that she wasn't sure that the Ravenclaw beaters would react the way they would expect them to.

"I just wish Gloria Dustin wasn't here period."

Victoire turned her head, and gave Cecilia and Louis who had come up behind her a small smile.

"And why do you wish that Gloria wasn't here?" Ally asked Cecilia as she and Louis sat down in two of the unoccupied chairs at their table.

"Because she's such an annoying know-it-all. She always brags about being better and smarter than everyone else just because she was able to skip a year and is now in her fifth year instead of fourth," Cecilia grumbled.

"Wait. She's supposed to be in fourth-year? How old is she?" Victoire asked stunned. Most House Quidditch captains were between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. She could only think of a handful of past Quidditch captains who were younger than fifteen when they started, Cecilia's father Oliver being one of them.

"She's fourteen. I guess she was so supper smart in her first year that they gave her the opportunity to skip the second and go straight to the third. During her break after first year she studied, took her second-year exams, and passed with high enough scores that the next year she went straight to her third year," Cecilia told them.

"So she's not only smart enough to have skipped a year but she's also Ravenclaw's Quidditch captain? How does the girl find the time?" Ally asked.

Cecilia pouted, "She has no social life outside of Quidditch because of it, and it better stay that way."

Victoire and Ally shared a confused look before looking back at Cecilia, "What's your grudge against her about? She's a year older than you, and two years above so it's not like you guys have to spend classes together."

"Thank Godric we don't. I don't think I'd be able to handle that cow if I had to see her every day."

"Seriously Cecilia, what's your deal with Gloria?" Victoire asked very, very curious now.

Cecilia's face flushed, "She's obsessed with Louis."

Victoire burst out in laughter while Ally looked a little confused, "Wait, what?"

"Did someone say my name?" Louis asked turning towards the three girls with an innocent smile. He had been having a separate conversation with James and Freddie and didn't even know what the girls were talking about.

Victoire held her snickering in long enough to answer Louis, "Apparently my new Quidditch enemy is Cecilia's personal nemesis."

Louis opened his mouth to ask a question but was cut off by Ally questioning Cecilia.

"Are you certain Cecilia? I mean as little contact as you would have with her I think Louis would have less. How would she know enough about him to fancy him?"

"Who has fancies me?" Louis asked finally understanding part of the conversation.

"Gloria Dustin," Victoire answered quickly choosing to ignore the glare Cecilia shot her.

"Who's Gloria Dustin?" Louis asked uncomprehendingly.

Victoire broke out into another string of giggles while Cecilia's face became even redder. Ally was the only one who was able to reply to Louis' question, "She's the fifth-year captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team."

"A fifth-year Ravenclaw has a crush on me?" Louis asked interestedly, "Wait. She's not one of Lucy's annoying friends is she?"

"No," Cecilia said finally finding it in her to answer, "Lucy doesn't even like this girl, which should really say something. And I know this because her younger sister is in our year and we were studying together in the library one day when Gloria came by and I noticed that she had hers and Louis' names written in hearts on her notebook."

"Actually? Gosh that's so pre-teen," Victoire said before breaking into another fit of giggles. She found it hilarious that another girl had a huge crush on Louis and that it visibly bugged Cecilia so much.

"I still don't know who you guys are talking about," Louis grumbled upset that they wouldn't tell him more.

Cecilia shot Louis a glare for being so interested in the conversation and Ally had to step in and become peacemaker once again, "Louis give us a minute and we'll explain more. Cecilia stop trying give Louis the evil eye, he's just curious, you were the one who brought up your hatred for her anyway. And Victoire, be a little more sympathetic will you. I don't seem to remember you finding it funny when Pamela was hitting on Teddy."

Victoire snorted, "I don't remember you finding it funny either when Pamela was hitting on Xavier."

Ally's face reddened a bit, "Okay, well we can both agree that Pamela's a bint, now let's clear some things up between Louis and Cecilia."

"Cecilia," Ally said turning to the third-year, "Maybe this would be easier if you explained Gloria to Louis in terms that he'd be able to understand."

Cecilia let out a big puff of air before turning to face Louis, "Do you remember when we were in the library last weekend when I was helping you with your shrinking charms?"

Louis nodded his head.

"Do you remember the blonde girl that came over and told me that I was showing you the wrong hand placement and adjusted yours on your wand and showed you how to shrink your inkwell?" Cecilia asked him.

Louis shifted in his seat, "Sort of, I remember the event but I don't remember what the girl looked like . . . wait! Were you wearing your green and blue sweater that day?"

Cecilia gave Louis a confused look, "Yes but what-"

"That's why I don't remember her. That sweater brings out the green in your eyes and I was probably too busy looking at them to notice what she looked like," Louis told her easily.

Victoire's mouth popped open and Ally whispered the word 'smooth' quietly under her breath.

"Wait, what?" Cecilia asked shocked.

"You shouldn't be that surprised Cecilia. I probably spend half of our study time looking at you; I mean how could I not?"

Cecilia's cheeks turned bright red and Victoire could tell that the girl was a comment from Louis away from turning into a puddle of goo, if she wasn't already.

"Thank you Louis. Now unless either of you are going to give me some information about Gloria that I can work with, meaning how she might contrive her Quidditch plays, you two can go," Victoire told them starting to become uncomfortable with the way the two were staring at each other.

"Hold it!" Freddie called when Cecilia and Louis stood up to leave, their hands intertwined.

"What?" Cecilia asked having found her voice again.

"If Gloria has such a big crush on Louis then we can just send him in to infiltrate. He flirts with her a bit and bang! We get her Quidditch plays," Freddie explained happily.

"No."

"No Freddie."

"That's not exactly how it works."

"Hell no."

The last comment, unsurprisingly, came from Cecilia, but it was Victoire that threw a wrench in Freddie's plan, "Louis doesn't know how to flirt."

"What?" James asked confused.

Louis shrugged, "It's true."

"But . . . you're part Veela."

"Yes."

"And you have Cecilia . . ."

"Which is a miracle in the first place seeing as he can't flirt, or really pick up on someone flirting for that matter," Victoire said.

"It's true Freddie. Louis can't flirt, he's either oblivious to it, or he lays it on so thick you can't really consider it flirting. More of a declaration really," Cecilia said giving Louis' hand an adoring squeeze.

Louis shrugged again, "What can I say? I'm artless."

Victoire rolled her eyes and shooed both Cecilia and Louis, and Freddie and James off before going back to her playbook with Ally.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, well I know you guys have waited a while for this, and I know that it wasn't the most interesting or well written, but it's really hard to get back into the creative writing groove after so much time away from it. So I hope that you enjoyed the update even though it was lacking. (And like all of my seemingly boring chapters, this one will become a bit more important later on)

So, not only do you lovely people get an update this week! But, I also promise to update next week too! (Sometime) And how can I keep this promise? You may ask. Well, I have the next chapter already written. And this is a big thing because that hasn't happened in like months. (Which is why updates have been sporadic and only after I find time to write a chapter)

But I promise next week you will get your chapter, see:

**Next Week:** We talk some Tournament business, Victoire rambles . . . A LOT (Is she hiding something?), and we find out she doesn't like keeping secrets from her friends in fear that she'll have to appease Xavier by giving him her first-born child?

Don't forget to follow me on twitter (While I'm very boring right now as the updates increase so will that fun) just search the story title, TryandTriAgain. And thanks to everyone who is following me :)

A BIG thank-you to everyone who has Favorited/ followed/ REVIEWED/ read/ and/or just enjoyed my story! Especially:

**As the Robin Flies, RoLouG, Aurordreamer, marmar8089, Thia Lingam, Forever Siriusly Sirius, Miracleshappen94, sequinsplash, Guest (1), pryce123, Marianne 16, brilliant incandescence, Guest (2), Diamondgirl3, rockon88, Guest (3), and veelabitches.**

**Thanks again everyone and DFTBA!**


	77. Rambling

**A/N:** Hey guys! I decided to update a day early because I have a bio midterm at the end of this week and I'm gonna be really busy.

Oh, and HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! (And in case you were wondering, yes I can celebrate because I definitely have some Irish blood back in the family history)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything in here . . .

* * *

**Rambling**

"Who can tell me who the Minister for Magic was when Voldemort came into power for the second time?" Professor Cooke asked his seventh-year History of Magic class.

Unsurprisingly, no one put their hand up. History of Magic was the last class for the students on that Friday afternoon and it was obvious that they weren't really paying attention to anything that was going on.

Victoire could feel Professor Cooke's eyes on her as she sat in her seat next to Kyle. She slunk down in her seat farther hoping he wouldn't call on her as a last ditch effort. She knew that _he_ knew that she knew the answer, but she'd rather not be seen as a know-it-all in front of the class. Or at least not when the entire class was already well aware of her _intimate_ knowledge with Voldemort and his reigns of terror.

She could tell that he was just about to call her name when a Danielle Reed walked in with a note for Professor Cooke. Once she'd handed it to him, she bolted out of the classroom. It was rather obvious that she was intimidated by the seventh-years.

Professor Cooke read the note and smirked, "Miss Weasley, professor McGonagall would like to see you in her office right now."

Victoire sighed wondering what was wrong now, "Alright Professor."

She collected her books and stood up from her desk, she was about to begin her walk out of the room when she heard Professor Cooke call out to her again.

"But before you go Miss Weasley, would you please tell the class who was the Minister for Magic when Voldemort began his second reign?" Professor Cooke asked giving her a bright smile.

She narrowed her eyes at him, knowing that he was putting her on the spot on purpose, "That all depends on when you believe that Voldemort began his second reign Sir."

"Really Miss Weasley?"

"Yes," Victoire ground out between her clenched teeth. Now she had the entire classes attention riveted on her, "A Ministry sanctioned textbook would probably say 1996 with Minister Fudge or maybe 1995 if they're trying to show that they've pulled their head out of the sand with Scrimgeour."

"But what year would you say Miss Weasley?" Professor Cooke asked with a twinkle in his eyes that Victoire couldn't place.

"1990 with Fudge."

"Good answer Miss Weasley," Professor Cooke told her happily, "You may be excused now."

Victoire nodded at him before leaving the classroom. She didn't even bother to stop, when she left, to explain to the aurors who were stationed out of her classroom to follow her, where or why she was going. She just kept walking.

_They're paid to follow me, not to know my every move; they don't have to know everything._

Victoire was halfway to McGonagall's office when she heard a voice behind her call out 'stop'. Victoire only stopped because she recognized the voice.

Jilly Donaldson came jogging up behind and directly addressed the three aurors who were behind Victoire, "I'm going to take it from here, I can get her to McGonagall's office."

The three aurors shared a look before one of them spoke for all three, "I'm sorry Auror Donaldson, but we can't just leave. Unless you've got a note form a superior auror or Auror Lupin saying that you're taking over, we can't just leave her."

"How about if Auror Lupin tells you in person that you're relieved of your duty?" Teddy called as he came running around the corner of the corridor. His face was flushed from running and Victoire smiled as she looked at him.

"Alright Lupin, if you and Donaldson have her then we'll leave," The auror said. Teddy waved him off and then all three of them left.

When they were out of sight Victoire looked at Teddy with a blonde brow raised, "What was all of that about? Not that I'm not happy that I've been sprung."

Teddy rolled his eyes and gestured for the girls to begin walking again, "You haven't been sprung, we're taking you to the meeting with McGonagall and then the next set of aurors are going to meet you outside of her gargoyle when this is done."

Victoire sighed, "Well then why send them away in the first place?"

"Kingsley wanted Jilly and I in on the Meeting. It's not just with McGonagall, Konstantin and Noëlle have also been summoned and according to the Map, Flannery is there along with McGonagall and the other Headmistress and Master," Teddy told her.

"So we're thinking this is Tournament related then?" Victoire guessed.

"Yes, and since Kingsley wasn't invited to the party he thought he'd send some to crash it."

"He didn't have to do that. I probably would have done that on my own without even trying."

"Yes, well he'd rather have someone else on the inside who can tell him, that way it doesn't give Flannery another reason to hate you," Teddy told her.

"And you and Jilly being my _guard_ and having explicit directions from Kingsley not to leave my side is a perfect way to get you in on the meeting?"

"Yup," Teddy answered.

"Alright then, but that means that I'm going to have to act surly with you," Victoire joked.

"Just remember back to the time you were eight and I ditched your tea party to hang out with that boy who moved in down the street from Grandma," Teddy told her with a wink.

Victoire ground her teeth together. It was almost ten years ago but it had been one of the worst days of her life. He didn't know it but she was actually still pretty angry with him for doing that. Despite the fact that he _had_ called, and said that he wouldn't make it to her tea party, and her dad had just forgotten to give her the message. Until she'd gotten so angry that she threw a ball of Veela fire through the kitchen window that it is.

They had reached the gargoyle outside of McGonagall's office and Teddy turned to look at Victoire, expecting her to give it the password. When he saw the look on her face, he frowned. He walked over to her and took her hands within both of his.

"You're not _still_ angry about that day, _are_ you?"

Victoire frowned, "Of course I was angry! You promised that you'd be there and then you left me to go play with some boy. You were so fickle back then."

Teddy tried not to smile as he leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the forehead, "I can promise you right now Vic that I will never ever stand you up for some other guy again."

That made her crack a smile, as was his intention, and she leaned forward until her head was buried in his chest and kissed him, "Good, you don't know how worried I was that you were going to run away with Xavier now that he's a big time Quidditch star."

Teddy chuckled, "Nah, Kyle's more my type. He knows how treat his partner. Plus, I'd still be the best Quidditch player in the relationship if I was with him."

Victoire moved her face away from his chest so that she could look at his face, "_Still_? So you think that you're the best Quidditch player in your present relationship then?"

"Yup," He said popping the 'p'.

"I think we may have to put your theory to a test."

"I think we may."

"I think we should get into that meeting before I feel the need to puke," Jilly commented dryly from beside them.

Victoire and Teddy both rolled their eyes at her but they followed her lead. Victoire got the gargoyle to allow them in, and the three of them walked up the staircase and through the open door to McGonagall's office. Once they were in Victoire saw that Teddy was correct in his assessment of who was in the room, with the addition of Professor La Croix standing near Headmistress Maxine and Noëlle, and another professor standing with Headmaster Jaraslov and Konstantin. She assumed that Professor Cooke then, was not summoned to be with her and Professor McGonagall because he was teaching, and guessed that either her or McGonagall would be instructed to inform him of what was about to pass in the meeting later.

"Miss Weasley, glad to see that you've made it, now if you please –Why are there aurors with you?" Flannery asked his sugary tone turning sour when he saw Jilly and Teddy's scarlet robes and gold badges.

McGonagall answered before Jilly or Teddy had a chance to explain themselves, "New security protocol Auror Shacklebolt put through ever since the _incident_ in the lake with the last task. Aurors are supposed to stay with Miss Weasley."

Flannery frowned but he heard the hidden meaning behind the emphasis that McGonagall put on the word 'incident' and decided not to mess with Shacklebolt, even though he wasn't there.

"Fine, but surely she doesn't need both aurors here with her for the meeting," Flannery said giving Teddy in particular a pointed glance. He assumed –correctly- that Teddy would most likely tell Kingsley everything that would be going on in the meeting.

"Of course you're right Minister, I'll just wait outside the door," Jilly answered easily before leaving the room in a flash.

Flannery sighed, he wasn't entirely happy with how that turned out but he needed to get this over with, "Alright then, since all Champions are here we'll start. Traditionally the third Tri-Wizard Task has been in June. However, this year we've decided to change it up. The last Task is going to take place at the beginning of May."

"What?" Victoire shouted shocked, asking what everyone else in the room was too stunned to.

Flannery frowned at her, "The third Tri-Wizard task is going to be in May, Saturday May sixth to be exact."

"But why?" Noëlle asked voicing her own confusion.

"For everyone's safety," Flannery explained as if those three words should satisfy all of the questions.

"I think you need to explain more than that Minister, how will changing the date be safer for everyone?" McGonagall asked.

"Because that makes it unexpected. Whoever was involved in the incident from the last task had months to plan and organize. If we pick a date a month earlier it will surprise them and they won't be able to plan anything," Minister Flannery said as if it all made perfect sense.

"Um? They'd still have a month to plan something if you go and announce that the next task is in June, all you've done is screw up the Auror departments chance to make sure that everything is safe they'd have a lot more to do in a month than the other people who tried to kidnap me would," Victoire said.

Flannery frowned at her again, "Which is why we are not going to go about announcing it Miss Weasley."

"But how vill everyvun be able to be ready vor ve task in May if no vun knows?" Konstantin asked.

"It will be announced on the fifth that the third task will be taking place the next day. Tickets for the third task have already sold, people would just have to readjust their schedules to make it, or not."

"Are you sure the sixth of May is the best idea?" Professor McGonagall asked Flanner, she shot Victoire a worried look before continuing, "The second of that month is always the remembrance ceremony from the Wizarding war. I think it may be a little surprising and . . . difficult for people to have the two events in the same week."

"That's exactly why it will take everyone by surprise! Nobody will expect the third task to be just days after the war memorial ceremony that's always held here. It will take everyone by surprise, except the champions of course, which is why I've decided to tell you all now."

"And when were you planning on informing the Auror Department of this Minister? Don't you think that they would need to know sooner rather than later to arrange all of the necessary protection protocols for the task?" Victoire asked in a hard voice.

Flannery sneered at her, "Don't worry Miss Weasley, the Auror Department was next on my list."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "How gracious of you to decide to let them know. But do we actually have to keep this a secret from everyone else? I mean my friends and family are going to notice right away that I'm hiding something and they will not rest until they drag it out of me. I can't lie to them."

"_You _can't lie?" Flannery asked pompously.

Victoire placed her hands on her hips, "Not to my friends and family. It's a psychological thing. I can't lie to people I respect. You on the other hand Minister, it would be very easy for me to lie to you. This whole idea about keeping the task a secret's a great idea. See? Lying."

Flannery glared at her, "I'm sorry Miss Weasley but you are not to tell anyone about this who is not in this room."

"So you're not planning on telling Kingsley and the other aurors then?"

"No. I said that I will tell them and I will."

"Well if you're telling them then you're telling Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron. And, well Uncle Ron can't keep a secret, and Uncle Harry's going to believe that if he knows than both my Mamma and Konstantin's father should know. Moreover, once they know they're going to tell their respective spouses and then I can tell you for sure that my Mum's going to think that Noëlle's parents should know. In addition, with that you have eight more people besides the ones in this room in on the secret, which exponentially increased the odds that more people than who you deem appropriate will find out.

"Then it's just going to keep growing from there, until I get an owl from my friend Xavier Wood -who's training for Quidditch in Ireland right now- and he's going to want to know why he had to find out about the change in date for the third task from some crazy distant relative of a teammate of his, and not from me. To which I will reply that I didn't tell him because Minister Flannery instructed us not to tell anyone, and then he'll ask me why I decided to listen to you when I never have before. Then I'll probably have to promise him my first-born child or something to appease him. And that's just a lot of stress, and I'm not sure if I'd rather take my chances on getting kidnapped than not telling anyone, because Xavier would probably raise my child to grow up to be sorted into Slytherin and that would make for some rather awkward family dinners and strife between the child and its Gryffindor cousins. Personally, I don't think all of that is worth the _chance_ that the kidnappers won't find about the change in date," Victoire finished.

Everyone in the room was staring at her oddly because of her speech, except for Flannery who was giving McGonagall a look that asked if I was serious and why couldn't she control me better. She just rolled her eyes at him and smiled indulgently at me.

"Really Miss Weasley, I don't think all of that's going to happen," Minister Flannery said because he wasn't entirely sure where to start.

"No, maybe not, but what I said will definitely happen, at least up to the part where all of our parents find out, oh, and the part about Uncle Ron not being able to keep a secret. Seriously, _never_ trust him with one."

Flannery gave her another odd look before addressing everyone else in the room, "Does anyone else have any valid concerns?"

"How is me not wanting my first-born child to be raised by some other person to be a Slytherin not a valid concern?"

"Victoire," Professor McGonagall said sternly. She didn't want her irritating Flannery anymore, the man's face was already pass the colour red and on its way to purple.

"Yes Professor," Victoire answered respectfully before making a zipping motion across her mouth.

Flannery noticed it and shot McGonagall a look as if to say 'that's-all-that-was-needed-?'.

"I think you've explained all you can Minister. I'll make arrangements for the task to occur in May, and warn all of my staff of the change and the chaos that may occur because of it," McGonagall told him.

Flannery looked like he was about to argue with her about her telling the other staff members about the change in date, but then thought better of it, "Alright then. You are all excused, and I'm on my way to speak to the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

Victoire opened her mouth to speak but Flannery stopped her, "And yes Miss Weasley I will speak with Auror Shacklebolt when I'm finished with the other department."

Everyone else filed quietly out the door, and Teddy left to go tell Jilly to inform Kingsley that Professor McGonagall wanted to see him right away. Professor McGonagall looked at Victoire and then at one of the chairs that sat in front of desk. Victoire recognized her message and walked forward to sit on one of the chairs.

Teddy came back in and sat down next to her, "You're not seriously worried about Xavier getting our first-born child are you?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, "No. If I end up selling our first-born to the devil it would most likely end up being Kyle, not Xavier. Plus it would be a lot easier for Kyle to teach it everything that it would need to know to become a member of the Slytherin house because he's a pureblood."

Teddy gave her a strange yet not offensive look, "Your mind really fascinates me sometimes."

Victoire just shrugged as she heard McGonagall sit down in front of them behind her desk, "Are you going to be okay with this change in date Victoire?"

Victoire heard the door opening behind her but answered McGonagall anyway, "Yeah. I mean it will probably interfere with the new Quidditch schedule you came up with last week, but that means that all I have to worry about in June is my N. E. W. T.s, which will still be very helpful."

"That's not what she meant Vic," Teddy said beside her.

"Is there something wrong Minerva?" Kingsley asked as he moved towards them. He glanced at Teddy and Victoire, and was pleased to see that she wasn't visibly hurt in any sense. That was his first worry.

"Yes there is Kingsley, Flannery has just informed all of the champions that the third task of the tournament will be moved up to May sixth," McGonagall told him.

"Why's he changing the date?" Kingsley asked.

"He believes that it will catch whoever tried to kidnap Victoire last task, unawares and that it will be less likely for the task to be tampered with."

Kingsley nodded, "I guess that makes some sense, by why move it up so early? Changing it by a week and keeping it a secret would have done the same effect; I am assuming that he informed everyone that they weren't to tell people?"

"Yes he did, and Victoire already took up her concerns with that and losing her first born-child to Xavier Wood because of it, but I agree he's picked a date that will cause more trouble for you and the aurors than for the kidnappers," McGonagall said.

Kingsley shot Victoire a look, "Let me guess you did the whole 'if-I-can't-tell-anyone-about-this-this-that-and-this-will-happen-and-then-I'll-have-to-give-Xavier-Wood-my-first-born-child-and-he'll-make-him-cheer-for-some-horrid-Quidditch-team-just-to-spite-me' speech?"

"No, I changed it to Xavier will raise my child to become a Slytherin and that will cause a rift in the family dynamic with its Gryffindor cousins," Victoire told him.

"Wait . . . you've actually used that excuse before?" Teddy asked stunned.

Kingsley smirked, "Two years ago when I wanted her to help Harry and I put together the surprise party for you to announce that you made it into the Auror program. She told me that she wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from you and somehow her speech ended up with Xavier raising her first-born child to cheer for _Pride of Portree_ just because she hates that team."

Teddy raised an eyebrow at her, "Don't even bother telling me that he wouldn't because you and I both know that he would. I changed it this time though because now that he's actually on Puddlemere he's more likely just to corrupt the child and ruin its Hogwarts years."

"I think you're stalling right now because you don't want to talk about the real issue here," Teddy told her.

"Again, how is my worry over Xavier ruining my first-born child not a real issue?"

"Victoire," McGonagall said sternly again, "Just tell us that it's going to be too much for you and we'll get Flannery to drag it back even a week."

Victoire stood up angrily, "I'm not a little girl anymore, I can handle the third task being in the same week as the memorial service."

"We're not trying to imply that you can't Vic, we're just worried. The memorial service is hard on all of us, we wouldn't think less of you if you wanted the task changed so that you'd have a few more days to prepare after it," Kingsley said soothingly.

Victoire looked at Teddy as Kingsley spoke to her. She sat back down in her chair and grabbed his hand, "I'll be fine Kingsley. All I want if for this tournament to be over. If it happens sooner than I'd first expected all the better."

"You're security detail's not going to change in the meantime," Kingsley told her strictly.

She frowned, "Fine, pay those idiots extra to follow my every move and invade my privacy."

"I wouldn't have to pay them to follow your every move if I could figure out a way to keep you in one section of the Castle and not have you leave."

"Yes, because that doesn't make you sound like a crazy person," Victoire quipped.

"Don't you have class?" Kingsley retorted with a raised eyebrow.

"No. Professor Cooke's picked on me enough today," Victoire replied with a pout.

"Nobody else wanted to answer in a History of Magic, did they?" Teddy asked.

"No. Just because my last name's Weasley doesn't mean that I need to answer every question that nobody else will answer."

"It's not so bad, if you get an examiner like mine for your N. E. W. T. they'll give you bonus marks if you add extra information to some of the answers," Teddy told her.

"Really?"

"I got a bonus mark because I knew Hermione's favourite colour."

"Dang. I don't know her favourite colour."

"It's green."

"How do you know that?"

"She told me once when I was younger and my hair was the colour," Teddy shrugged.

"Interesting."

"Are you two done?" Kingsley asked with an amused expression.

"Yes. I'll just walk her to the Gryffindor tower, the other aurors should be waiting there already to continue her detail."

"Dang it!"

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, so I hoped that you liked that I just thought I'd address a few points before you ask me about them.

**1. Victoire's rambling** in this chapter . . . believe it or not, it did have a point. I don't know if anyone's ever known a person like this, but sometimes people will talk about anything else to avoid talking about something that they don't want to touch on. In this chapter Victoire was trying to avoid the fact that, A) She doesn't want to have to keep secrets from her friends like this, and B) she didn't want to discuss with McGonagall and Kingsley whether or not having the Task in the same week as the remembrance ceremony would affect her or not. So she decided to ramble because she felt uncomfortable about the situations. Which also shows that even though she puts on a tough exterior, she gets worried about things too.

**2.** At the beginning Prof. Cooke asks Victoire when the second Wizarding war started. I took a look at hp-lexicon before writing this to get an idea for dates, and they actually state in their timelines that they considered Voldemort's comeback to begin in 1990, so that's what I went with.

**Next Week:** Victoire and Teddy have an argument about not being in an argument, we get to read an adorable letter from an equally adorable Xavier, and we get to read some Quidditch being played.

**Big thanks to everyone who has followed / favourited / read /enjoyed / and REVIEWED! P.S. Follow me on twitter if you're into that, just search TryandTriAgain**

**BIG, BIG, Thanks especially to:**

**MiraclesHappen94, RoLouG, As the Robin Flies, Thia Lingam, niallsprincess180, rebma89, marmar8089, Infinity Lily, brilliant incandescence, Forever Siriusly Sirius, xSuperNovax, rockon88, I am Bast Goddess of cats, Diamondgirl3, gopha-gurl, Tyra Bridget Potter-Weasley, pryce123, Guest (1), and Oddliver.**

**MiraclesHappen94:** Okay. Your review totally made me laugh. No fairy floss idea? I might just have to steal that and use it later because I loved it.

**As the Robin Flies:** Thanks. I'm glad, I think you will also be happy when this is finally over and see that some of my 'filler' chapters actually had little bits of information that effect the end ;)

**Thia Lingam:** I will try my best. And, well he wasn't so much romantic in this chap as he was adorable. Does that still work for you? And yeah. Canada's awesome. Virtual high-five.

**Forever Siriusly Sirius:** Thanks. And yeah, James may be a trouble-maker, but he can't lie to McGonagall.

**gopha-gurl:** A few days? Yeah it's pretty long, you must have a good attention span to want to sit and read all of this in that short amount of time.

**Tyra Bridget Potter-Weasley:** Well, thanks? That's a very strong reaction. ;)

**pryce123:** Nice plan, but I think my updates will be better for the next few weeks. No more than a two weeks wait in between updates for the next little while.

Thanks again for reading, don't forget to review! and DFTBA!


	78. Arguments, Letters, and Quidditch Games

**A/N: **Okay guys, here's the new chapter, enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything in here.

* * *

**Arguments, Letters, and Quidditch Games**

Victoire had started spending an excessive amount of time in the library ever since the meeting in McGonagall's office a few days ago. She figured that if she was in the library, the amount of talking she could do with her friends would be a minimum and there would be less of a chance of them realizing that she was keeping a secret from them. Ergo less of a chance that there was that she would end up telling them about the change in date, which they weren't supposed to know about. She was also able to keep away from the topic under the guise of extra Quidditch practices and spending more time working on plays to use against Ravenclaw in their last game of the regular Quidditch season that was coming up in three days' time.

It seemed to be working, but then one night Kyle had to go and open his big mouth.

Victoire has been in the library since her last class ended and about an hour after that Ally and Sandra joined her. Ally was trying to help her arrange the plays, and Sandra was quietly studying for Arithmancy.

The girls had been working diligently for about an hour before Kyle came up to their table. He placed a kiss on Sandra's forehead, and put his books down on the table before taking a seat across from Victoire. She could feel him staring intently at her, but she tried to ignore it.

Fifteen minutes later Kyle spoke, "So are you ready to spill your guts yet Vic?"

Victoire, who was so shocked at his question that she knocked over her inkwell, looked at him wide-eyed, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"C'mon Vic we're not stupid. We know that something's up with you," Kyle told her.

"We're your friends Sweetie; we just want to help you. You've been acting . . . strange lately and we want to make sure that everything's okay," Sandra added quickly. Obviously, Kyle wasn't operating alone.

"I'm fine guys; I'm just worried about the game against Ravenclaw in a few days. It's the first one I've ever actually played without Xavier."

Victoire didn't exactly want to play the 'Xavier' card but she needed a red herring for why she was acting so weird and the coming game was her best shot at a believable excuse.

Beside her Ally grabbed her hand and gave it a tight squeeze, "Victoire honey, you know I love you. So you should also understand that what you just said is a load of dung. You and I both know that we're as prepared as we're going to get for this game. If it was actually this close to game time and you were legitimately freaking out, well, you'd have somehow convince Cecilia to allow Louis to pretend to flirt with Gloria Dustin for information on the team to make you feel better about our preparedness. And since you haven't done that, it's safe to assume that you're using the Quidditch game as an excuse to cover up something else that you're worried about. What is it?"

Victoire bit her lip. She told Flannery that it was hard to lie to these people but he just didn't believe her.

"You've been acting weird for the past few days Vic. Did something happen? Did you get into an argument with someone?" Sandra asked.

Victoire nodded mutely. She got into an argument with Flannery so, so far she wasn't lying.

"Did you get into an argument with one of the other Heads on a patrol? Pennington or Colton?" Kyle asked.

Victoire shook her head, they'd be a great scapegoat but she hadn't actually had a real big argument with either of them in a while, and it would be hard to get them to play along.

"Well who else could it have been? Dom, Lucy? Did Fred and James cross a line?" Ally asked.

Victoire shook her head again. She hadn't spoken to any of them, except for what she had to as the latter two's team captain, since Flannery told them to keep the change in date a secret.

Sandra looked at Victoire sadly and reached her hand out to grasp Victoire's other hand, "Did you and Teddy have a fight?"

Before Victoire realized what she was doing, she was nodding at Sandra's words.

"What did you guys fight about?" Ally asked glad that they were finally making progress.

"I'd really rather not talk about it guys, I'm sure we'll work it out, but for now it helps to keep my mind busy with other stuff like the Quidditch game, okay?" Victoire asked putting on a dejected tone.

"That's alright Vic, we understand that you need some space," Sandra told her sincerely.

Victoire nodded and then went about cleaning up the ink stains on the paper that held the Quidditch plays. She felt bad about lying to her friends about an argument with Teddy, but she needed something to cover for what was actually bugging her.

* * *

The next day Victoire was glad to see that her friends had pretty much dropped the subject of her odd behaviour. It seemed that they believed her lie about having had a fight with Teddy and didn't bring it up with her because they were allowing her time to work out her problems on her own.

Or at least at the beginning of the day she'd thought they did. After Herbology class, she quickly learned that her friends weren't as forgetful as she'd first believed.

She was walking out of the classroom, and as per usual, she didn't bother to look and see if the aurors were following her before taking off at her own pace down the hall. She'd just turned a corner when she felt an arm come across her waist, and a hand come across her mouth and pull her into the passage behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy.

The person kept their hand over her mouth while gently backing her up against the wall. Victoire had stopped struggling halfway through the scuffle when she recognized the feel of the strong arms around her. When she stopped making noises, the hand around her mouth was removed.

"You know if you wanted to get me alone there are other ways than staging a kidnapping," Victoire said sarcastically.

Teddy rolled his eyes at her and took a step back, "Maybe I just wanted to prove that it's way too easy to kidnap you."

Victoire scowled, "It is not! I stopped struggling because I knew that it was you, if it was anyone else they would be so sorry right now."

Teddy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Whatever. That's not what we need to talk about."

"Well then we should probably hurry because my aurors are probably wondering how I disappeared."

"You're aurors are on a half hour break. I came up to them before your class ended and said that they needed to complete some different forms for me. I told them that I'd watch you until they finished. The forms should take them at least half an hour," Teddy told her.

"You know you should really be more careful, if you keep taking me away from the other aurors they're going to start thinking that's something up between us," Victoire teased.

"Well if they do find out, they won't think that it's a big deal once they become informed that we're fighting," Teddy told her as he crossed his arms against his chest.

"We're fighting?" Victoire repeated confusedly.

"Apparently."

"I don't think this is a fight, if anything it's a disagreement," Victoire replied.

"Oh don't worry, I agree with you. To my knowledge we aren't in a fight, so why have I had –three separate talks mind you- with Ally, Sandra, and Kyle, and a letter from Xavier, which say the opposite?" Teddy asked her with a raised eyebrow.

Victoire was stunned, "You got a letter from Xavier? That Prat! I sent him a letter three days ago and he still hasn't written back."

"Oh trust me it wasn't a very friendly letter. In essence, he wanted to know why you and I were fighting, and what it could have been about that would make you act so oddly. Now seeing as he's in Ireland right now completing a portion of his training, and seeing as your three other friends have already visited me today with essentially the same questions, I'm assuming that that's where this rumour started."

Victoire looked at him oddly before her thoughts clicked into place, "Oh! I'm sorry Teddy. Ally, Sandra, and Kyle ambushed me last night and wanted to know why I'd been acting so weird. I told them I was just worried about the Quidditch match but they knew I was lying. I couldn't tell them about the change in the Tournament so when they asked if we'd had a fight I just went with it. I told them that I didn't want to talk about, and that we'd work it out but for now I just wanted to forget about it. I thought it worked since they hadn't asked about it again. I didn't think that they'd go to you to try to figure out what was going on."

"Yes, well they did. And while their affection for you is admiring, enough that they even felt the need to inform Xavier about it, you need to end that rumour. Either tell them that it didn't happen in the first place, or that we made up, I don't care, but I'm not going to have them thinking that we're in some sort of fight," Teddy told her sternly.

Victoire pouted, "Not even for a little while? I mean I need to tell them something so I don't tell them the truth."

"Then come up with something else, but we can't be in a fight Victoire."

"Why not? We seem to be doing a pretty good job of being in one right now."

"Three reasons. One, Xavier has put on a lot more muscle since he started professional Quidditch training and I'd rather not test the theory of who would win in a fight between the two of us."

Victoire rolled her eyes.

"Number two, if Ally thinks we're in a fight it's only a matter of time before everyone else does. And I'm not stupid enough to think that that won't include Kingsley or your father, so I'd rather not have to deal with them angry with me for a fight that we never even had!"

Victoire crossed her arms against her chest and pouted.

"And because of this," Teddy said before moving forward and crushing his lips onto hers.

Victoire's body reacted automatically to the kiss; she threw her arms around his neck and pressed herself close to him. He took a few steps back until she was pressed up against the wall and used it press their bodies even closer together. One of his hands was at her waist while the other was knotted in her hair. She had both of her hands locked around his locks and groaned when she felt him deepen their kiss.

He pulled back a few moments later, leaving her panting for air.

"We can't be in a fight, because if we're in a fight we can't do that," Teddy told her seriously.

Victoire sulked, "Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione do that even when they fight!"

"No," Teddy corrected her, "They do that when they make up from a fight. Their fights are just so common and short that they seem to happen simultaneously."

Victoire looked down at her feet, "Well we could pretend to be in a fight and just not snog in front of my friends."

"Sweetheart we already have a list a mile long of people we can't snog in front of; do you really want to add your friends back onto that list?"

Victoire shook her head. She was still looking at her shoes so she felt more than saw Teddy moving back to her and pulling her into his strong embrace. She pressed her face against his chest and she could feel his warm breath on her neck as he spoke into her hair.

"Sweetheart, I know how much it hurts you to lie to your friends, which is why I want you to stop. Lying to them to cover up something that you don't want to have to lie about is going to give you more stress than just lying to them outright. I know that they're worried about you and that you don't want them to worry, but they're going to either way. If you're not going to tell them directly about the change in the tournament, then don't lie to them to cover the fact up. They already know that there's something you're not telling them, just ask them to respect the fact that you'll talk to them about it when you're ready. If they keep asking and somehow stumble upon a close enough question then tell them and explain to Flannery that they guessed correctly. But don't lie about something else just to try to make them feel better."

Victoire sighed, "It's really hard to be in even a pretend fight with you when you act so rational."

Teddy smiled gently, "Which is why we should put that rumour to rest. You don't actually think that they'd believe that we're in a fight that lasts a month long, do you?"

"No," Victoire shook her head.

"Good. Now I'm going to walk you to your next class and wait outside until the aurors come back. While you're in class I suggest that you think about what you're going to say to your friends to explain that we're not in a fight anymore. Oh, and you best think about what you're going to write in your letter to Xavier that _you will_ post tonight explaining that everything's good between us."

Victoire smirked a bit, "Are you actually afraid of Xavier?"

Teddy stroked his thumb across her cheek, "I'd be afraid of the wrath of anyone who obviously loves and cares for you so much."

Victoire kissed his cheek, "I promise that I'll write an explanatory letter to Xavier and send it to him tonight."

"Thank-you. Now go explain to your friends before it's Ally and Sandra's wrath that I'm facing."

* * *

Victoire had posted her letter to Xavier that night like she'd promised Teddy. After she came back from the Owlery, she had a long talk explaining to her friends that she and Teddy were fine, that they we no longer arguing, and that she appreciated that they cared that much about her feelings to find their own ways to talk to Teddy about it. Victoire knew that she was still acting relatively odd, and that her friends would notice, but she didn't have time to worry about that. Her next few days flew by quickly as she worked on getting her team ready for the Quidditch game against Ravenclaw on that Saturday. And when her mind wasn't occupied with the game and her team, it was occupied with wondering when she would get a reply letter from Xavier. She had technically sent him two letters in the past week, and even though she knew he'd be busy with practice, he usually didn't let his correspondence with her get past a week without a reply.

So, even though it was two hours until game time on Saturday when she got his owl, she stopped her fretting about the game so she could focus on the letter she had just gotten from him.

_Dear Victoire,_

_First, let me say that I'm very sorry for not replying to your letters earlier. I was very busy (As you rightly guessed in your letter) and I decided that since this was my last week training in Ireland, before going back to Britain, that I'd try my best to finish my training early. That way I could be home when I went to reply to your letter, and hopefully send it out to you before the team's game against Ravenclaw. (Which, I have accomplished I smugly add.)_

_And you are probably asking yourself why I would rather write this letter to you at home? Well let's just say that some of the players on this team like to read the _Daily Prophet _and still believe that we're dating. And, those who believe me when I say that I'd rather kiss the Giant Squid than you, then ask me if that means that you're single . . . and even though I always tell them 'no' out of principle (Trust me you don't want to date a professional Quidditch player, they're bad news.) I was very glad to get your second letter a few days ago saying that your status as 'taken' was still intact. _

_I know that you said in your letter that you just wanted to get over the whole incident and put it behind you, and I agree. After this next bit, it will be the last time I mention it. I felt really bad about not being able to be there with you when there's obviously something that's bothering you. And even though I know that whatever it is didn't have to do with your argument with Ted (If you can even really call it an argument, everyone else does but I really doubt it) I'm glad that whatever you and Ted needed to talk about was covered. That being said, just between you and I, I don't think that Ted would have to worry about losing to me in a fight. I may have put on more muscle as I've been training (Feel free to share that bit with Ally) but he's a trained auror so I'm still pretty sure that he could best me in a fight or a duel. Not that I _wouldn't _try my best to fight him if he ever actually did anything to hurt you, but I don't think you'll ever have to worry about that. First, because I know the last thing he wants to do is hurt you, like it's the last thing you want to do to him. And second, because if you needed someone else to fight your battles (Which you usually don't because I know that you're very capable) you've got your father, and your godfather, and your uncles, and your aunts, and a lot of people that I know I personally wouldn't want to mess with, so I'm sure you'd be fine._

_Well, now that we have all that mushy feelings and stuff out of the way (I wouldn't be able to get you to burn that section when you're doing reading could I?) I need to ask you something important._

_Do you remember that time I decided to leave Hogwarts in my seventh year, join a professional Quidditch league, and move back home with my father and my eight months pregnant mother?_

_WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU LET ME DO THAT?!_

_YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE PERSON I CAN COUNT ON TO TELL ME WHEN I'M ABOUT TO DO SOMETHING STUPID, YET YOU FAILED TO INFORM ME HOW STUPID I WAS ABOUT TO BE!_

_Alright, I'm done, I just needed to get that out of my system._

_Now, it's not that I regret joining _Puddlemere_, far from it; my main issue would probably be the moving back home with my parents' part. And you know what? It's not even the fact that I'm eighteen and I'm living with my parents full-time again. (Something I haven't done since I was ten.) The part that I was stupid not to consider was the above adjective __pregnant __(Or is it technically a verb because it's an action she's engaged in? I guess it could be a noun too since she's carrying a baby . . .) anyway, the word pregnant should have clued me in that this wasn't going to be smooth sailing._

_Not that I don't love my parents dearly but I don't know what they were thinking getting pregnant again, really. _

_Dad's been great but I didn't realize that Mum would get so crazy. I don't remember her acting so . . . hormonal when she was pregnant with Cecilia, Dad just laughs off my concerns and says that it was way worse when she was first pregnant with me, which really makes me wonder about the two of them. Usually people think that my Dad's the weird one and that my Mum was only crazy for marrying him, but for what I've seen these past few months, my Dad's the normal one in their relationship. Or at least he is when she'd pregnant. Which is really saying something because, c'mon, Oliver Wood, normal? But I assure you he can handle any and every single one of Mum's hormonal outbursts, and he does it with a smile on his face. Like a legitimate smile. When he looks at her, it's like he's falling even more in love with her, which is good, I guess, that they still care about each other after eighteen years of marriage but it's really awkward to have to watch._

_Speaking of pregnant mothers, you know two of those books you gave me for my birthday? _What to Expect When Your Witch is Expecting_, and _What to Expect When Mum's Expecting_. I wasn't kidding when I told you that they'll scar me for life. Some of the things written in those books . . . especially in chapter 23 of _What to Expect When Your Witch is Expecting_, just _ugh_. Oh, and by the way I was reading that book a little while ago when Mum and Dad came in the room, the looks on their faces would have been entertaining if I wasn't so freaked out about what they were probably thinking._

_They just ended up staring at me before I found my voice and told them that it was a birthday present from you._

_That didn't really help my case._

_Then I grabbed _What to Expect When Mum's Expecting _(Did you even bother to read the age suggestions on that one? It's says it for 8-11 year olds) and told them that you gave them both to me as a package._

_Thankfully, Dad found it funny and started to laugh as soon as I explained myself. Mum still didn't find it funny –probably had something to do with the fact that I may have said something along the lines of the books helping create a battle plan . . . not the best way to refer to your mother's pregnancy by the way. But then Dad distracted her with the last slice of caramel toffee coffee cake and she was as good as new._

_And on that note, I thought that the books were joking when they talked about pregnancy cravings, but apparently they were spot on. I can't tell you how many times I've walked in on my mother eating something that she normally wouldn't or that was just plain strange. And the amounts she eats! I mean I know she's eating for two but she's been eating even more food in one sitting then you usually do . . . yet she still has better table manners._

_Okay, so I know this letter's getting long (Although you do deserve a long one because you sent me two this week) but I just want to say one more thing._

_Good luck today. I know that you're probably freaking out enough for the both of us and I'm just going to tell you to stop, take a deep breath, and calm down. You're the best seeker in the school; we have the best beaters, three really good chasers, and from what I saw of your practice on Valentine's day the new keeper is grudgingly adequate (But if he even tries to touch Ally I swear I'll hurt him). You've got this in the bag. Just focus on doing your part, as seeker and captain, and you'll beat the socks off of those Ravenclaws. I'm sorry that I can't be there but I've got to save up my days off so that I can come watch you guys play in the House Cup (There is no 'if' in my mind I know you'll make it there). Have a great game and don't forget to compensate for the fact that you lean slightly to the left when you going into your Porskoff Ploy._

_Love, Xavier_

* * *

Victoire was surprisingly calm after she'd read Xavier's letter. Usually the mornings before their games were when they were at their worsts and at each other's throats. It was refreshing to not to have an argument with him before the game and force Ally to try to break it up and clam them both down. Although she did miss the chance to let off some steam in the form of verbally sparring with him, but the letter was nice.

Xavier's letter had strengthened her resolve to win the game, and to captain the team back to the House Cup.

After everyone changed into their Quidditch robes, Victoire gave them a quick speech, and then they walked out of the changing rooms onto the pitch to begin their game. The rest of the team mounted their brooms while Victoire walked to the centre of the pitch where Madame Hooch stood with Gloria Dustin. The Ravenclaw captain had a determined and calculating look on her face as Victoire shook her hand, and Victoire couldn't help but wonder why such a strong-minded and pretentious person would have a crush on Louis of all people.

She quickly shook those thoughts away and mounted her broom. Once everyone was ready Madame Hooch blew her whistle, threw the quaffle into the air, released the bludgers and the snitch, and the game began.

Victoire quickly started her circuit above the hoops and the pitch as she searched for even the slightest glint of gold. She was just getting into her zone when she heard the voice of the game's announcer, Hufflepuff student Jacob Niles, pick up the pace.

" . . . And Gloria Dustin of RAVENCLAW HAS THE QUAFFLE. SHE DODGES MICHALES, SHE DODGES HILBERT, SHE'S RIGHT AT THE HOOP AND- OUCH THAT'S GOTTA HURT. DUSTIN LOSES THE QUAFFLE AFTER BEING HIT IN THE SHOULDER BY A NICELY AIMED BLUDGER FROM NONE OTHER THAN FRED WEASLEY.

"Roger Michaels of Gryffindor picked up the quaffle after Dustin dropped it. He's flying towards the Ravenclaw end, he dodges McCoy but Street is right in his way it looks like he's going to lose the quaffle here- BUT NO! HE FAKES A FUMBLE AND PASSES BELOW HIM TO JAMES POTTER! POTTER'S RACING TOWARDS THE HOOPS; THE ONLY THING STOPPING HIM FROM SCORING RIGHT NOW IS RAVENCLAW'S KEEPER JOHANNA OFFERMAN. OH AND A BLUDGER COMES FLYING IN COURTESY OF ALLY WEASLEY AND KNOCKS OFFERMAN OFF HER COURSE. POTTER NOW HAS AN OPEN TARGET, HE THROWS, AND HE SCORES! THE SCORE IS NOW 10-0 FOR GRYFFINDOR!"

Niles commentary continued in the vein as the game progressed. An hour into the game and Victoire had already had two close calls with snitch, but Ravenclaw's seeker, third-year Tatiana Akers, had had three. The snitch was being rather elusive this game, the second time Victoire went in for it she thought that she had it. She could feel the cool metal of the gold under her fingers tips, but when she went to close her hand the snitch shot out of her grasp. That was a half hour ago. Since its narrow escape, neither she nor the Akers had caught one glimpse of it, and she really needed to catch it soon.

The score of the game one hour in was 140-110 for Gryffindor. Her team's three goal lead wasn't large enough for her liking though, the score could easily change within the next few minutes of play, and of course 30 points was negligible when catching the snitch offered either team an 150 point lead and the end of the game. Victoire needed to make sure that _she _was the one to catch the snitch, and soon, she could tell her team was getting tired. Delaney was doing well considering the fact that this was his first game and he'd only had three months to practice, but he still wasn't Xavier. And because of that the rest of her team was working extra hard to make sure that they intercepted the quaffle before it had to get to the hoops. Victoire didn't realize exactly how much more effort her chasers and beaters would have to put in to compensate for a different keeper. With Xavier they knew if someone got passed them that eight times out of ten he'd save it and the ball would be back in their possession, it was hard to go from that to trying to get possession of the quaffle before it had a chance to get to Delaney.

Victoire had just finished yet another circuit of the pitch when her eyes zeroed in on a fluttering gold ball hovering just under one of the Slytherin banners on the seating area. She quickly moved her broom around and flew straight towards the snitch.

She realized too late that she was cutting across the pitch where the game of the traffic had just gotten to; she flew right in between Dustin and McCoy where they were trying to set up a bridge play to stop James who was flying down the pitch towards their end with the quaffle. She startled them enough that they broke apart their formation, which would allow James to streak through. Victoire turned down as she passed James and alarmed him so much that the quaffle jumped out of his hands for a second before he strengthened his grip on it again.

Her actions were not just noticed by the rest of the players on the team.

"And Victoire Weasley of Gryffindor has shot across the field. We're assuming that she's seen the snitch –AND YES SHE HAS!" Niles was yelling into the magic microphone, "SHE'S ON A BEELINE TOWARDS A SECTION OF THE STANDS AND AKERS IS ON HER TAIL BUT IT LOOKS LIKE WEASLEY WILL GET THERE FIRST-"

Victoire tried to ignore Niles' commentary, as she got closer to the snitch. It decided to move then and began to fly farther down, Victoire followed and stretched out her hand she could feel the metal of the gold beneath her fingers, she was about to close her grasp when Niles' commentary broke through her concentration again.

"AND WEASLEY'S REACHING FOR THE SNITCH –AND WAIT! IS THAT A BLUDGER ZOOMING TOWARDS HER?"

Victoire didn't even look behind her, her entire focus was on the snitch, she had two fingers on it and she was just about to contract her finger muscles and bring the ball of gold into her palm when she blacked out.

* * *

**A/N:** I hope you guys enjoyed that. And yes. I did end it that way. And yes, because some of you asked me a couple of months ago, I have showed you guys now what Victoire's present to Xavier on his birthday was.

**Next Week: **Victoire wakes up in the Hospital Wing . . . again, and Louis makes a new friend(?)

**Thanks to everyone who has followed/Favorited/read/and reviewed!**

An especially** BIG **thanks to:

**As the Robin Flies, I am Bast Goddess of cats, RoLouG, Thia Lingam, marmar8089, Jobo78, MiraclesHappen94, Eighteen Inches, niallsprincess180, Forever Siriusly Sirius, Guest (1), xSuperNovax, Infinity Lily, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, rockon88, pryce123, Bri2596, and alicenotinwonderland.**

**As the Robin Flies**: Thanks, I hope this letter showed even more of their 'special' relationship :)

**I am Bast Goddess of cats:** Wow, three hours, that's pretty good.

**Thia Lingam:** Well, it will be a little longer but it's going to have to end . . . but I promise not to 'end' it without an ending.

**Jobo78:** Thanks, I'm glad people understood her rambling. I personally know lots of people who would rather avoid stuff they don't want to talk about by hiding behind inconsequential things, so I thought it was appropriate for Victoire's personality. And I'm glad you caught that. You ween't the only one but you were the first to mention it in a review.

**MiraclesHappen94:** Thank-you very much. You just might see it (several probably) chapters away.

**Forever Siriusly Sirius:** Yes, I like to think that they all are in their own ways ;)

**MagicalNinjaUnicorn:** Ha, I'll make sure that Xavier's aware of that. As long as you're okay with him potentially turning your child into a Slytherin.

**rockon88:** Thank you, that's how I try to make their relationship seem, because even though some people don't think that relationships like that are common or seen very often in 'grown ups' I've seen several like that with different couples around the same ages as Victoire and Teddy (17-early 20s remember) and I think that's it's rare, but one of the best types there is. Don't worry, I don't have any plans of changing the content or the rating to be an 'M' story, I want people of most ages to be able to read it. Definitely love the long reviews ;) And yeah, very distant Irish because i'm one of those Canadians that can't actually trace back their family history because we've just been here for so long. If you go by the last names of my family they're predominately English or Irish in origin, but we're a mix of a lot of European cultures along the way though, but yeah Irish all the way back to the Potato boat.

**alicenotinwonderland:** Not much of funny Kyle in this chap, but Victoire is injured in the next one so you know Kyle's going to have _something_ to say about that . . .

Thanks again everyone and DFTBA!


	79. Hard Headed?

A/N: Hey guys, Happy Easter Monday/April Fools day depending on your time zone. I hope everyone that celebrated had a fantastic holiday!]

Disclaimer: I do not own anything here . . . although I am a proud new owner of a new Hogawarts t-shirt :)

* * *

Hard Headed?

Victoire opened her eyes and groaned loudly when she recognized the speckled ceiling of the Hospital Wing. Even though the groan was meant as nothing more than to show her distaste with being in that section of the Castle, the sound of it echoed off the walls and made the dull ache in her head turn into a sharp pain.

"Ugh."

"Not feeling the greatest I take it?"

Victoire would have rolled her eyes if she didn't think that that movement would have given her more pain. What she did do however was shift her body the left so she could see the owner of the voice instead of staring at the ceiling.

"It feels like my skull is giving live birth to a baby dragon," she answered.

Teddy, who was sitting in a wooden chair next to her bed, gave her an odd look, "What?"

"Don't make fun of me. I'm in pain," Victoire whined as she saw the beginning of a smile starting at the edge of his lips.

"Trust me, I don't find this funny, and I'm not the only one. I mean really Victoire. I know that you can't completely control almost dying during the tournament but you could at least try not to die when you're doing something as ordinary as playing Quidditch. I mean do you want Kingsley to lock you up in Gryffindor tower until the school year is over? Because he seems very close to that," Teddy told her as he crossed his arms against his chest.

Victoire did roll her eyes that time. Teddy was being over-dramatic. She looked around the room and was surprised to see that he was the only one there, "Where's Ally?"

"She writing a letter to Xavier and telling him that his suspicions about you having a hard head are entirely founded," Teddy told her tersely.

"What?" Victoire asked confused.

Teddy sighed and leaned forward a bit so that he could grab her hand and give it a gentle squeeze, "What's the last thing you remember about the game?"

"I was just about to pull the snitch in when I heard Niles say something about a bludger, than I remember an impact, some pain, and blacking out. What happened? Did we lose?" Victoire asked her voice getting more hysterical as she went.

Teddy sighed. He wasn't at all surprised that she was more worried about who won the game then what had happened to cause her to black out, "One of the Ravenclaw beaters sent a bludger at you. They thought that you, as any sane person would, would move out of its way and thus cause you to lose your grip of the snitch. This was their mistake. Because you're not a sane person. And instead of turning around to see that a bludger was coming for you, you grabbed the snitch and then allowed a bludger to slam into your skull."

"Wait . . . I caught the snitch . . . does that mean we won the game?" Victoire asked only really keying in on that part of his explanation.

Teddy rolled his eyes, "Yes you won. And you also have a crack in your skull that Madame Pomfrey has mended."

"That would explain the pain," Victoire mused as she raised a hand to her head and started to feel around for the scar on her head would be. It was near the back left where the parietal and occipital bones of her skull met. Thankfully, it was small, and her hair would cover it. She'd had enough scars from this year to last her a lifetime.

"A crack in the skull's not that big of a deal Teddy. The way you were talking earlier was as if I was about to die," Victoire said.

Teddy frowned and ran a hand through his own hair in a stressful gesture, "Victoire the force at which that bludger came at you should have smashed your skull, not just crack it."

"Then why did it just crack?"

"Well, according to Madam Pomfrey you have an abnormally hard head. We all knew that of course, but when we used to say that to you we were joking, apparently it's true in both the figurative and literal sense," Teddy muttered.

"Well if they're not off making funeral arrangements then where is everyone?" Victoire asked still surprised that there wasn't a gaggle of people crowded around her bed.

"Madam Pomfrey wanted to wait until you woke up to be allowed visitors."

"Well than why are you here?" Victoire asked.

Teddy raised an eyebrow at her, "Like Kingsley was going to let you stay here by yourself. It was either me or one of your auror contingents."

She groaned, "Seriously? What does he think's going to happen to me in the hospital wing? Is he worried that I'm going to overdose on my painkilling potions?"

"I just do what I'm told. And I'm glad that he told me to sit here with you until you woke up because I'd be freaking out if I was stuck on the other side of those doors with everyone else," Teddy told her as he pointed to the doors that led out into the corridor.

Victoire looked into his sapphire blue eyes, "Worried about me were you?"

"Do I have to repeat the fact that that bludger was going fast enough to crush your skull? We knew Madam Pomfrey fixed the crack in your bones but we had no idea if you had any type of brain damage."

Victoire thought about that for a moment and then took inventory of her abilities, "Nothing other than what I had before."

Teddy cracked a smile and moved up out of his chair. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead delicately before helping to move her into a sitting position.

"Okay then, so you're ready to deal with all of your . . . visitors?" Teddy asked as he smoothed the sheet of the hospital bed on her legs.

"You say that like something weird is going to happen."

"Oh I'm one-hundred-percent sure something weird is going to happen," he told her.

"Our family's not _that_ weird," Victoire argued.

"It wasn't talking about our family."

Victoire gave him a quizzical look, but Teddy forwent answering to walk over to the doors and inform everyone that they could come in. The first two people to make it to her bedside were, unsurprisingly, Sandra and Kyle.

"How're you feeling Vic?" Sandra asked as she sat down in the chair Teddy had previously occupied.

"Like my head's giving live birth to a baby dragon."

". . ."

"You know Teddy gave me the same look you two are giving me right now," Victoire told them conversationally.

Kyle opened his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by James and Freddie running up to Victoire's bed and taking seats at her feet, which causes the bed to bounce a bit.

"Ugh, be gentle with me guys. My skull's been cracked open," Victoire said bringing a hand up to her head.

"Sorry Vic. We're just so excited!" Freddie told her.

"Yeah," James picked up the conversation, "We totally thought that you were going to lose the snitch when the bludger smashed into your head. But you kept a pretty fierce grip on it. Good job Victoire!"

Victoire looked at James and Freddie's out stretched hands oddly more a moment before she realized that they were requesting a high-five. She gave them both one as she heard Kyle begin to chuckle.

"A little slow there Vic? Don't worry it's expect after an injury like that. Even granite would have chipped a bit with the impact of that bludger."

Victoire rolled her eyes. She knew that it was only a matter of time before Kyle would start up the 'hard-headed' jokes at her expense. She was saved the trouble of answering with Ally's entrance. She walked over to Victoire's bed kissed her forehead, and then conjured her own chair to sit in on the opposite side of the bed from Sandra's.

"How do you feel?" Ally asked her gently.

"My head hurts, but that's expected. Where have you been?" Victoire asked her.

"I had to owl Xavier," Ally replied with a blush.

"Actually? I thought Teddy was joking when he said that."

"Nope."

"Hey Captain, how're you doing?"

Victoire turned her head and saw the rest of her team filing into the hospital wing. Roger stood near the foot of her bed with James and Freddie, and Caroline stood next to where Ally was sitting. What surprised Victoire was that Delaney had the guts to stand behind Ally's chair with his hands resting on the back near where her head was. He tried to act as if the stance was natural but she knew that he could see the hard stares James and Freddie were giving him.

Victoire was too tired for an argument so she focused on Roger's question, "My head is killing me, but apparently we won the game so it was well worth it."

"Of course you'd look at it like that. I bet that was the first thing you asked Ted when you woke up. No, 'how did I get here?' just straight into 'who won?'" Ally said with a raised eyebrow.

Victoire shrugged, "We needed to win. Oh, and you guys were all really good by the way. I should have told you that sooner. Sorry. My mind's kind of scrambled right now."

"That's fine, it's understandable," Caroline waved her off.

They spoke a bit more about the game before Freddie's attention was dragged elsewhere.

"Hey, Ally isn't that Xavier's owl?" He asked his sister as he pointed to the large grey owl hovering outside the window closest to Victoire's hospital bed.

Kyle stood up and opened the window to let the bird in.

"Máel?" Ally called the bird's name as it flew into the room and landed on the table beside Victoire's bed and next to Ally's chair. Ally noticed the rolled up piece of parchment on its leg and didn't even have to ask the bird to sit still as she took it off. The bird affectionately nipped at her fingers before flying back out of the room.

She unrolled the letter and started to skim it.

"Is it from Xavier?" Freddie asked again while he shot Delaney a smug smile.

Ally nodded her head but continued reading the letter when she looked like she was near the end she started giggling.

She looked a Victoire and smiled, "Xavier wants to know if the next time Kyle forgets his obsidian knife in potions if they can just use your head to crush the lovage seeds to get the juice out."

Victoire and Kyle both stared at her blankly.

"The seeds from a lovage plant need to be crushed to get the juice out so you can use it in Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts," Ally supplied still giggling.

They still gave her blank looks.

"Well I thought it was funny," Ally said crossing her arms against her chest.

"Yeah but you're also in love with potions," Kyle pointed out.

"And Xavier," Victoire added as if it explained why Ally had found the comment so funny.

Ally blushed while James and Freddie high-fived each other and then sent self-satisfied smiles at Delaney.

"Well besides his joke which you guys don't have the right type of humour to appreciate, he says that he hopes that you're feeling better and that you'll be able to write to him soon yourself," Ally finished.

"He used a whole foot of paper to say that?" Victoire asked skeptically.

Ally blushed again, "No. But the rest of it is for me not you."

"Fair enough. Well where are my oh so loving siblings? I've been awake long enough for them to find out about it," Victoire commented.

At that her everyone on her Quidditch team besides Ally shared some uneasy looks.

"Uh . . ." James started.

Caroline jumped up from her seat. "We should probably go and let you talk with your family Victoire. We're just glad that you're feeling better," she told her sincerely before gesturing for Roger and Delaney to leave the room with her. Once they were gone Victoire looked back at James.

"Well?"

"Well," James began again, "Once Dom found out that you were okay she had to go run off and do a detention with Professor Cooke. Something about PDA in class or the like."

Victoire rolled her eyes, of course Dom did.

"And Louis . . .?"

"Is waiting outside to see you," Freddie told her.

"And he isn't in here now because?"

"He's got his hands full?" James asked more than answered.

"Just tell him to get in here," Victoire told him. He nodded and got off her bed to go out into the hall and collet Louis.

While he was gone, Teddy came closer to the bed and leaned against the wall near the window, just behind where Sandra was sitting.

James came back but Victoire was surprised that the first person who followed him in was Cecilia.

"Hi Cecilia," Victoire greeted her.

"Hi Victoire," Cecilia answered dejectedly.

"Is there something wrong Cecilia?" Victoire asked surprised at her sadness.

"Yeah, the universe."

Victoire was confused, and she was about to voice her confusion when two more people finally walked into the room. Louis –whom she was really starting to wonder where he'd gone- and surprisingly Gloria Dustin walked over to her bed. What shocked Victoire more than the fact that Gloria was for some reason in the hospital wing, was the fact that she had somehow attached herself to Louis' arm. This was obviously, what Cecilia was so depressed about.

"Hey Vic, you okay?" Louis asked breaking the awkward silence that had descended upon the room when he walked into the room with Gloria. Victoire wasn't sure what to make of the situation still, but she could tell that Louis was sincerely worried about her.

"I'm fine Louis. You know me, it'll take more than bludger to best me," Victoire replied in a light tone.

"Yes. Apparently, not even a crazy dragon or apparating without a wand can take her out for good," Ally said sarcastically.

"Or a manticore," Sandra replied giving Victoire the same look Ally had just given her.

"Or some crazy lunatic bent on kidnapping her," Kyle added nonchalantly.

Victoire glared at all three of them, "Thanks Mums, and Dad."

"Um . . . so Gloria . . . what are you doing here?" Victoire asked trying not to sound rude.

Gloria smiled brightly, "Oh Victoire I felt so bad about Donavan's bludger knocking you out like it did that I wanted to make sure that you were okay."

She said the words to Victoire, but her eyes were focused on Louis as he slowly tried to inch away from her grasp and towards Cecilia's direction.

"Um, thanks. But it wasn't his fault. I mean it was, but he was just doing his job. He didn't expect me to ignore the bludger and allow it to smash into my skull," Victoire told her.

"Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay and to congratulate you. Your team did a very good job and that's obviously a reflection of your amazing skills as a captain. I will say I didn't expect you to do so well without Xavier Wood as your keeper. I was hoping that you'd grown complacent with him and that when he left it would leave you with a huge gap in your defensive plays but you changed and worked them accordingly to play to your other players' strengths. Very admirable I must say," Gloria said.

Victoire nodded, "Well thanks. You did a good job as captain too . . . um, so I guess the next time I see you will probably be if we end up playing against each other in the final game for the House Cup?"

With Gryffindor's win over Ravenclaw, that would put them in first place in the league no matter who went on to win the next weekend's game between Slytherin and Hufflepuff and no matter how many points either of them will score. Even the next game was still a week away it was projected that Slytherin would win, and if Slytherin won, unless they absolutely decimated Hufflepuff in the score which Victoire didn't think they would, they would become second with Hufflepuff as third and Ravenclaw fourth. If that happened then the semi-final games would be between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and Slytherin and Ravenclaw, and the winners of each match would then play off against each other for the House Cup in the middle of May.

"Oh, you never know," Gloria, replied shooting a bright smile in Louis' direction.

"'Kay," Victoire said very, very disturbed at watching Gloria flirt with Louis and just wanting her to leave no matter how rude she sounded, "Well goodbye then."

Gloria waved goodbye to Victoire and turned her back on her before walking closer to Louis.

"And don't forget about my offer Louis. If you ever need somebody _new _to tutor you in _Charms_ I would be happy to help," she shot a superior look at Cecilia before giving Louis another blinding smile and walking out of the wing.

Louis watched her to make sure that she had left the room before he closed the distance between him and Cecilia, threw his arm around her waist, and hid his face in her neck.

"She scares me."

Cecilia pushed Louis off of her and raised an eyebrow daringly at him, "She better not be the only."

Louis chuckled and kissed her cheek, "Don't worry Sweetheart, you're right up there with Victoire and my Mum."

"Ahem."

"Oh and Ally," He pulled away so he could give her a dazzling and disarming smile.

"No," Cecilia said raising a finger up like she was training a dog, "You're not allowed to use those stupid Veela powers when I'm mad at you."

Louis pouted, looking even more adorable than he did when we was smiling at her, "Well than what else do you want me to do?"

"Never talking to her again would be a good start," Cecilia answered crossing her arms against her chest.

"I didn't even try to talk to her in the first place! She came up to me grabbed on, and then didn't let go. I had no idea who she. I had to ask her what her name was and she just giggled and thought I was flirting with her."

"_Were_ you?"

"What? No of course not! You know that you're the only girl I fancy," Louis told her.

Cecilia's facial expression softened and she kissed Louis on the cheek, "I don't know what I'm going to do with you."

Louis opened his mouth to answer but Cecilia cut him off, "I swear if you're about to say, 'I can think of a few things', I'm going to hit you."

Louis closed his mouth and smiled at her, "Fine. Let's go, I'm sure all we're accomplishing right now is just giving Victoire a bigger headache."

The two of the looked to Victoire who was pretending to look out the window, "Oh! I'm sorry is my being an invalid getting in the way? Because I can just get up and leave?"

Louis and Cecilia both rolled their eyes. "Goodbye Vic. Hope you feel batter in the morning," Louis said before giving her a kiss on the cheek, grabbing Cecilia's hand, and leaving the hospital wing.

"Godric Gryffindor those two are dramatic," Victoire said lovingly as soon as they were out of earshot.

"You do know that their last names and Weasley and Wood, right?" Kyle asked her.

Victoire rolled her eyes and gave him a rather rude hand gesture, "Why are you even here Kyle? Despite popular belief to the contrary, there are only so many jokes that you can make about my hard head before you run out of good material. I mean Xavier's first one wasn't even good."

"I thought it was funny," Ally told them staunchly.

"Xavier could be reading _Hogwarts A History_ and you would think that it was the best thing ever," Sandra replied.

Ally stuck her tongue out at her in retaliation.

"And to think, I would have missed all of these riveting conversations if the Tri-Wizard Tournament hadn't been this year," Teddy said derisively from where he was leaning against the window.

Victoire smiled at him, "You know you'd miss it if it was any different."

Teddy moved away from the window and sat down on the edge of her bed. He kissed her temple lightly, "I'd miss _you_, but I could definitely go without some of the things I've learned about Kyle in the past few months."

Victoire smiled at him and kissed his lips. She'd meant it to be more than a peck, but he didn't allow it.

"And you all thought me laughing at Xavier's potions joke was bad," Ally grumbled.

"Hey, give me some leeway," Victoire said, "I've probably got brain damage over here."

"Hey Vic? Do you want to say that again? I didn't catch it and I'd like to record that for future prosperity," Kyle asked.

"Get out Kyle."

Her friends laughed but they noticed the lateness and thought that it would be best to let her get her rest. They stood up and kissed her on the forehead, (Except for Kyle, he kissed her on the lips and then got smacked on the head by Sandra because Victoire claimed that she was too tired to do it herself), and then left the room with calls of goodnight to both her and Teddy.

Teddy sat back down on the chair that Sandra had vacated and Victoire frowned, "I liked you better on the bed."

"You always like me better when I'm on a bed."

"Yet you keep leaving them."

"Yeah, that probably has something do with the fact that ninety-nice percent of the time we're in the same bed it's because you've either been injured, or are suffering from full-moon symptoms," Teddy told her with a smirk.

"We can change that percentage you know."

"Good night Victoire."

"I love you."

"I love you to Sweetheart, now you need to get some sleep or you won't heal properly."

"Promise you won't leave half-way through the night and leave me with some stupid aurors that Kingsley's assigned to look after me?"

"When you're all helpless and adorable looking in that hospital bed? Not a chance."

"'Kay, g'night Teddy."

* * *

Okay, I hoped you guys liked it.

I start my final exams next week, so my updates will be sporadic for the next few weeks, but I will try to update at least once a week for the next while.

Thanks to everyone who followed / favourited / read / reviewed!

An especially big thanks too:

**toujours belle, cherrybubble, brilliant incandescence, Thia Lingam, As the Robin Flies, RoLouG, alicenotinwonderland, rockon88, Guest (1), zvc56, marmar8089, Gabriella Weasley, xSuperNovax, Guest (2), and Guest (3)**.

DFTBA!


	80. Birthday Presents

**A/N:**Okay, here's the update! This chapter's longer than usual (Who am I kidding? I don't have much of a consistency) because my update next week will be later than usual, but I will explain that at the end

. . . Along with what you're about to read . . .

**Disclaimer:** I'm actually going to take claim on Colton Knott's character here, and by the end of the chapter, you'll understand why ;)

* * *

**Birthday Presents**

"You do realize that I don't like you . . . right Weasley?" Colton Knott asked her as he walked beside her.

Victoire rolled her eyes. Neither of them were happy that they had to spend their Friday night patrolling the school, or at least until nine o'clock when they were let off and the aurors did it. Well, the other aurors who weren't ordered to follow Victoire around.

"Surprisingly, I did know that Knott. Did you know that I don't like you either?" Victoire whispered to him like she was sharing something very super-secret.

"Really? Because the fact that you're wearing make-up, when you never wear make-up, says the opposite," Colton told her with a smirk as the rounded a corner in the corridor.

Victoire could feel the scar, from where her head had been cracked open with the bludger two weeks ago, starting to ache from just being within Colton's presence, "How do you know that I don't usually wear make-up?"

Colton rolled his eyes, "Stop trying to change the subject Weasley, who are you planning on meeting after we finish patrolling?"

"Why do you even care Colton?" Victoire asked trying to keep her poker face on. He was a Slytherin but he was smart. He guessed rightly that she was wearing make-up because she was planning to meet someone after their patrol. However, there was no way in Hades that she was going to tell him that.

"I don't. I mean the rest of the Castle can play the little 'Who is Victoire Weasley dating now?' game if they want but I find it pathetic."

"Then why did you ask me who I'm planning to meet?" Victoire asked with a raised eyebrow, she didn't believe that Colton was as disinterested as he acted.

Colton shrugged, "I'm just amazed that you've kept it a secret for so long. I'm assuming that it's been with the same person of course because if you'd been with several people over the year I'm sure one of them would have come out of the woodwork by now."

Victoire rolled her eyes as they took one of the changing staircases up a floor, "If you're so interested in who I'm with why don't you tell me your guesses and I'll tell you whether you're right or not."

Colton frowned at her, "I'm not playing that silly game with you."

"Fine," Victoire answered crossing her arms against her chest, "We'll talk about something else . . . So how are you and Anastasia doing?"

Colton groaned, "Fine. We'll play your little game. At the beginning of the year, Christopher Mullin seemed like a good candidate, he was even your date for the Yule Ball. But I highly doubt that if you were with him that you still are, since I spent an hour of that night taking him to the Hospital Wing with Kyle while he gave me some fake story about a random person casting a curse-locked jelly-legs jinx on Mullin, even though it was obvious that he'd cast the spell on him. I'm assuming because Mullin was doing something to you that Kyle didn't approve of?"

Victoire stopped and gave Colton a speculative look, "How'd you know that Kyle cast that spell?"

He shrugged, "There's only two people in our year that I've seen successfully cast that spell in Defense against the Dark Arts class and that's you and Kyle. Wood can't even get the curse-locked part of it right. And since I doubted that you had your wand hidden in your dress, it's obvious that Kyle did it. Plus he's never been the best liar. I can always pick out his tells."

Victoire was silent. She didn't know what to say. The only time she ever really heard reference to the pre-Hogwarts days when Kyle and Colton were best friends was from Kyle, and that wasn't very often. She'd never heard Colton offer up any information about him knowing Kyle in a more personal way than their school careers would suggest.

"You're right, it's not Chris. Not that he didn't try, again."

"So then my next suspicion would naturally be Xavier Wood. But that one was ruled out pretty quickly by common sense. The two of you may have been friends but if you were in a romantic relationship, it would be the definition of volatile. Not to mention that it was blatantly obvious that Wood had a crush on your cousin. It was just surprising that it took them until the Yule Ball to get together," Colton continued.

Victoire was speechless again; she didn't realize that Colton saw so much, "How would you even know all of that? Do you spend your time studying us in the shadows?"

Colton snorted, "I barely give you all a thought some days. Their feelings were just so obvious. They wear their hearts on their sleeves like all Gryffindors; it just seems that the only people who _don't_ see a Gryffindor's feelings are other Gryffindors."

She didn't know how to respond to that, "So if you don't think it's Chris or Xavier, than who else do you suggest?"

"Well it's not Kyle because he's infatuated with that muggleborn. And it's not Pennington because if he actually had you he'd be shouting it from the roof tops, and whoever it is, is keeping it a secret."

"And?" Victoire asked knowing that he had more to his theory.

"We can rule out the Slytherin house because even though you're a pureblood no one in my house would touch you."

Victoire gave Colton a specific look.

"Okay," he amended, "While there are lots who _would _like to touch you, none of them would actually be in a relationship with you. And we can rule out Ravenclaw because most of them are pompous like Pennington and if anyone in Pennington's house had you he _would_ find out."

Victoire shivered. What Colton said was true but it also creeped her out, "Which would leave Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. A Hufflepuff would actually be a perfect candidate to be in a secret relationship and not tell anyone because they're so easy to walk over."

Victoire frowned; Colton was over generalizing again. Not all Hufflepuff's were pushovers.

"But," he continued, "You would never actually date a Hufflepuff because they'd be a little _too_ easy for you to walk over and you like a bit more of a challenge."

_Well he's not completely wrong about the liking a challenge part . . ._

"This leaves us with Gryffindor. And while headstrong women and rather clueless men do seem to be abundant in your house, you're in a relationship with this person meaning that you've already bypassed the part where he acts like a prat and you have to assertively inform him that you like him."

Victoire's mouth had popped open wide at this part. If she didn't know any better she'd think that Colton already knew who she was really in a relationship with.

"So. We would then assume that whomever you're dating would be someone that you would have had to spend a lot of time with prior to dating him. As you tried to let him know subtly that you liked him and he just didn't end up getting the memo- or," Colton said looking at Victoire shrewdly, "He's someone that's older and has a more mature outlook on your relationship. Meaning that he doesn't feel the same need, most teenaged boys would to let everyone know that he's dating you. But since we're in our last year, for him to be older it would have to be a Gryffindor that's already graduated, and one that you would have spent a lot of time with prior to that."

Victoire bit the inside of her cheek, as she looked back at Colton with the same calculating look he was giving her.

"But who would fit that profile?" Colton asked with his signature smirk coming back into place.

Victoire was about to open her mouth, to say what she wasn't exactly sure, when she heard a metallic _crashing_ sound. She and Colton both looked toward s the broom cupboard that was just a little down the hall. There was obviously someone in there . . . with someone else . . .

Victoire and Colton had started to the direction of the cupboard to break up whatever party was going on, when she reached out and grabbed his arm before he could reach for the door.

"What are you doing?" Colton asked in a harsh whisper.

"Guess which house they're from."

"What?"

"It's a game Xavier and I would play when we patrolled. We'd guess the houses and years, and if we were feeling lucky even the couple and then we'd open the door and see who was closest," Victoire whispered back.

Colton scowled at her, "I'm not going to let you turn me into Xavier just because he's gone now."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "No one can replace Xavier, no matter how hard Kyle's been trying, but seriously do it. It will be fun."

Colton shook his head.

Victoire frowned before breaking out into a bright smile, "If you get it right I'll tell you who I'm meeting after our patrol."

Colton narrowed his eyes at her, assessing whether she was telling the truth. When he realized that she was he smiled brightly, "Deal. I'm going to go with Gryffindor house."

"Both of them?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'm saying they're both from Ravenclaw."

"Years next?"

"Yes," Victoire replied.

"Both are seventh-years."

"I agree. Are you going to guess which people?" Victoire asked.

Colton shook his head, "I'm assuming that it's not Kyle and Collins so I don't know who else it would be by name."

"You're right, it's not them. When I left the Common Room they were comfortable where they were snogging in a chair."

"You know as Head Girl you're supposed to condemn that kind of behaviour," Colton told her.

Victoire snorted, "Yeah, I tell them to stop snogging in the Common room and then they move their make-out session up to Kyle's room. At least this way I can make sure it doesn't get out of hand."

Colton gave her an odd look before conceding to her point, "Are you going to guess names?"

"No."

"Alight, so we open the door and see whether we have us some Gryffindors or some Ravenclaws?" Colton asked reaching for the handle.

"Yup."

Colton slowly twisted the doorknob so that it wouldn't make a noise before whipping the door wide open.

"Oh gross!" Victoire yelled before throwing both of her hands over her eyes to block out the image before them.

She could hear Colton mutter something insulting at her under his breath before he started to speak to the two in the cupboard in an authoritative tone, "Detention tomorrow night with Professor Linkwell, the both of you. Now get back to your houses."

Victoire heard the two scramble around for a minute before she felt them whisk by her. She moved her fingers slightly over her eyes so she could see Colton through the gaps in her fingers.

"Is it safe to look now?"

"Salazar Slytherin Victoire, yes it's fine to look now," Colton answered tersely.

Victoire moved her hands away from her eyes and looked at the now empty broom cupboard, and then back to Colton. The two stared at each other for a minute before they burst into laughter.

After a few minutes of uncontrollable giggling Victoire tried to calm down, "Okay, okay. Calm down. That wasn't funny."

Colton was also trying to rein in his laughter, "Totally not funny."

"It was disturbing."

"And disgusting."

"And just wrong on so many levels."

"And so . . . pasty."

Victoire broke out into giggles again after listening to Colton. He was right what they just caught a glimpse of was rather pasty. Or at least one of them was, the other was so orange she could have passed for an oompa loompa.

Colton was scowling at Victoire now, "This isn't funny Victoire. I'm never going to be able to look Pennington in the eyes now that I've seen him without his shirt on."

Victoire made a disgusted face. Pennington's shirtlessness was what had first caused her to throw her hands over her eyes when Colton had first opened the door. Thankfully, his shirt was the only clothing article that was missing from the both of them.

"At least it was him and not Pamela, Godric I'd have to poke my eyes out if I ever had to see that much of her."

Colton gave her an odd look, "Don't you live her?"

It was Victoire's turn to give Colton a weird look, "Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Colton shook his head, "Nothing. So do I win? There _was _a seventh-year Gryffindor."

"And there was a seventh-year Ravenclaw. I'd call that a tie," Victoire replied.

"Darn," Colton muttered.

Victoire laughed again, "Yeah sucks to be you, because if it was any other night the chances of it having been Pamela and any other Gryffindor boy would have actually been pretty high. But I guess it looks like we picked the one night that she decided to branch out and work on outer house cooperation."

Colton and Victoire stared at each other before starting to laugh again. Colton was the first to calm back down again but his smile was still on his face. When Victoire had calmed herself, she took a minute to study him before saying with a smile, "You know what Colton? I think we just bonded."

Colton's smile automatically fell into a scowl, "We did not."

"But I think we did."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"But I think you do."

"Did you suffer brain damage when that bludger crashed into your skull in the Ravenclaw game?" Colton asked her raising an eyebrow in a pompous expression.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Fine. Deny it all you want but it totally happened. And since it did happen it's more likely to happen again."

Colton's face went white, "No it won't."

"What won't?" Victoire asked with an innocent expression.

Colton opened his mouth as if to speak but then sighed.

"Whatever, look it's a quarter after nine so our patrol's over. I'll stop by Linkwell's office on my way back to my common room to tell him to be expecting Pennington and Mace tomorrow for detention."

"Whatever you say partner."

"I'm not your partner."

"Alright friend."

"I'm not your friend."

Victoire rolled her eyes at him and only spared a wave of her hand before turning away from him so she could start her trek back to Gryffindor tower.

* * *

Victoire had only stopped off at her dormitory long enough to change out of her school clothes, into something else, and to grab the invisibility cloak and envelopes that were sitting on her dresser. Before throwing the cloak over herself and sneaking back out of the portrait hole -without the knowledge of her auror detail, who assumed that she would be staying in the tower for the rest of the night. She took a few secret passages as she travelled to her destination in the castle. When she got there, she looked around quickly before sliding the invisibility cloak off of her and knocking quietly on the door. A second after knocking on the door it opened and hand reached out to her waist and pulled her into the room.

When the door shut behind her, she felt her back being pressed against it and another hand joined the other down at her waist while a pair of lips pressed roughly on hers. Victoire sighed quietly as she kissed back and moved her hands up the man's chest, around his neck, and into his hair where she grabbed a tight hold. She pressed her mouth back to his with the same amount of pressure that he was using to press her into the door with his body. She had just decided to deepen the kiss when she felt the lips against hers beginning to withdraw. When they were completely away from hers they took a minute to press a kiss onto the tip of her nose before she lost the feel of the both the lips and body.

She opened her eyes and blinked a few times before she was able to focus onto Teddy's smirking face.

"Hey."

"Hey," she answered back with a smile.

"Did you just finish your patrol with Knott?" he asked her as he fiddled with the hem of her red tank top.

"Yes. Are you officially off the clock yet?" Victoire asked him knowing that as an auror he was never _actually_ off the clock. Just officially or non-officially.

"Yes, I was just about to go change out of my robes," Teddy told her.

"Okay," she replied pulling her arms down from his neck. He gave her another smile before turning to leave.

She reached out and grabbed the side of his robe, and pulled him back to her before he could get far. He turned his face back to hers and she reached up on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss.

"Happy Birthday by the way."

Teddy smiled at her and bent down to give her another quick kiss, "Thanks. Now can I go change?"

Victoire nodded her head and he shot her another smile before actually leaving the room this time. She took a look at his living room for the first time since she entered and was a little surprised to see both Jilly and Kurt sitting in chairs in the room. Even though they knew about hers and Teddy's relationship usually, he tried to keep the PDA around them to a minimal.

_Oh well. It's his Birthday he's allowed to do whatever he wants. It's good to see that he's loosened up at least._

"Hi Kurt, hi Jilly," Victoire said to them as she made her way over to the loveseat that was in between their two easy chairs.

"Hi Victoire," They greeted back.

Victoire stood back up when Teddy came back into the room a second later, now changed into a pair of dark wash jeans and grey _Holyhead Harpies_ t-shirt. He went straight to Victoire and pulled her into another hug and she somehow manoeuvered it into another kiss. Teddy indulged her for a second before pulling away and giving her a smirk. She smiled back at him and moved out of his arms so she could pull a pair of small envelopes out of the pocket of her jeans.

She handed both of them to Teddy with the explanation, "There's one card for you from Ally and Sandra, and one from Kyle."

Teddy took them from her but didn't open them, "Why did Kyle get me a separate card?"

Victoire shrugged, "Sandra was about to give him their card to sign but he said that she wouldn't want him to write his birthday message for you down next to whatever Ally and she wrote for you, so he decided to get you his own card to write on."

Teddy tossed both envelopes onto the coffee table near them and wound his arms around her waist again, "That's just a little frightening."

"And I have to live in the same tower as him."

Teddy chuckled before leaning forward to kiss her on the lips again. But just before they made contact Kurt cleared his throat loudly.

Teddy turned his head just slightly so he could see him, "Yes Kurt?"

"You're not seriously wearing that t-shirt are you?" he asked.

Teddy sighed, "Yes I am. It's my birthday I'll do whatever I want."

"Except wear that," Kurt countered with a frown.

Teddy noticed Victoire's confused expression, "Kurt has a grudge against the _Harpies_."

"_Shhh_," Kurt hissed at him, "Don't speak their name."

Teddy shook his head and gave her a look that said 'see'. Victoire giggled, "But Aunt Ginny used to play for them."

Teddy took a step back from her, "Which is why he hasn't stolen from me and tried to burn it yet. He lets me keep it on the condition that I don't wear it in any of our shared living spaces."

"Why would you agree to that?" Victoire asked him.

"Because it's his end of the deal. He doesn't wear the T-shirt and I don't ask you certain questions when you're over," Kurt explained, "Now go change."

"What kinds of questions?" Victoire asked curiously.

Teddy, who had been on his way to his room to change quickly spun around and pointed a stern finger at Kurt, "No. That was not her giving you permission to ask her those questions. And Victoire, just trust me, you don't want to know, and you don't even want to be put into the position where he asks you the questions. Just forget he ever mentioned it."

Kurt rolled his eyes at Teddy's back as he disappeared back into his room to find a different 'Kurt-approved' shirt. While he was gone, a small black owl flew to the window near the kitchen part of the room. Victoire recognized it and went over to the window to let it in while calling out, "Teddy, Andromeda's owl is here."

Teddy called back to her from his room, "Yeah, she should just be dropping off a present from Grandmum. Could you take it from it? It has a long way to fly back."

"Sure," Victoire answered back as she unwrapped the medium sized parcel from its legs. Her eyes narrowed when she saw a thick letter also attached to the leg. She took it off to and conjured up and owl treat to give to the bird before she let it fly away. She brought the packages back into the living room and placed the parcel on the table with his cards while looking at the post markings on the letter.

"Teddy there's a letter here too for you. Who do we know in Peru?" Victoire called out to him seeing as he was still in his room trying to find a proper piece of attire.

"What was that?"

Victoire turned her head to Kurt's direction, "Pardon Kurt?"

"What did you ask him?"

"I asked him who we knew in Peru."

Kurt gave Victoire an odd look, "Listen Victoire, I know you and Ted are dating but not everything you do is a 'we'. There is a Victoire and Ted. And then there's a Victoire. And a Ted."

Victoire looked at Kurt's concerned expression with a serious face for three seconds before she starting laughing, "Oh Kurt, there hasn't been a Victoire. And a Ted. Since I was three years old. We've always been a 'we'; even before 'we' were the 'we', we are now. Now I know commitments like that can scare some people, but Teddy's used to it by now."

Kurt opened his mouth to respond when Teddy walked into the room pulling a different, plain grey, t-shirt over his head.

"What did you ask me Sweetheart?"

Victoire had momentarily forgotten her own question with Teddy's entrance.

_Damn him and that body. He totally did that on purpose._

Victoire shook her head a few times to clear it, "I asked you who we knew in Peru. Andromeda's owl came with a letter addressed to you from there, but there's not a sender's name."

Teddy walked over to her to look at the outside of the letter she was referring to.

"And I was just telling Victoire that she doesn't necessarily have to know everyone you do. You could know some people that she doesn't," Kurt told him.

Teddy nodded, "You're absolutely right Kurt."

Kurt smiled smugly at Victoire.

"Your theory is correct. It's not out of the realm of possibility that I have an acquaintance that Victoire doesn't know about, but this isn't an instance of that," Teddy turned to Victoire when he spoke next, "The handwriting looks like Tasha Bennett's. I knew she was in South America but I didn't know exactly where."

Victoire smiled brightly, "Tasha Bennett? Oh, I haven't seen her since your guys' graduation two years ago. Do you guys write to each other often?"

Teddy had moved to the kitchen and was working on getting a mug of tea for both him and Victoire, "We were writing to each other every few months for about a year there, but I haven't gotten a letter from her in close to a year. I only knew that she was in South America because she mentioned it in her last letter to me and told me that that's how I was to send my letter in response. She told me that I probably wouldn't hear from her in a while though because she would be travelling in places that would be hard to get a letter to or to send one from."

"So she probably tried hard to get this sent out to you in time for your birthday then. Oh, she was always so sweet. When was the last time you wrote to her?" Victoire asked as she sat down at the loveseat.

Teddy thought about that while he waited for the water in the teakettle to heat up, "Um, it was probably sometime in late August when I sent her a letter on her birthday. She'd sent me one only a week before but I wanted to give her my birthday wishes on her birthday."

"That's nice, I wonder what she's been up to for the past several months then," Victoire mused as she placed the letter down on the coffee table beside Teddy's other packages.

"You can open it and read it if you want," Teddy called to her as he grabbed two mugs from the top shelf and set them on the counter.

Victoire called out a 'thanks' and he could hear her gently trying to get the letter open without ripping the envelope. Teddy heard a scoffing sound from behind him and saw that Kurt had joined him in the kitchen.

"Are you actually going to allow her to read your mail? Don't you have any sense of boundaries?" Kurt asked as he leaned up against the fridge.

Teddy rolled his eyes at Kurt and pulled out the sugar, "She lets me read her mail from her friends like Xavier. I don't have any secrets that I need to keep from her."

"But it's weird, just because you're in a relationship doesn't mean that you have to share every part of your life with her."

"You're overreacting Kurt. It's just a letter. Besides, just because Tasha is my friend first doesn't mean that she doesn't know Victoire. Victoire always been a part of my life and Tasha knows that. Heck, back in August when I wrote her a letter I even mentioned that Victoire and I had started dating. She was one of the first people I told, there shouldn't be anything in there that Victoire can't-" Teddy stopped speaking suddenly as the kettle started to whistle. He'd just remembered that there very well _could_ be something in that letter from Tasha that Victoire shouldn't read.

Teddy forgot about the whistling teakettle and ran to the loveseat. He could tell that from the way Victoire was holding the first page of the letter that she hadn't gotten much past the first few lines of greeting. He leaned over the back of the couch and snatched the letter out of her hands.

Victoire turned around in surprise to look at him, "Is there something wrong Honey?"

Teddy stuffed the papers into the back pocket of his pants while he placed a bright smile on his face, "Not at all Sweetheart. I just figured that I've got plenty of spare time to read Tasha's letter later, but you're only here for a little bit of time and I don't want to waste it."

Victoire raised a blonde brow, "Are you sure there isn't something wrong?"

Teddy shook his head.

"Because if you don't want me to read your mail I won't," Victoire continued.

Teddy gave an uncomfortable chuckle, "There's nothing to worry your pretty little head over Vic. I just think that we've only got so much time that I don't want to waste it reading a letter that will still be here this time tomorrow."

"Alright," Victoire said getting up, "Why don't you sit down and I'll go deal with that teakettle that you seem to be deaf to."

Teddy gave her a sheepish nod and sat down on the loveseat while she went to the kitchen. Kurt came out as she went in and shot a glance over his shoulder at her before rushing back to his chair, next to where Teddy was on the couch.

"So I take it there is something in that letter that you don't want your girlfriend to know about," he stated with a bit of a self-satisfied smile. He wasn't trying to be mean to the two of them. Just realistic; he believed that there was only so much of them that they needed to share for the type of relationship they were in right now.

Teddy frowned at him as he took the letter out of his back pocket and shoved the sheets of paper back into the envelop that was sitting on the coffee table, before placing it back in the pocket of his jeans, "Shut up Kurt. It's not anything like that."

Kurt opened his mouth to disagree, but stopped when he noticed that Victoire was walking back into the living room with two mugs of tea. After giving one to Teddy and setting, the other down on the table she offered to get both Jilly and Kurt something while they were up. Both declined and she sat down on the loveseat right next to Teddy.

The group spent an hour chatting or watching Teddy open his presents, cards, and a letter to Teddy from Xavier. (In his letter he ended up referring to an embarrassing situation and asked Teddy not to let Victoire read that part, so Teddy obliged him and read it aloud to her instead, causing her to laugh until she cried and to make a mental note to tease Xavier about the situation in the future.) It was a quarter to eleven when Victoire excitedly pulled out a small flat package and gave it to Teddy.

"And this is from me. Well, and I guess Kingsley. And Dad."

Teddy gave her suspicious look before taking the package, "That introduction worries me."

"Oh, and from Mum."

"Only slightly better," Teddy replied as he looked at the small flat package that he held in his hand.

"You can open it you know. It won't bite," Victoire told him with a smirk. The last time she'd told him that was on his fifteen birthday, right before the present that he was opening did in fact bite him.

"That phrase has never had a good track record when you're concerned," he said hesitantly fingering the blue bow that was on the gift.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "That gift wasn't even from me. It was from Uncle George and Uncle Charlie."

Teddy took a deep breath to prepare him in the off chance that the gift would harm him in some way, before ripping the yellow paper off. He looked at the gift and then back to Victoire. In his hand seemed to be a stack of about non-moving muggle photos. The first one depicted a beach scene that looked slightly familiar to Teddy, although he couldn't place it.

"Um . . . thanks for the pictures?" Teddy told her not entirely understanding the significance of the gesture.

Victoire laughed at the confused look on his face, "You're so adorable when you're confused. Does the beach in that photograph look familiar?"

Teddy narrowed his eyes at the scene, "Sort of, but I can't place it. I know it's not a view from your house because in this picture there is a larger portion of rock on the beach then your beach has."

"Good eyes detective. You're right it's not the beach near my house. But it is the view of another beach by a house my family owns," Victoire told him as a large hint.

His previously confused face broke out into a large grin, "So this is a picture of the beach near the house your parents own in France then?"

"Yup, although when we go see it in July it will look a lot nicer in person than in the picture," Victoire told him with a smile.

"So my present is . . . ?" Teddy was pretty sure by now that he had an idea but he wanted to hear her say it.

"Your birthday present is that we get to spend a little vacation there in the summer."

"And by '_we' _you mean . . ." Teddy asked.

Victoire rolled her eyes and nudged him with her elbow, "You and I. Just, you and I. If you're alright with that of course."

Teddy looked into her eyes and gave her a warm smile, "That is perfectly fine with me. So for how long?"

"Two weeks."

Teddy frowned, "Victoire I can't-"

"Look at the next picture Teddy."

He did what he was told and flipped to the next photo, "It's a picture of a calendar with a hand circling the first two weeks of the month of July in red pen."

"Yes, but who's hand is it?"

Teddy narrowed his eyes, as he looked closer at the print, "Is that Kingsley's hand?"

"Yup. You're already booked off for those two weeks. That's where the Kingsley part of the present came in," Victoire told him.

Teddy remembered her earlier words and looked up at her with an eyebrow raised, "And your parents are fine with the two of us going on vacation alone to France for two weeks?"

Victoire shrugged, "They're just happy that this plan infers that I'm going to be alive by the time July rolls around."

Teddy chuckled, "Good point. There's still two and a half months left in the school year, plenty of time to get yourself injured or killed . . . so what's the third photo of then?"

Victoire sent him a smirk, "Another present that you'll receive when we get there."

Teddy looked at her in confusion before flipping to the last photo. Once he realized what he was looking at he flipped it over and his eyes went wide, "Seriously?"

"Yep."

The word was barely out of her mouth before Teddy pulled her into his lap and captured her lips in a kiss. In the back of her mind Victoire knew that making out in front of his friends wasn't very polite, but then she figured that it was his birthday and he could do whatever the hell he wanted so who was she to judge?

She thrust her fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth harder against hers as she felt one of his hands move until he was holding the back of her head, while the other one started at the top of her spine and then slowly moved down her back. She moaned when she felt him take her bottom lip between both of his and then loosened the hold of one of her hands on his head so she could lightly scratch his scalp.

She was disappointed when he released her lips a moment later, but she figured that it was for the best seeing, as she couldn't remember the last time she'd taken a proper breath of air.

His dark blue eyes were sparkling when he pulled away, "I love you."

Victoire giggled a little breathlessly, "If that's your reaction to the picture I can't imagine you reaction to it in real life."

Teddy's eyes darkened before he attacked her lips again.

"Okay, now I really want to know what that picture is of."

Victoire and Teddy reluctantly broke apart so that Teddy could glare Kurt, "Not going to happen."

Victoire giggled again and patted Teddy's cheek lightly before resting her head on his shoulder, "Don't bother Kurt. Teddy doesn't like to share."

"Damn right I don't."

"Fine, I'll just leave if you're going to be that way," Kurt said before getting up and moving to the door.

Victoire watched him sadly and opened her mouth to say something but Teddy stopped her, "He's just teasing Vic. He and Jilly have to leave to do a patrol now anyway."

"Yeah and that's going to be as boring as a Professor Binns' History of Magic Class," Kurt replied dully as Jilly got up to wish Teddy a happy birthday one last time.

"When you're out you can stop by Gryffindor tower and laugh at the aurors who are standing there thinking that they're guarding me when in reality they have no idea that I'm not even there," Victoire suggested because that would definitely be one of the top things on her list of things to do.

Teddy frowned at her, "Victoire not everybody hates the aurors who follow you around as much as you do. Kurt wouldn't want to laugh at them when they think they're doing their job."

Both looked to Kurt who was looking down at his shoes, "Actually Ted . . . well . . . you see Lassoder's one of the ones stationed to stay there through the night tonight and I actually rather enjoy laughing at him-"

Teddy put his hand up to stop Kurt's explanation, "Say no more."

Kurt laughed at him, before he and Jilly each wished the two of them a goodnight, and left.

Once they were gone Victoire looked at Teddy with a playful expression, "So what to do now?"

Teddy missed her expression because he was looking at the clock on the wall, "Well it's getting late so you should probably leave soon."

"It's eleven o'clock Teddy," Victoire told him dryly.

"But you're going to need your sleep even though tomorrow's Saturday. You've been doing extra patrols and extra Quidditch practices because your semi-final match against Hufflepuff is in three weeks-"

Teddy babbled like that, as Victoire stood up, grabbed his hand, and dragged him into his bedroom. She let go of his hand, left him standing near the door as she walked over to his bed, and then plopped down onto it, "Feel any more comfortable now?"

Teddy shook his head and brought both of his hands up to run stressfully through his hair, "No not really."

"What's wrong? It can't be because we're alone, this isn't new."

"No . . . but the fact that you're fully conscious and lucid _is_ a bit of a change."

Victoire ignored the gibe, "Then what's wrong? You're acting all anxious now. Just talk to me."

Teddy walked over to her and sat down next to her on the bed, "It's just weird. You being here without be injured or here to work through some sort of argument that we had."

Victoire smiled at him and grabbed his hand, "I told you I could change that ninety-nine percent average."

He rolled his eyes and wrapped his arm around her shoulder to bring her closer to him, "Don't laugh. I just feel really . . . guilty that you're here and Kingsley has no idea."

Victoire shoved his chest until he was lying down on the bed, "You're absurd. You just turned twenty and you're worried that your boss is going to catch your girlfriend in your room. You're off-duty. You don't have to answer to him right now."

Teddy placed his hands on her waist and rolled over, bringing her underneath him, "I know all that. They just have me trained so well that it's hard to turn it off. It's like second nature to inform Kingsley or Bill anytime you're getting cozy with a boy."

Victoire rolled her eyes and moved her arms to wrap around his neck, "Is that how they always ended up owling me, or walking into the living room in the summers when I had a boy over?"

"Yeah."

"Well that's going to backfire on them. They should have trained Louis or James to do that instead because you're not going to tell," Victoire told him with a bright smile.

"And what makes you so confident about that?" Teddy asked her.

Victoire smirked and rolled them over until she was lying above him, "Because, you're not going to _want_ them to know about me being here tonight. I doubt you'll even be able to think about tonight without your hair turning bright red by the time I'm done with you."

Teddy's eyes darkened and he licked his lips, "Pretty self-confident aren't you?"

"With good reason," Victoire answered before closing the distance between their mouths.

* * *

Victoire was woken up by the sound of a door quietly shutting in the distance. She turned to look at the clock on the wall of Teddy's room and she yawned silently when she saw that it was five in the morning. Figuring out that it was most likely Kurt coming back from his patrol, Victoire was about to lie back down and go back to sleep when she noticed a light glow on the left side of the room, the source of the light was concealed by Teddy's sleeping form.

Victoire sat up higher and realized that the light was coming from the bedside lamp next to him that was left on. She was going to turn it off when she took a minute to look at the picture that was propped up on the lamp, and smiled at it. It was the third one she'd given Teddy as his birthday present the night before. It depicted the two of them in a café in France when they she was eight and he was ten. It was one of the only times Teddy had gone to France with them on a visit in the summer with her relatives. The café was a fifteen-minute walk from her parent's house on the beach and it made Teddy's absolutely favourite chocolate cake of all time. The photo showed the two of them sharing a piece and Victoire giggled quietly when she remembered how she pretended to be full after a few bites so that Teddy would take the rest of her half and eat it.

Victoire lifted her hand up to turn the light off when she noticed something out of place. Beside Teddy on the bed was a piece of paper. She shook her head realizing that that was why the light was on, and that he'd probably went to read it after she'd fallen asleep the night before, only to fall asleep while reading it himself. She picked up the paper and was going to put it on his bedside table when she realized what she was holding.

It was a page from the letter he'd received from his old school friend Tasha Bennett the night before. The one he'd told her she could read only to take it back out of her hands. She was curious why Teddy had insisted that he'd have plenty of time to read it later, only to take it out and read it as soon as she'd fallen asleep. She knew that Tasha had been a close friend of his while he was at school and worried that he had suspected that something had happened and that she wrote about it in her letter. That would explain why he was anxious to read it, but didn't want her to. He probably didn't want her to worry about him.

Victoire knew that she should place the letter back onto the table, but her curiosity and her worry got the better of her. All it took was her reasoning that Teddy _had_ told her that she could read it, to convince herself to at least skim what was written on the page.

_. . . been so long since I got the chance to write to you . . ._

_. . . was in a very remote village for a few months and couldn't get an owl out . . ._

_. . . it's been ages since I've heard any news from Britain. Feel free to throw in any interesting tidbits of information in your reply letter . . . _

Victoire didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the first few paragraphs, and she was just about to decide to put it away when she saw her name written in Tasha's impeccable handwriting.

_. . . seriously Teddy, you must be joking? Victoire Weasley? Why would you date her? Tell me that I just read your letter wrong back in August. You're not actually dating her are you? Why would you? I mean I know that she's pretty and that it's ever guy's fantasy to be with a Veela, but besides that she doesn't have anything else to recommend her to you. And I would argue that her failings would outweigh her attractiveness; unless she's changed much in the past year since I last saw her, she's still the same temperamental little spoilt brat that she was when we were stuck at Hogwarts with her. _

_And speaking of Hogwarts, how could a little seventeen-year-old school girl like her appeal to you? She's so immature and even though we're only two years older, that's still a lot in the realm of real life experience. You can't say that you're happy with her. Sure her naïveté might have drawn you to her in the first place, but you must realize now that you need a more grown up and mature woman._

_Ha, look at me getting all bent out over this little girl. It's probably nothing for me to worry about. You sent me that letter ages ago. I'm certain that you must have gotten what you wanted from her and dumped her by now. I remember well how tiring she used to be when we were at school. Always buzzing around talking to you about your family or Quidditch, or trying to get you to help her study for some course. You always handled her better than I did, but I bet even you wouldn't be able to put up with her for more than a few weeks. Either it would only have been a matter of time before the little Brat cheated on you, or you realized just exactly how temperamental and bitchy she can be. Whatever the reason I'm sure you're glad that it's ended and that you made it out unscathed. And I guess as long as you had your share of fun with the chit then that's all that matters, I mean, you're so much more mature and experienced, it's not like you could have actually been in love with the conceited and immature little girl or anything . . ._

* * *

**Alright** . . . well that's a lot of info to soak up . . .

**1.)** Oh . . . sorry guys . . . did I make Colton Knott seem a bit like a normal/smart and perceptive/generally okay human being in this chapter? . . . my bad . . . ;)

**2.)** Don't get too angry at Kurt, he just doesn't fully understand Victoire and Teddy's relationship

**3.)** And as for that letter Victoire just read . . . well . . .

**Next Week's update:** Will be late, and I already know that by now. My exams start by the end of this week and I have one Friday, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday (And then one the next week). Usually I update Mondays, or if I'm busy a day early on Sundays. Well, I'm going to be busy on both days, and on Tuesday I'll be busy studying for Wednesday, so next week's update will be sometime Wednesday afternoon after my exam that day.

But! Just because I'm busy studying away doesn't mean that I don't want some lovely reviews ;)

Speaking of, thanks to everyone who has followed, favoruited, read, and reviewed, ESPECIALLY:

**As the Robin Flies, MuggleCreator, Oddliver, Eighteen Inches, Emily Alice, marmar8089, nifflerstorm17008, shine lots, MiraclesHappen94, Gabriella Weasley, xSuperNovax, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, brilliant incandescence, RoLouG, Forever Siriusly Sirius, niallsprincess180, Marianne 16, ilovemusic'forever, Owlcity2013, and rockon88!**

**As the Robin Flies**: Good. You're not supposed to like her ;)

**Emily Alice:** Awww shucks. I love it when my story is the type people get excited to see on their alerts!

**marmar8089:** No such thing a bad reviewer who actually reviews!

**shine lots:** We're all entitled to our own opinions :)

**Gabriella Weasley:** Wow. Three days?

**MagicalNinjaUnicorn:** That it did.

**ilovemusic'forever:** Sounds like a good Easter to me . . . thanks for joining us!

**Owlcity2013:** You will find out the theme of the last task in *counting* three chapters . . . sounds like a long way away, but trust me, there's lots to happen in between

**Next Chapter:** Ever wonder what the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts is like for the Wizarding World Well I did my best at writing my idea of it, so that will be next week :)

**DFTBA!**


	81. Memorial

**A/N:** Okay, here's the update! Let me know what you think!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything here . . .

* * *

**Memorial**

Victoire had been staring into the mirror in the bathroom in her dorm room, for the past twenty minutes even though she knew that the image it showed wouldn't change. The black pencil skirt in the image was the same one she was wearing right then, with the same black silk button up dress shirt tucked into the waist. Her hair was still in the same half-up half-down style she'd put it into half an hour ago when she was getting ready, and her face was still smooth and pale. Not a tear or red-tinged eye in sight.

"Hurry up Weasley!" Was yelled through the wooden door by Pamela's voice and accompanied by a short series of _bang_s.

"Leave her alone Pamela," a quiet voice hissed. Victoire probably wouldn't have been able to hear it through the door if she hadn't had recognized it as Sandra's, "Do you think you could just take one day off from being a harpy? Especially today? 'Kay thanks."

Next Victoire heard Pamela scoff even though she'd changed her volume down to the same quiet hiss Sandra was using, "Listen to you talk there Sandra. You had no idea about the significance of this day until you were like twelve years old and this is the twentieth anniversary; so you're really one to talk. It's not like you were raised to know this day since you were born."

Victoire didn't want to hear any more of the arguing. All she really wanted to do was crawl back into bed and stay there for the rest of the day. At this point, she would have done it attired as she was in her dress clothes. She opened the bathroom door and immediately Sandra and Pamela straightened up and plastered looks on their faces to try to hide the fact that they'd been hissing at each other just a minute ago.

"You can have the bathroom now Pamela," Victoire told her dully barely taking in the fact that even though Pamela was already dressed her hair was a mess and her face was sans make-up.

Pamela didn't even bother to give Victoire her customary sneer before walking into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

_Well gosh. You know the day's going to be bad when even Pamela feels sorry for you._

Victoire turned her attention to Sandra and saw that her best mate was looking at her with a poorly hidden concerned look. She was dressed in a pair of black dress pants and a sleeveless button-up dove grey blouse. A pair of simple black flats covered her feet, and her usually wildly curly hair was tamed into a simple bun at the back of her head. The only jewelry Victoire could spot on her was the chain of the necklace Kyle had given to her for Valentine's day around her neck before the jewel disappeared into the collar of her blouse. Victoire knew that Sandra wasn't into the habit of wearing the necklace often because it was a little ostentatious for her taste. But she also knew that Sandra was wearing it because it would make Kyle happy that his parents would see it on her when they saw each other today.

Sandra wasn't entirely sure what to say so she went with a universal comment that usually worked when talking to Victoire in the mornings, "Let's go get some breakfast in the Great Hall."

Victoire knew that she wouldn't eat anything today but she nodded her head, slipped on her patent leather black flats, and follow Sandra out of their dormitory and to the Entrance Hall adjacent to the Great Hall. They'd walked there in silence and Sandra was relieved to see her back-up waiting off to the side of the entrance to the Great Hall. Victoire just walked behind Sandra silently as she followed her over to where Kyle, Ally, and Xavier were standing.

"Hey Vic," Ally said quietly as she stepped forward and pulled her cousin into a hug. Victoire gave her a reassuring squeeze back before letting go.

Xavier was next. He pulled Victoire into a hug and kissed her cheek, "Good to see you again Victoire."

Victoire nodded back at him but didn't speak. It was hard to be excited at finally seeing Xavier again concerning the circumstance. When he let go of her he stepped back and wrapped his arm protectively around Ally's waist.

Kyle wished her a good morning also, and punctuated it with a light kiss on the cheek.

_First Pamela doesn't glare at me, and know Kyle's respectfully kissing me on the cheek instead of molesting me. They're definitely feeling sorry for me._

An awkward silence ensued until Kyle broke it a few minutes later, "So . . . we should probably get some breakfast . . . yeah?"

Everyone except for Victoire nodded silently and started to move to go into the Great Hall. By chance Ally looked back over her shoulder and noticed that Victoire wasn't moving.

"Victoire . . . don't you want to eat? It might be a while before we have another chance . . ." Ally trailed off.

Victoire shook her head, "I'm not hungry."

Her friends stopped in their tracks. They all shared a look before Xavier spoke for the group, "Are you sure you're not hungry?"

Victoire wrapped her arms around her waist, "I'm sure."

"Okay . . ." Kyle started not sure what to say next.

The five of them stood in silence for another moment before Victoire spoke, "You guys can go ahead I'll just-"

They stopped her before she could finish her sentence.

"No, no."

"No."

"That's okay."

"Not hungry either . . ."

Victoire closed her eyes and sighed. They didn't need to be at her side every minute of today. She opened her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Really guys, it's fine go get-"

"Oh. There you Xavier. We've been looking everywhere for you."

Victoire turned around and saw Oliver and a very pregnant Katie Wood walking over to them.

"Didn't Dad tell you that I was going to find these guys?" Xavier asked his mother.

"No," Katie replied before shooting Oliver a look.

Oliver chuckled and kissed his wife's temple, "Oh I thought I had. I'm sorry Love."

Xavier rolled his eyes; it seemed the pregnancy was making his mum become rather absent minded.

The clock on the wall of the Great Hall decided to toll out ten rings at that moment. Kyle looked out the open doors that led to the courtyard and grabbed Sandra's hand, "I just spotted my parents. We should probably go to our seats . . ."

They nodded at them and watched them walk away before Oliver spoke, "We should probably go to our seats too. Coming kids?"

Ally and Xavier nodded and began to follow Katie and Oliver into the courtyard when Ally realized, yet again, that Victoire wasn't with them.

"Victoire aren't you coming?"

She shook her head, "I-I've got to go to the lavatory."

Ally took a step back towards her but Xavier grabbed her arm and stopped her, "Just let her go Ally."

He looked at Victoire, "We'll see you in a few minutes at our seats?"

She nodded and waited until Xavier had dragged Ally far enough away before she turned around and walked to the washroom. Once inside, she went straight to one of the mirrors in front of the sinks. She looked into the mirror at her reflection. She still looked the same from an hour ago. No tears and no red eyes.

"You know you're really starting to worry Ally," a voice mused from behind her.

She spun around and frowned when she saw who it was, "You do know this is the girls room right?"

"My badge gives me certain privileges," he said as he folded his arms against his chest and walked toward her.

"You're not even wearing your badge," she replied eyeing his black dress robes.

Teddy stopped when he was a few feet in front of her, "We should go, the memorial's starting soon."

Victoire took a hold of his out stretched hand and followed him out of the bathroom and into the hall. She cast a longing glance at the staircase that could lead her back to her dorm and to her bed but then shook the thought away from her head. Teddy had put on a calm façade in the bathroom, but the strength of the grip he had on her hand was telling her more than his words did. He needed her to stay with him; so she let him pull her out to the courtyard. She didn't step away when he stopped to let go of her hand, and place it at the small of her back in a more platonic gesture, nor did she even glance back at the entrance to the castle while he walked her past row after row of half-filled chairs. Once they got to the front few rows of the seating section, they veered off to the right.

Few people were sitting in their chairs up at the front, choosing instead to stand in a large bundle of people until they had to sit. Teddy pulled Victoire to the group, and even though they slipped into it without a sound, most of the attention ended up turning to them. Her mother was the first person to get to her.

"Mon cher-" Fleur started to say to her before Victoire cut her off.

"Just don't Mamma. Please."

Fleur looked at her worriedly before pulling her into a bone-crushing hug. Victoire was only saved by her father prying her mother off of her a few minutes later.

"Hello Honey," Bill said to her in a monotone voice as he kissed her forehead.

"Hi Dad," Victoire answered back quietly.

After Bill's greeting Victoire went back to being silent. Her family members around her were having a quiet conversation but even though they didn't expect her to talk, she couldn't look at them. Therefore, she looked at her shoes instead. She had been standing there in silence for -she didn't even know how long- when she heard Teddy let out a soft '_oof_'.

Victoire lifted her head up and saw that Lily Potter had joined them and was standing around Teddy's legs trying to convince him to lift her up.

Teddy had tried to put a smile on his face as he talked to her but in Victoire's eyes, it looked very forced, "I don't know Lils you've gotten bigger since the last time I saw you. I don't know if I'm strong enough to hold you anymore."

"Please, please, pretty please Teddy?" Lily asked him giving him her big brown puppy dog eyes.

If it was any other day Victoire would have laughed at Lily's antics because the little girl knew that her puppy-dog eyes always got her what she wanted from Teddy, but today she couldn't even get the energy to lift the corner of her lips.

"Fine. But only because I love you," he told her seriously before bending down to pick her up. She giggled quietly and snuggled her head into his neck while telling him some story about something she did yesterday. When she was finished, she looked towards Victoire.

"You look pretty today Vic," Lily told her with a smile, oblivious to the tone of everyone around her.

"Thank-you Lilybug," Victoire replied. She tried to force a smile onto her face. Lily smiled back but Teddy's narrowed eyes told her that she hadn't fooled him.

A few minutes later Ginny walked over to the three, took Lily from Teddy, and set her on her feet, "C'mon Honey, everyone needs to start sitting soon."

She looked up at Teddy, "You're welcome to sit with us if you like. Harry has to sit on the platform this time with Ron, Hermione, and Kingsley."

Teddy shook his head, "No, I'll sit a row back with Vic and Grandmum. But do you need us to take Lily? You, Molly, and Arthur must have your hands full with Lily, Hugo, Rose, Al, and James."

Ginny shook her head, "No, we'll be fine. They're all usually well behaved when it's their parents or Kingsley speaking."

"Okay," Teddy replied before placing his hand on Victoire's back again and pushing her towards the second row of chairs from the front. They sat down in the middle with Victoire sitting down with her father's right and Teddy on her left, and Andromeda to _his_ left.

Once they were seated, Teddy's hand reached out and took a hold of one of Victoire's that was sitting in her lap. Her head shot up and she automatically looked around them in case someone was watching. Directly ahead of her was her Grandma Molly's curly haired grey head, and on one side of her was Grandpa Arthur, and the other was her cousin Hugo. To her right passed her dad was Dom, her mother, Louis, and then past him her Uncle Charlie and a few people she recognized as old school friends of her Uncles Harry and Ron, and her Aunts Hermione and Ginny. Beside Teddy and his grandmother, she saw Professor Longbottom, his wife and his daughter and son. She turned behind her and saw Ally sitting in her chair with her head leaning against Xavier's shoulder, eyes already red and watery looking. On Xavier's other side were Katie, Oliver, and Cecilia, on Ally's left was her parents and brother, and passed them her Uncle Percy, Aunt Audrey, and Lucy, Molly, and Baxter. Victoire turned around in her seat before Ally's red eyes set her off.

Teddy's hand squeezed hers tighter and he leaned his head faintly in her direction and whispered, "Assessment over?"

She didn't answer him; she just looked straight ahead at the raised platform in front of them and waited for everyone else to take their seats. She did hear Teddy sigh quietly beside her before leaning back in his seat though. She frowned hearing his sigh, and was about to say something to him when Minister Flannery walked up to the podium on the platform and the crowd went silent.

He gave the crowd the same introductory speech that she remembered him using every year since he became Minister, and thankfully, shortly handed over the podium to Harry.

Harry stepped toward the podium, took a minute to take in the size of the audience, and then cleared his throat before beginning, "Wow. There are a lot of people here."

Some of the audience let out a small chuckle but Victoire didn't. She just sat unnaturally still and waited for him to continue.

"I wasn't entirely sure what to say really, I mean it's been twenty years since that night. Twenty years . . ."

Victoire became lost in Harry's words as he continued his speech. She found that he always had that effect on her. She loved her father and her godfather, but Harry was always the best storyteller when she was younger. It didn't even have anything to do with the subject matter. Her father could have recited to her the story of the _Fountain of Fair Fortune_ dozens of times, and the minute Harry went to read it to her it was like a new story, a new experience. She realized that it was because Harry had a habit of putting everything he could into what he did. All the emotions he had he poured into the words, and when words failed him half the time, gestures and actions were more than enough to get his point across. His speeches on Memorial days were no different.

Victoire was so caught up in the tone of Harry's speech that she barely registered the fact that everyone was starting to stand up, at his request, for the moment of silence in respect for everyone who had died in the war. She would have still been sitting down if Teddy hadn't grabbed a hold of her elbow and pulled her up with him as he stood. She made sure to look at her shoes for the customary moment of silence, and then sat back down as Kingsley replaced Harry at the podium. One after another Kingsley, Ron, and Hermione spoke to the crowd. Flannery came back up to the podium for three minutes after they were finished and then McGonagall went up to round off the speakers. She announced to everyone that the service was over and that there was refreshments in the Great Hall for those who were so inclined, that there were ministry officials standing near the Hogwarts gates for those who were ready to apparate or walk into Hogsmeade to floo, and, of course, that the war memorial just off the courtyard was open for anybody who wished to go see it.

When she stepped away from the podium and platform people began to get up and move in one of the three directions she'd mentioned. There was the traditional first rush of people off to the right where the war memorial was placed, but Victoire stayed sitting where she was.

For the latter half of the remembrance services she hadn't moved her eyes from where it was trained on her hand in Teddy's on her lap, but she moved them now when she felt his hand let go of hers. She had to crane her neck back to look at him since he'd taken to his feet. His face was still dry but his eyes were watery looking. She figured that it was only a matter of time.

He held out both of his hands to her to help get up. She accepted his hands and he pulled her to her feet. When he was done, he placed his hand back on the small of her back, "C'mon."

She let him lead her slowly because she knew where he was taking her and that the longer it took them to get there, the less people would be there when they arrived.

By the time they reached the large marble monument, most of the people who were around it were either her family members, or friends of her family who had been there that night. Victoire stopped several yards away from it and let Teddy get ahead of her. She needed a second to survey the area.

Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and their kids were near the back of it talking quietly with Neville and his family, and with their friend Luna Scamander and her husband and sons. Near the right of the monument her Uncle George and Aunt Angelina were crying and standing with her Uncle Percy, Aunt Audrey, and with Katie, and Oliver who had a protective arm wrapped around Katie's large stomach and was casting anxious glances towards it when he thought she wasn't watching.

To the right of the monument her mother and father were speaking to Professor McGonagall, Kingsley, and her Uncle Charlie.

Directly in front of her and the monument was a kneeling Teddy. Victoire took a deep breath and walked towards him. The closer she got to it the easier it was for her eyes to transform the carved lines on the surface of the marble into intelligible names of everybody who was known to have died by Voldemort's hand in both the first and second war. When she was eye level, the three closest names she could make out were Marlene McKinnon, and Fabian and Gideon Prewett.

She closed her eyes to collect herself for a moment before opening them back up and gracefully kneeling down beside Teddy. Now that she was beside him, she could see the names carved into the marble surface at her new eye-level; _Nymphadora _and _Remus Lupin_.

She turned her head to look at Teddy and saw him staring at the words while silent tears poured down his cheeks.

She couldn't stand it. She automatically reached for him and wrapped her arms around his torso, pulling him gently into her. He didn't resist and ended up turning his head away from the monument and pressed his wet face into her neck. One of Victoire's hands stayed on his back, rubbing slow circles into his broad shoulders, while the other went to his head and started to stroke the pale brown locks that his black hair had ended up fading into.

A few moments later Victoire felt a hand run gently through the hair at the back of her head. She stiffened, shocked that she'd forgotten for a moment where they were and looked behind her.

Ally had her hand on the top of Victoire's head and was still gently stroking her hair. The tears that had been on her face earlier seemed to have dried up, and besides for the slight red tinge of her complexion, one wouldn't have even been able to tell that she had been crying an hour ago. Xavier stood next to her, some tear tracks still visible on his face, but his hazel eyes were clear. He had both of his arms wrapped protectively around Ally's waist. To Ally's side were Sandra and Kyle, and on Xavier's were Cecilia, Louis, and Dom. They were all standing very close together and Victoire doubted that anyone looking on from behind them would be able to see past their line to see her and Teddy kneeling on the ground in their embrace.

Victoire nodded to Ally and Xavier in silent thanks before turning back to look at Teddy. His head was still nestled in the crook of her neck, but she couldn't feel any more tears leaking from his face onto her skin or the collar of her blouse. A few minutes later, he lifted his head up and her eyes became locked in his sapphire gaze.

She swallowed thickly as they looked at each other and she thought she saw Teddy's eyes darken. She didn't have time to check her assumption though, because in that moment she felt the muscles of his body starting to expand back out from their contracted positions as he got to his feet, the grip of his hands around her hips causing her to move with him. His hands slid from her hips to the small of her back as he brought her body against his. Her arms wrapped around him with her hands resting on his upper back as she let herself go into his embrace. Their eyes finally broke their connection when she turned her head and pressed her face against his chest.

She breathed in his scent and it was the first time that morning that she felt tears beginning to prick her eyes. She swallowed thickly and moved her head away from his chest. She turned to look at her friends and saw them exchange a worried look before noticing that she was facing them.

Xavier broke the silence, "The Great Hall is probably emptier now . . . we should probably go have a late lunch."

His words were addressed to all of them but Victoire knew they were centred at her, "You guys go ahead. I'm not hungry."

Her friends frowned at her.

"Victoire you didn't have breakfast. You need to eat something," Kyle said sternly.

Victoire shot Kyle a hard glare, feeling like herself for the first time that day. The feeling was gone almost as soon as her words were finished, "I said I'm fine."

She felt Teddy move out of their embrace and she looked up at him.

"Go with your friends Vic. I'll come see you in a bit," Teddy told her quietly.

Victoire opened her mouth to speak but Teddy stopped her and leant his forehead against hers, "Go."

She sighed but followed his instructions. Xavier took one arm away from Ally's waist and grabbed Victoire's hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze and Victoire nodded at him. She turned with her friends and began to walk away. A few yards away she turned to look behind as they walked and she saw Teddy still standing by the monument. This time Harry had joined him and they were talking in low voices.

* * *

"Well I for one have missed this food," Xavier said trying to lighten the mood as they ate their lunch in the Great Hall.

Ally gave him a small smile and kissed his cheek while Sandra and Kyle across from them said something to keep the conversation rolling. Victoire just sat in her spot on the other side of Xavier and pushed the food on her plate around with her fork, not even bothering to pretend to eat whenever one of her friends would shoot her a worried glance. She was barely listening to their conversation as she mentally counted the minutes until she figured she could leave them, go back up to her dorm room, and back to bed. Staying there for the rest of the day seemed like the best option. They didn't have any classes, and visitors in the Castle were allowed until eight o'clock that night as families came and went to visit the monument or to see their loved ones. She knew that her entire family would be somewhere around the grounds or in the castle for the rest of the day and her best bet of not running into anyone would be her bed.

When some of the empty serving dishes on the table began to disappear and be replaced with a selection of deserts Victoire knew that it would be her best chance to leave. She stood up without a word to her friends and their eyes quickly zoned in on her.

"Going somewhere Vic?" Sandra asked innocently.

"Lavatory," Victoire said before turning on her heel and walking away from the table. She knew that they didn't believe her but she was past caring at this point. She had made it up the first staircase when she felt someone watching her. She took another few steps and connected onto a travelling staircase and heard the person behind her rushing to catch up before it moved.

Once she felt the slight shake of the steps she turned and looked at him, "One of you doesn't always have to be with me wherever I go you know."

Xavier was standing with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. To get onto the same set of stairs he'd taken the last staircase three at a time and jumped about a meter and a half to make it on.

"What makes you think that's what we're doing," he asked, breathing hard.

Victoire rolled her eyes; it was obvious what they were doing. Kingsley had given the entire auror department the day off for the service, as usual, and that included the ones he had following her every move, "Kingsley, Teddy, or my father?"

"Don't know what you're talking about," he muttered.

Victoire crossed her arms against her chest, "Go back to your family and your girlfriend."

Xavier gave her a worried look, "You should do the same."

"I'm not in the mood to deal with people."

"We'll at least let me wait with you until Ted turns up."

"What is so hard to understand about me wanting to be alone?"

Xavier shot her another concerned glance, "Since when does your definition of alone _not_ include Ted? He's been your other half since you were born."

Victoire turned so that she had her back to Xavier and wrapped her arms around herself, "I just want to be alone. By myself. Just me. For once."

There was silence for a few minutes until she heard footsteps, and Xavier walking away.

She closed her eyes and let out a breath of air she'd been holding in. Her eyes stayed shut and her arms stayed wrapped around her as she heard quiet steps walking slowly, yet confidently towards her. After one more step, she felt strong arms wrap around her from behind and bring her back to a hard chest.

"Let's go," a voice whispered calmly into her ear.

She shook her head, her eyes still closed and her body rigid as she tried to lean away from the comforting embrace, "I just want to go back up to my dorm room and go to bed. _Alone_."

_Not that you'd want to join me anyway._

She let herself be turned until she was facing the body because she just didn't have the energy to fight against it.

"Let's go. Let's just leave Hogwarts for right now."

Her eyes were still closed, "I don't want to go back out onto the grounds."

"I didn't mean the grounds."

The sentence finally caused Victoire to open her eyes, and when she did she was staring straight into a pair of deep and clear sapphire blue irises.

"Then what do you mean?"

Teddy removed his arms from around her and took a step back. He held out his hand to her, "Do you trust me?"

Victoire didn't say anything, nor did she move. She just stared at his proffered hand because she didn't want to meet his eyes.

He wasn't going to let her get away with that. He moved his other hand to lift her face up to his so he could read her expression. He spent a few minutes looking into her eyes to try to read her emotions before a pained look shot into his eyes and he let go of her chin. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, only to let it out when she felt a hand grab her own and use it to gently tug her body in a different direction than the one she'd been heading.

* * *

**Okay, so I just wanna say a few things:**

**1.)** Thank-you to everyone who waited patiently for this update :)

**2.)** I know a lot of you were expecting Teddy and Vic to talk in this chapter, but I felt that the Memorial service needed its own separate chapter. But don't worry we will get right into it next chappie :)

**3.)** I hadn't read any fanfics about the memorial of the war before, so I wrote what I thought it would go like.

**4.)** We saw this chapter from Victoire's perspective (Even though it isn't first-person) so that's how I wrote it. On Memorial days Victoire is very detached, people express grief in different ways and that's hers. So this chapter didn't have many specifics on what was said, but explained in detail who was around her and what they were doing because that's what she felt the need to focus on so that she wouldn't get distracted by her other thoughts.

**5.)** She didn't cry. Not everybody cries when they're in situations like this (Not me though, I cry very easily) and that's just how she is. This isn't to say that she was being disrespectful or that she never cries, but it's how she deals with grief on that specific day, she likes to take the approach where she more or less keeps out all emotions, as opposed to letting the sad _and_ happy emotions through.

**6.)** So don't be too hard on her and think that she's heartless when it seemed like everyone else was effected and she didn't seem to be.

Well that's done now I'd like to thank everyone who has read/ followed / favourited / and especially reviewed my story :)

**Next Week:** The update **will** be on time, and Victoire and Teddy are going to have a long, long talk about a lot of things. I think you all will end up seeing a different side of Vic next week, if you haven't seen a peek of one already. And, for all of you who doubt my knowledge of cannon Harry Potter facts (You may not think you do but many have probably thought it about this specific event throughout the story) will realize once you read next chapter that I know what I need to know. (That comment will also make more sense next week :)

Again a **BIG** thanks to:

**sweet-matty, Infinity Lily, rockon88, Thia Lingam, Ace of Hate, Eighteen Inches, owlcity2013, MuggleCreator, marmar8089, brilliant incandescence, MiraclesHappen94, Teddy Lupin (Guest), Teddy Lupin Forever, Guest, As the Robin Flies, RoLouG, Oddliver, Guest (1), Guest (2), pryce123, potterhead1997, niallsprincess180, Guest (3), chocolatelover33, katerinaVD, and alicenotinwonderland.**

**sweet-matty:** Aww, thank you. When I get reviews it makes my day :) We're all a very easy to please bunch aren't we? I don't have the number of chapters thought out yet, we are nearing the end but there is still a good amount to go . . .

**rockon88:** First, I love you're long reviews, even if I don't always have the best things to say in response I love how you pick out the pieces you like in the new chapters and tell me what they were. Second, thank-you for waiting patiently for the next update :)

**Ace of Hate:** Not necessarily, although this cliff hanger most likely will.

**Eighteen Inches:** Good, I'd be worried if someone liked Tasha after the little amount about her I've revealed.

**owlcity2013:** Go ahead if you want. You could probably sell a good amount of t-shirts.

**MuggleCreator:** As it should *cue evil laugh*.

**brilliant incandescence:** I forgive the run-on sentence I just like reviews :3. But while your plan would have been a good way to go, that's not exactly how its going to go, the big drama's still a few chapters to come. And it would be a good way to out them . . . but I've got something else up my sleeve . . .

**Teddy Lupin (Guest):** We saw crying Teddy in this chap, so we'll probably see angry Teddy in the next.

**Teddy Lupin Forever:** Well thank you, but I hope you don't mind waiting until this coming Monday? (In my time Zone it's Wednesday right now)

**RoLouG:** Thanks. And I can promise you that you'll even see another side of Colton near the end of the fic.

**potterhead1997:** No prob. I'm good with PMs too :)

**Guest (3):** 1.) Thanks. 2.) I'm assuming that there are already owl treats in Teddy's rooms. Meaning that she could just conjure it up knowing that there were some somewhere in the kitchen, but just not where. BUT I LOVE THAT YOU'RE LOOKING SO DEEPLY AT THE DETAILS! 3.) Victoire's Birthday: *Sighs* Just wait for the next chapter and all will be explained, have a little faith in me please :) 4.) Yes I know about her name. I'm Canadian, I'm not good at speaking French, but I can understand simple words. Victoire= Victory being one.

**chocolatelover33:** Aw, thank you soo much. I'm glad you've been reading it faithfully. I always wonder about that, how many people actually read it once it goes onto their alerts and things.

**katerinaVD:** Well thanks and welcome to _my_ Next Gen world, the place where I can make a bunch of OCs and have some people ship them more than actually Cannon characters (Ally and Xavier for example):)

**alicenotinwonderland:** Thanks. And sure yeah, weird coincidence, I hope whatever it is will ends up okay. Cuddly comforting? Well there was some comforting here, but not in the way you expected, however, next chapter there will be more comforting . . . just maybe not on the cuddly side . . . ;)


	82. Choosing

**A****/N****:**Okay, here's the new chapter. It's pretty long because Victoire and Teddy both have a lot of explaining to do.

*Also* If any of you have ever questioned why earlier in the story I mentioned that Victoire's birthday was in the summer, and why I wrote a one-shot about it, well here's your answer . . . .

**Disclaimer:** Everything written below is has been to my interpretation and my thoughts and the sentiments shown or revealed now way at all inflect upon JK Rowling or anything Harry Potter associated such as Warner Bros.

* * *

**Choosing**

Victoire welcomed the familiar feeling of her entire body compressing into itself that came with _apparating_; it was one of the only feelings she'd let herself take note of yet that day. When she landed, she was surprised to feel her feet plunge down through the ground. She had expected some sort of pavement or concrete, yet the grainy substance that leaked into her flats was identifiable to sand. She probably would have fallen over from the poor traction if she hadn't had a firm grip on Teddy's forearm. He didn't let her fall, and helped steady her so she assumed he expected the feeling of apparating into the soft sand. Or at least she hoped that he meant to _apparate_ them there, for he was the one that had picked the direction when they side-alonged outside of Hogwarts' gate.

She let go of his forearm when she'd retained her equilibrium and opened her eyes to see where they were.

"Why did you bring me here?" She asked as her eyes scanned the beach around them. In front of them was a vast ocean and to their left she saw the distant shadow of the base a rocky cliff that met the surface of the water. The area around them looked deserted but she knew if she walked about an hour's distance to her right she would end up on the section of the beach attached to her parent's house, Shell Cottage.

"Because it's your-" Teddy started before Victoire spun on her heel to face him again and gave him a scorching glare.

"Don't say it."

"Birthday," Teddy finished enunciating the word carefully.

Victoire stomped her foot into the sand in frustration, "No it's not."

Teddy sighed; he knew she was going to be difficult, "Yes it is. I've seen you're birth certificate and I was at the hospital when you were born. I may have only just turned two but I think I remember that day a little better than you."

She folded her arms against her chest and scowled at him, "I want to leave."

Teddy ignored her and continued, "I don't know why you always react this way anyway. I mean it's understandable when you're about to turn forty, but you're eighteen. You should save your freaking-out-about-your-birthday days for when you'll need them."

"I. Want. To. Leave," Victoire repeated each word separately this time.

Teddy crossed his arms against his chest and mirrored her position, "No can do. At least not until we talk."

Victoire growled in frustration, "We have nothing to talk about."

Teddy cocked his head to the side, "Really? Because I think we could at least start with why you've been acting so weird for the past few weeks."

"I haven't been acting weird."

He walked a few steps closer to her until they only had a half a foot of space in between their bodies, "Really? Because don't think I haven't noticed that we've barely talked since my birthday. Along with the fact that you haven't kissed me since then or told me that you love me."

"We've kissed," Victoire told him not wanting to address any of the other issues he'd raised.

"No. _I've_ kissed _you_, and even in that instance nine times out of ten you move so that it's not on your lips. You haven't initiated a kiss between us since my birthday," Teddy told her his frustration finally leaking into his voice. It wasn't just her detachment earlier that day that bothered him, that was typical Victoire on memorial days anyway. It was the fact that she'd been acting that detached around him for the past two weeks. That definitely _wasn't_ typical Victoire.

"There's nothing wrong. I can initiate a kiss," Victoire defended angrily before grabbing the front of his sweater and pulling his mouth down to hers.

The kiss was quick and she released her hold on him almost before he realized what was going on. He stumbled back a step or two when she let him go and his hands went straight to his hair. He pulled at the strands while he watched her. She wouldn't meet his eyes and she had started to chew her bottom lip. Not a little absentminded nibble either, she looked close to drawing blood.

Teddy sighed and took a step closer to her before slowly moving his arms so that they could wrap around her waist. He used his grip to pull her into him so that the dreaded space between their bodies no longer existed.

"I'm sorry Vic. I don't want to fight with you. I brought you here so we could spend some time together and celebrate your birthday properly," He said pulling one of his arms away and gesturing towards the beach.

Victoire tried not to frown at his words, "Teddy you _know _I don't celebrate my birthday. I'm tired can't we just-"

Her voice died. While she was speaking, he had pulled out his wand and muttered a few incantations. A large blanket had appeared spread out on the beach along with a basket that she assumed was full of food and even a scattering of lit candles surround the sand around the blanket. Looking at the display just made her head ache and her stomach churn.

Teddy looked into her eyes, "Please Vic. I want to celebrate. It's your eighteenth birthday, it's a big deal."

Her head felt worse than it did after she woke up from it getting cracked by a bludger, "But _I _don't want to celebrate Teddy. You _know_ this. I just want to go back to Hogwarts."

His eyes narrowed and his expression was quickly turning to one of anger, "Actually Victoire, I don't know that. I don't know why you wouldn't want to celebrate your birthday on your actual day of birth. Or why you just decided that you'd change your birthday to some random day in June when you were three -oh sorry, four, because it _was_ your birthday when you decided that. I don't know why you don't even want people to know when your actual birthday is! The adults and I are the only ones who know. Neither your brother nor sister, Ally, or even Xavier or Sandra know when your actual birthday is! And I don't know why you do this, because you've never told me! You've been my best friend since eighteen years ago _today_, yet I mustn't be important enough to you, because you've never even _considered_ telling me why you have this-this _fear_ of your birthday and why you decided to change it back when you were four!"

Teddy wasn't the only one getting angry. Victoire's blue eyes were starting to blaze.

"Oh I'm sorry Teddy but I've never bothered to tell you my reasons for not liking my birthday because I doubt you would be able to understand the thinking process of a stupid and temperamental little spoiled brat!" Victoire fumed.

Teddy's eyes narrowed in confusion, "Wha- What are you talking about? Nobody thinks you're stupid, or a spoiled brat. Did somebody say that to you? Did Pamela Mace or Colton Knott say something to hurt you?"

"No actually. In their own bizarre way Pamela and Colton respect me enough to hate and insult me to my face instead of resorting to do it behind my back," Victoire replied. Her head felt like it was about to split open.

Teddy placed his hand on Victoire's arm and tightened his hold when she tried to shake him off, "Then who did? What is this about? You can't just be freaking out like this because you don't want to tell me why you've kept your real birthday hidden for the last fourteen years of your life. So please explain to me because I don't understand."

Victoire met his eyes with a chilling glare, "Of course you don't understand because you're so much more mature and experienced that you can't understand the ramblings of a conceited and immature little girl like me!"

She hadn't realized until they had slipped from her mouth, but she'd just repeated to him the same words that were at the end of the Tasha Bennett's letter to him that she'd read the morning after his birthday.

The widening of Teddy's eyes and the unconscious loosening of his grip on her arm told her that he'd recognized the words too.

The expression on his face looked like one of pain, and he was silent for a minute before speaking in a controlled voice, "When did you read it?"

There was no 'did you read it' because her words had betrayed that she had. He just wanted to know how long she'd know about it.

Victoire swallowed thickly, "The morning after your birthday. I woke up when Kurt came back in. I was going to go back to sleep when I saw that your bedside lamp was on. I was going to turn it off when I saw that you'd fallen asleep reading it. I was going to put it back on the table when I realized what it was. I thought that it was odd that you had claimed that you'd have plenty of time to read it and then decided to read it the minute I'd fallen asleep. I figured that you suspected that something might have happened to her and that she wrote about it, and that _you _didn't want _me _to know about it because then I'd worry about _you_. I still would have put it back but then I remembered that you said it was okay to read your letter, so I let my curiosity get the better of me. I was just going to skim it to make sure that nothing was wrong when I came across my name."

She stopped there and knew that Teddy didn't need to hear any more to know what she was talking about. His hands shot up to his hair and he started to pull at it.

"I didn't write those words," he told her gently.

Victoire wrapped her arms around her chest, "I know. But _she _did."

"Tasha," he pretty much spat the name, "Barely knows you Vic. In fact, her letter proves that she doesn't know you at all."

"But she knows _you_! She was one of your closest friends at Hogwarts!" Victoire cried her headache causing her so much pain that she had to close her eyes and grit her teeth at the onslaught of the sensation.

She didn't hear his steps but all of a sudden she was in his arms and his mouth was at her ear, "She was . . . but people grow apart Vic. Her letter proves that she's changed. I never thought that she'd be capable of saying such things about anyone let alone you."

Victoire opened her eyes and was startled to see his own earnest orbs so close.

"But that's just the thing! She barely knows me but she sees me better than you do! I'm everything she said. I'm immature, and conceited. I'm temperamental and a spoiled brat and you deserve so much more than _me_," she said struggling in his arms until he let them drop.

"You are not. Stop talking about yourself like that!"

"But I am! Who else but a self-centred spoiled brat would change her own birthday so that she could have everyone's undivided attention?!"

Teddy's hands were really doing a good job of messing up his hair, "I don't know why you changed your birthday Vic, but I do know that that's not why. You're not self-centred or a spoiled brat."

Victoire felt like crying for the first time that day, "Yes I am! Even ask my parents! When I turned four, I told them that I hated my birthday because I had to share the attention with the memorial service and that the next year I wanted to change my birthday. They thought I just meant my party but I was almost screaming at them when I told them that I didn't want to celebrate until at least the next month, and that they weren't allowed to even mention that May second was my actual birthday!"

Teddy stared at her with an unreadable expression, "Why?"

"Why? I told you why! I didn't want to share the spot light; I wanted all the attention on me!" Victoire yelled in frustration.

"I don't believe you."

"Just ask-"

"No," Teddy interrupted her, "I believe that that's what you told your parents, but I don't believe that that's how you actually felt or that's why you did it. I knew four-year-old Victoire pretty well and she wouldn't have thought something like that. She recognized how hard those days were on everyone and that they were doing their best to try to make them happy birthdays for her."

"And that was the problem! I shouldn't have forced them to be happy on a day where all they wanted to do was be sad. They're allowed to feel sad and depressed and my stupid birthday wouldn't let them!"

Tears were running freely down her cheeks now and if her breathing got anymore shallow, she'd be hyperventilating.

"You don't really think that do you?" Teddy asked his expression one of complete shock, "Victoire you never forced anyone to try to be happy on your birthday."

"You're right I didn't. It would have been better if I did because that way they'd legitimately be able to put some blame on me and feel better about it," Victoire said trying to wipe the tears away from her face even though new ones were quickly replacing them.

"Nobody blames you for anything Vic."

"No they all blamed themselves. They blamed themselves for getting lost in a memory when I was asking them to play a game with me. They blamed themselves for feeling like they were letting me down because they had to put fake happy smiles on their faces as they sang happy birthday to me and watched my open their presents when all they really wanted to do was go visit the monument or a grave again. They felt _guilty_ that they felt sad on my birthday because they were remembering things that happened to them during the war, or the final battle, or remembering a loved one that died. They plastered fake smiles on their faces and tried to prove that they were over everything that happened and they were ready to move on and live their lives and they weren't!"

Teddy swallowed thickly, "It's been twenty years Victoire, all of them have moved on."

"Yeah, today it's been twenty years. When I was four, it had been six years, and the others years before that . . . it was too soon for most of them. Yes, they were getting married and having kids and starting to heal but most of them still had a long way to go. And they're allowed to heal, they're allowed to figure things out as they go and remember both the good and bad times over the years but they all were trying too much at once. They thought because I was there that they'd try to use my birth as some sort of sign that they all needed to move on and try to find something to celebrate and that's all well and good and I don't begrudge them that but it was too soon. They all tried to do too much too soon and instead of dealing with their moments of grief, we all just pretended as if everything was okay. We weren't all okay and I had to change that. I didn't want anyone to feel obligated to celebrate because they were afraid of hurting a little kid's feelings," Victoire said as she pressed her fingers into her arms.

"So you decided to change your birthday, and place a taboo on connecting this day with you so everyone could decide for themselves how they wanted to feel instead of feeling obligated to smile for your sake," Teddy summarized.

She nodded and watched him almost detachedly as he took a step closer to her.

"But you're not four years old anymore Vic. You're eighteen, it's been twenty years, and it's just me here trying to celebrate it with you," Teddy told her softly as he reached forward and pulled her fingers off her arms. She was digging her fingers into her arms so hard it looked like she was going to bruise the skin underneath her sleeves.

"That's almost worse than everyone else."

He frowned at her, "Why?"

She started to cry angry tears again, "Because Teddy this is the anniversary of your parents death. They died twenty years ago trying to help defeat Voldemort and bring about peace to our world and this is one of the few days you can celebrate their sacrifice and you're here trying to shift the focus to me and make me celebrate an event that I don't want to celebrate on this day.

"It feels like I'm trying to make you choose between memorializing parents and celebrating with your girlfriend and I don't want to you to have to choose! I don't want you to choose me!"

He stared at her stunned, "Victoire this isn't about me choosing you over them-"

"Then why are you here with me and not with Andromeda?" Victoire asked him trying to understand his reasoning. She'd been wondering that ever since he'd brought her here to the beach instead of spending his day off with his grandmother.

Teddy ran the back of his hand down her cheek and was happy that she didn't flinch away, "Do you even know whose idea this was?"

"Well since there are only a handful of people who actually remember when my real birthday is and since you brought me here I assumed that it was yours," Victoire told him.

He smiled a little, "Well it wasn't. I mean don't get me wrong I was going to force you to celebrate your birthday today whether you liked it or not but, but my idea wasn't this romantic."

He looked over at the blanket and then back to her tear stained face, "Or as romantic as this was _supposed_ to be. Grandmum was the one who helped me come up with this idea."

"Why?" She asked. She knew that Andromeda liked her . . . or at least tolerated her, but she didn't think she'd be so on board with an idea like this.

"Because she reminded me that my parents died so that I could have a better world to grow up in, but most of all so that I could live my life the way everyone deserves to, without censure and without fear that someone's going to try to kill you or ruin your life because of who you are. Weather you were born to a family with magic in their roots or not, whether you were born with blonde hair that quickly turned to red then blue, or with Veela magic, or whether your blood is contaminated with werewolf genes. They succeed Vic, they might have died in the process but for the most part they succeeded, and since they did I'm going to live my life, that's all they wanted for me," he told her still stroking her cheek slightly.

"And I don't want you to be here trying to make me celebrate just because you feel like you _should_. I want you to make your own choices," Victoire replied. After he explained, it was easier to see his side of things but she wasn't sure if he exactly understood everything she was trying to tell him.

He gave her a small smile, "Victoire I am choosing to spend my time with you. I decided this weeks ago when I was planning this."

"But why do you want to spend time with me?" Victoire asked him, "I'm immature, conceited, temperamental and a spoiled brat."

"Tasha was completely wrong when she called you those things Vic. If you were immature, we wouldn't have been able to have this conversation in the first place. You're not conceited, you're self-confident, there's a difference, and even then, you still have your insecurities like everyone else. And you're not a spoiled brat. You're just spoiled, there's a difference. You get almost everything you want but you're thankful for what you have and you respect everything and everyone because you know that there are others out there who aren't as lucky as you," Teddy told her.

Victoire's eyes narrowed at him, "You didn't say anything about me being temperamental."

"Sorry Sweetheart but she _was_ right about that adjective," Teddy told her with a laugh.

Victoire tried not to smile, and failed, "I know."

Teddy's arms moved so that they were wrapped around her waist and he pulled her to him, "But I still love you."

Victoire looked up at him and she got lost in his gaze before she had the chance to speak.

"Please," Teddy whispered, his lips brushing against the corner of her lip as he spoke near her cheek, "Say it; I haven't heard it from you in weeks."

Victoire felt her eyes starting to water again; she hadn't realized that the she'd been neglecting him so much the past few weeks. She was just busy trying to come to terms with what she'd read in Tasha's letter, and was afraid that Teddy would agree with Tasha's words like _she_ did and realize that she wasn't what he wanted.

"I love you too," She told him is a soft voice.

The words were barely out of her mouth before she felt him lift her up and spin her around in a circle. When he set her back down on her feet, a breathtaking smile was on his face, "Thank Merlin. The longer I went without hearing those words the harder it became to breathe."

Victoire frowned, "I'm so sorry. I never meant to make you feel that way-"

Teddy stopped her before she could finish the sentence, "Don't, I realized that you had something going on that you needed to work through, I just didn't know what. If I'd had any inkling that it was because of Tasha's letter I would have brought it up earlier."

Victoire shook her head, "Don't apologize, how were you to know that I'd read it? What I'm worried about know is the fact that Kurt was right. This would never have happened if I just let you have your privacy and ignored the letter."

"Don't blame yourself. It was neither of our faults, Tasha decided to write what she did and neither of us could have controlled it. I told you that you could read it earlier and I never retracted that statement. There's nothing wrong with you reading my letters or you reading mine as long as we give each other permission. Tasha unknowingly hit you were you were most vulnerable, but everything she wrote only dampened my views towards one person; _her_."

"I don't want to talk about her anymore," Victoire said having dwelled on the subject long enough to last her a lifetime.

Teddy smiled lightly, "Whatever you say Birthday Girl."

Victoire looked into his twinkling eyes, "I'm not going to get out of this tonight am I?"

"No, just let me enjoy this tonight. Let me celebrate you and enjoy us, please?" He asked giving her a poor impression of Lily potter's 'puppy-dog eyes'.

Victoire laughed, "As long as you promise never to do that again."

"Deal," he told her before stealing a quick kiss on the cheek, "Now how about we rewind the past half hour and try again? Happy birthday!"

Victoire rolled her eyes but accepted his outstretched and let him lead her to the blanket. He helped her sit down –which was slightly difficult because she was still wearing the tight black pencil skirt and black button up blouse that she'd worn to the ceremony. Teddy sat down next to her on the blanket and she looked at him expectantly, "Well? You were the one who came up with this idea. What's on the agenda?"

Teddy glanced at the ocean in front of them before looking back at her with a smile, "Swim?"

"Can't transfigure these clothes," Victoire said gesturing towards her black outfit.

Teddy turned to his said for a minute before turning back to her and handing her a medium sized cloth bag, "Your swimsuit should be in there."

She raised a blonde brow at him as she took the bag, "And how did you . . ."

He ran a hand through his hair, "Well, your mother had to help me with that part . . ."

"And how many other people know we're here then?" she asked as she dug through the bag. There were more clothes in their than just a swimsuit.

"Doesn't matter. This is about you and me," he told her with a smile before kissing her temple.

Victoire had finally found the swimsuit, and frowned as she studied the colourful polka-dotted fabric, "This isn't one of my swimsuits."

Teddy frowned and looked at the bundle of fabric in her hands, "Your mom gave it to me and said it was."

"Well it isn't. There's a lot less fabric than any of my other ones."

Teddy was still looking at the suit in her hands, "I still don't see a problem."

Victoire elbowed him in the ribs and he gave her a bright smile.

"But does it really matter? I mean it _is_ just you and me here," Teddy reminded her as he moved her hair away from her neck and kissed her below her ear.

Victoire felt her mouth getting dry, "I-I just don't think I'll be comfortable in it."

"And why not?" Teddy asked as his lips moved farther down her neck.

"B-Because," Victoire stammered out shimmying away from his lips.

He looked at her flushed face and moved his hand to her cheek so her could stroke it, "What's going on? You're not usually self-conscious about your looks and you have absolutely no reason to be. You're beautiful."

She looked down at the scraps of fabric in her hands and clenched her fingers around them, "I just don't want to wear it, okay?"

"Okay."

There was silence for a few minutes until Victoire groaned, "Ugh! Fine. I don't like this stupid swimsuit because it'll show a lot of my body."

"I'm a guy Vic, that doesn't seem like a problem to me," Teddy reminded her, "Besides, we've been swimming together before, and I've seen you in a swimsuit before."

Victoire crossed her arms over her chest, "Yeah, well that was before this year and the tournament started."

Teddy's eyes scrunched up in confusion, "What does that have to do with you being afraid to wear a swimsuit?"

"How many times have I passed out or been in the hospital wing this year Teddy?" Victoire asked him.

Teddy did a quick calculation in his head, "Four."

"Exactly, and what do I have to show for it? Four stupid scars."

He frowned at her, "Victoire I don't care about your scars. I consider it a success that you've made it this far alive and without being successfully kidnapped."

"You may not care about my scars but _I_ do."

Teddy sighed and quickly realized that nothing he could say would change her mind. He looked down at her legs, her black skirt ended just above the knee and he grabbed her lower legs and moved them into his lap. He ran his hand down her right calf from her knee to her ankle. When he got to her ankle, he twisted her leg a little so that the slightly raised pink two-inch long line on the back of her calf was visible. The hand that wasn't holding her ankle still, traced a light pattern from the bottom of the scar up to the top.

"What do you see when you look at this?" he asked her.

"Someone who was stupidly impulsive and impatient," she told him, thinking back to how she'd gotten the scar from when she'd jumped onto the dragon's back from her first task, and then made the whole situation worse when she _apparated_ without her wand.

She watched him closely as he moved his head down and trailed a series of soft kisses down the pink mark.

"I see someone who's brave and resourceful," he told her looking into her eyes.

He gently removed her legs from his lap and shifted around until he was kneeling behind her. Her long blonde hair was done up in some sort of half up half down style with half of her hair in a knot near the bottom and back side of her head. He raised his hand to her hair and took out the elastic that held some of it up. He then gently parted her hair near the base of her skull until he could see the small inch-long jagged scar that she'd received almost a month ago from the bludger during her Quidditch game.

"And this one?" he asked as he traced the streak.

"Someone who doesn't pay enough attention to her surroundings and can be ignorant to situations," she told him shivering not from pain but from the feeling of his fingers gently touching her skin.

"I see someone who strives hard in everything she does, leads by setting an example, and doesn't want to disappoint the people who rely on her, people like her teammates," he told her before pressing his lips against the scar.

Her earlier headache had seemed to be ebbing while they were no longer yelling at each other, but it seemed that the touch of his lips made the pain in her head disappear completely.

Next, he shifted her hair so that it rested over the front of her left shoulder. His arms moved to her front and Victoire's face went red when she looked down and saw his fingers undoing the top button on her loose blouse. The movement revealed a bit more skin but nothing more than that before she felt his hands move back to her shoulders. He pulled the right shoulder of her blouse down at the back; the now looser fabric gave way enough so he could see the three-inch almost semi-circle shaped scar on her shoulder blade. It was a white colour instead of a pink like the other two, but Teddy assumed that that was because it had gotten deeper because of her confinement in the cave than the initial wound the kelpie gave her. The fact that she passed out from a lack of blood related to the wound was probably a factor of that as well.

Teddy traced his fingers gently along the scar. He'd completed two circuits before Victoire spoke.

"That's because I was too impetuous and over-confident in my abilities."

He pressed his lips to the scar and kissed very slowly along its path. Victoire felt her breathing begin to pick up its pace and her body was starting to tingle from where his lips touched, and even where his fingers were resting on her skin, holding the collar of her shirt out of his way.

"Or it's because you've got such a big and loving heart that you purposely put yourself into danger to save people that you care about, and even people that you'd never met before."

Teddy gave her skin one last lingering kiss just above the scar before pulling the sleeve of her blouse back up over her shoulder and moved so that he was beside her again. Victoire's entire body felt flushed and it wasn't because the weather was abnormally warm for early May. She had originally been lying on the blanket, with her legs stretched out and had been propped up by leaning on her hands out behind her, but when Teddy reached towards her and placed his hand on her mid back, he pulled her closer to him. The next minute she realized that he'd maneuvered her onto her back on the blanket as he lied next to her, using his elbow to prop himself up so that he could look down on her.

He shifted one last time until he was kneeling over her and placed his hands at the front of the waist of her skirt where her blouse was tucked in. He looked back up and into her eyes for a minute before gently tugging the looser fabric out from underneath the thicker one. Next, he pushed up the black fabric of her blouse until the skin of her stomach was exposed.

The scar from the manticore was her absolute least favourite. It ran from just above her belly button to an inch or two below her breasts and it was about six jagged inches in diameter. The colour of it was no longer the sickly green –for which she was increasingly thankful- but it was still a darker red colour than she would like it to be.

Teddy reached out to trace the circular scar in a circuit and Victoire felt her mouth opening and her voice speaking without her permission, "I'm too rash and I don't usually listen when people tell me what to do."

His fingers had finished tracing the large mark on her stomach and his lips took over. First, they traced the outer perimeter of the circular scar, but then he started adding pressure to his kisses and he kissed around the inside in no specific pattern. His nose dragged a line up the middle of her stomach, to the top of the scar, and then his lips kissed down the middle, stopping at her quivering belly button.

Before she could miss the feeling of his lips on her skin, she was almost overwhelmed by the sudden feeling of his mouth pressing forcefully against hers. Her hand automatically went to his head so that she could hold his face to hers while one of his hands travelled up her back, to cup the back of her head. The other stayed at her stomach, the palm of his hand pressing gently into her lower stomach with his fingers splayed out on the surface of her scar. She whimpered at the all-consuming feelings that his touch and his lips were imparting in her, and he used the slight parting of her lips as an opportunity to slip his tongue into her mouth.

She could hear her heart pounding in her ears and felt her blood boiling in her veins but she used her hold on his head to force her mouth even closer to his.

They broke away, realizing their mutual need for oxygen, and he gazed into her ocean coloured eyes as his fingers traced patterns on the scar on her stomach.

"This one is because you're willing to risk your life to save the lives of people you love," he told her, the emotions in his eyes seeming to will her to believe his words and his opinion on her scars instead of her own self-conscious ones.

Victoire swallowed thickly and was gazing into his eyes when she answered, "Fine. I'll wear the swimsuit."

* * *

Teddy had gotten his way, they ended up playing, and swimming around in the water for a few hours before Victoire refused to stay in the water any longer because the sun was setting and the air was quickly getting colder. After that Teddy forced her to eat –which usually wasn't a hard task, but she'd skipped both breakfast and lunch that day, and was so hungry that the sight of food made her actually feel sick. When they were finished they just laid on their backs on the blanket as they watched the sky drift from the red of the setting sun to the dark grey that signalled that the stars and moon were about to come out.

Instead of changing back into her restricting dress clothes, Teddy handed her the fabric bag again and told that there should be a change of clothes in there for her. While she tried to find them she stumbled across an old Gryffindor practice t-shirt of his that had a large 'C' on the front near the left side, and the name '_Lupin_' printed in block letters on the back. She assumed that he had brought it as an extra change of clothes for him, but decided that she wanted to wear it instead. She threw it over top of her swimsuit –after she'd cast a drying charm on it. The hem didn't reach father than just past the bottoms of her swimsuit, so Teddy had to conjure a blanket to place on top of the both of them because she refused to dig further in the bag for the pair of warmer sweat pants that he'd packed for her to wear.

Victoire was lying with her head on Teddy's chest, and he was running his fingers through her loose damp hair, when he asked, "So are you finally going to allow us to celebrate your birthday in the future?"

"You and I? Sure. Mum and Dad . . . as long as they don't say anything when we're actually at the service? I guess. Everyone else who actually doesn't know when my real birthday is like Ally, Xavier, and Sandra? Probably not."

Teddy nodded even though she couldn't see him. They were small concessions but at least she was taking a few steps. He also knew it would be hard to explain to Ally, her friends, and the rest of her cousins that the day they celebrated her birthday on for the past fourteen years actually wasn't her birthday.

Victoire shifted so that instead of lying beside him with her head on his chest she was lying on top of him. She put her hands down on the blanket on either side of his head and pushed herself up a bit, so that she could look into his face.

"Why are you so good to me?"

Teddy smiled gently before it turned into a full-blown smirk and he rolled them over so that she was lying underneath him and he was on top of her, "Because you're hot."

Victoire rolled her eyes at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "No, really."

Teddy placed one hand at her hip as the other cupped her cheek, "Why are you so good to me?"

She stared into his sapphire blue eyes, "Because you're my best friend and the love of my life."

He pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, "Same reason."

"I love you," Victoire whispered against his lips before kissing him.

Teddy pressed his lips back to hers and moved his hand from her cheek to her head so that he could angle it better. He licked her bottom lip and she sighed allowing him entrance. Her tongue quickly tangled with his, and her hands moved from where they were around his neck to travel down his back, the cotton of his shirt feeling smooth against her fingertips as she traced the muscles of his back.

His hand that was at her hip, slipped under her shirt and traveled until he met her hipbones where he began to trace his fingers along the bone and into the indentations beside them. Victoire moaned out a strangled version of his name and his mouth broke away from hers to trace down her neck. With her mouth free she tried to regulate, her breathing back to normal but the farther down his mouth went the more her deep breaths were turning into shallow pants.

When he reached the hollow of her throat, his mouth travelled to the right until he reached her collarbone where he licked the skin before he began sucking on it.

Victoire was passed caring about him leaving a mark at this point and moaned out a sound that spurred him on, more than inhibiting him. When he removed his mouth from her heated skin, he shot her a smirk that was very short lived as she grabbed his head and forced her mouth onto his again. She took his bottom lip in between hers and nipped at it before sucking on it.

As they kissed, her hands travelled to the front of his chest, snuck underneath his t-shirt, and started tracing light patterns on his stomach muscles. She pulled her mouth away after a few minutes so she could breathe again and his lips travelled back down her neck with sucking kisses. As his lips got lower, her hands went higher and soon they were feeling the skin of his upper back and tracing around his shoulders underneath his tee.

Figuring that the t-shirt was only going to get in the way Teddy took his hands off of her and broke his mouth away from the skin of her neck so that he could pull his t-shirt over his head. Before he was finished, he grabbed the hem of her t-shirt that had bunched up around her stomach and pulled it up and off her, leaving the both of them back in just their swimsuits.

His mouth went back to hers and their tongues immediately twisted together. Her hands went back to running down his back, while his were seeking out the new skin he'd just uncovered. One of his hands was at the small of her back pressing her body closer to his, while the other moved to the barely there space in between their bodies and traced a circle around her belly button before running up the side of her ribcage.

Their lips divided and they stopped moving for a moment as they looked into each other's eyes.

"I love you so much," Teddy told her his voice rough.

"I love you too," Victoire said her fingers tightening their grip on his skin as an irrational fear of losing him started to leak through her body.

His blues eyes seemed to read her mind and he smiled at her reassuringly before placing a sweet kiss on her lips.

She sighed and closed her eyes as she felt his lips move away from hers and travel back down her neck and then to the exposed skin of her shoulders and collarbones. She was surprised that each kiss and touch from him could cause her to feel like her body was burning, when she already felt like she was caught up in a ferocious blaze.

* * *

**See! It's still all cannon! (And yes, I've had this little chapter some what planned since back in chapter 8 when I mentioned Victoire's birthday was in the summer and people first started politely pointing out that her birthday was May 2nd.)**

Okay, next thing to address:

**1.) Q:Why did I have Victoire change her Birthday?**

**A1:** Personally, I always thought that it would be difficult for someone to have been born on a day like that, that has such an effect on people, just because of what day it is. (I'm not trying to sound insensitive or malignant by comparison but I would sort of liken it to someone who's birthday is on September 11th. Before, during, and after, it's not always just a regular day anymore, some years the anniversary will hit you harder than others.) Add in the fact that practically all of Victoire's family could have died (They didn't but still) or they lost a lot of people that they cared about, well I can see someone who is sensitive to other people's feelings being concerned over celebrating something as trivial as a Birthday (In her mind) compared to the grand scheme of things. I think it would be hard on Victoire to want to celebrate and be happy when everything was still so fresh in her families minds soon after she was born, and as a child all she could think to do to 'fix' it was to take out the aspect of celebrating her birthday

**A2:** However, Teddy also makes a good point about finally moving on with the times. This isn't a matter of who's right and who's wrong, it's a matter of what feels right for each individual

**2.)** People reviewed last week and were wondering why some of the characters seemed, more morose than was probably needed, personally I think even though the next gen wasn't alive at the time, that it doesn't mean that they should be any less sad. (Not as strong a comparison, but I was 2 months old when my grandmother died of cancer, I had a cousin who was three, and another cousin who was born four months after she died. None of us actually remember her, and only a few of us were 'alive' but eighteen years later we still feel similar amounts of sadness and it still hurts and hits us on the anniversary of her death.) The sadness gets better, but it's never actually gone, I think it just levels it off after a time unless something else causes it to spike back up again. So they next gen still feel the pain of their loss, and their family members' losses even though they weren't born yet

**3.)** We got to see the insecure side of Victoire here, and that just goes to show that even someone who usually oozes confidence has their own things that they're insecure about, as Teddy said, Tasha just ended up hitting Victoire where she was most insecure

So, I hoped you liked the chapter, and thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed!

**Next Week: Sandra's actually going to get her turn to have a bit of drama, and Victoire and Professor Cooke bond . . . sort of . . .**

**Review pleases and thank-yous so I can know what you thought of their discussions :)**

A BIG BIG thanks to:

**MiraclesHappen94, XoxMountainGirlxoX, RoLouG, clessard, xsuperx, owlcity2013, Shinethedown, Jobo78, Eighteen Inches, cherrybubble, Oddliver, Thia Lingam, marmar8089, chocolatelover33, brilliant incandescence, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, Infinity Lily, Forever Siriusly Sirius, MrsCharmander, MuggleCreator, SilverLining1294, mellypotter1223, rockon88, vampiremuggle, pryce123, potterhead1997, Guest (1), Guest (2), Evie Glacier Tako, and alicenotinwonderland!**

**MiraclesHappen94:** (Not trying to sound rude here) But good, I like it when I can make people cry with something like this.

**clessard:** Thanks, don't worry, it totally made sense. I'm just glad the story does ;)

**xsuperx:** Why yes, this chapter was rather long, nice will be left for you to decide :)

**Jobo78:** Aww shucks, thank-you!

**cherrybubble:** Yes, and no. ;D

**MagicalNinjaUnicorn:** I can answer you're last review now that this chapter is done. Her friends figured she was acting the way she was because of the memorial service, but Teddy noticed that her behaviour had been odd for the past little while, but didn't connect it with the letter until she spilled the beans that she'd read it.

**Forever Siriusly Sirius:** Why thank you!

**mellypotter1223:** You were very, very close on some of Victoire's emotions, I hope that means you understood her attitude in this chap.

**rockon88:** I think we'll wait until we're closer to the end to start talking next story and/or sequel. I'll just give the bare facts: Ideas for another story? Lots of them. Time and ability to write another story? Maybe, kinda still to be determined.

**potterhead1997:** That is a request that I would be happy to try to work in, although I feel like if she shows up James has o be there too because they just have a great rap-pour.

**Guest (1): "Confusion over Victoire thinking that: 'not that you'd want to join me anyway'"** It was kind of what she was thinking, and the last chapter didn't show it, but in this one you can see that she's worried about Teddy changing his mind and not wanting to be with her anymore because of what the letter says, and ultimately because she believes what the letter says about her. She's just to hard on herself, as many teenagers/young adults are. (Actually most people are harder on themselves no matter what their age.)

**Evie Glacier Tako:** Oh wow, thanks. Truthfully I don't read many next gen stories anymore myself. I like writing it, and before I started writing I liked reading them because there was so little said about the characters that you could really make them your own. But now I can't handle reading other Teddy/Vic stories because Teddy and Vic are my Teddy and Vic and I can't focus on how other people characterize them, because in my mind this is how they act and how they do things, and anything else seems 'wrong' even though other writers have just as much right to write them how they see fit as I did. I just can't get my characterization of them out of my head.

DFTBA everyone!


	83. Necklaces and Strategies

**A/N:** Hey, here's this week's chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything here . . .

* * *

**Necklaces and Strategies**

She tried to be quiet as she snuck back into Gryffindor Tower the next morning at six o'clock, but Victoire hadn't expected to stumble over someone's forgotten box of _Bertie Bott's Beans_. She didn't fall completely, but she made enough noise to wake up Ally and Sandra, who it seemed, had ended up falling asleep on separate couches the night before.

They both awoke with a start but relaxed in yawns and stretches when they recognized her.

"What are you guys doing sleeping down here?" Victoire asked them, deciding that maybe they were still sleepy enough that she could take charge and get them back into their own beds before they started asking her questions.

Ally sat up on her couch and stretched her neck, "Well I was sad that Xavier had to leave at eight last night so I decided to sit here and wait for my cousin to get back so that we talk and she could cheer me up. But I guess I fell asleep at around twelve o'clock, only to be woken up at six-oh-three when said cousin decided to sneak back into through the Common room in what looks like the same clothes she was wearing at two o'clock yesterday when I last saw her."

Victoire's opened her mouth to speak but Sandra beat her to it.

"Yeah, look at you Vic. The same clothes as yesterday, hair a mess, and carrying your shoes in your hands. If I didn't know any better I'd think you were doing the walk of shame-"

Both Sandra and Ally's eyes widened and their mouths opened wide. Victoire held her hand up to them before one of them could say anything else, "We're not going there."

"But-"

"Nope."

"Just tell us wha-"

"No."

Ally and Sandra gave her matching frowns when she shut them down. She walked over and sat down on the couch Ally had fallen asleep on and Sandra moved over to the chair that was on the other side of her.

"So you were both just waiting here for me to come back?" Victoire asked. If Sandra wanted to talk to her when she got back, she didn't have to wait in the Common room to catch her.

Ally shook her head, "No. Sandra wasn't here last night when I fell asleep."

Both of the girls looked at the one in question.

Sandra sighed, "I came down here to think at like two o'clock, but I must have been so tired that I fell asleep."

Victoire looked at her in concern, "What did you need to think about?"

Sandra's hand moved up to the collar of her sleep shirt and she pulled out the gold chain with the large emerald pendant that Kyle had given her for Valentine's day out from underneath the fabric.

Ally asked her a question before she could answer Victoire's, "You didn't sleep with that on did you?"

Sandra nodded, "Yeah I did. I didn't mean to fall asleep with it on but I guess I did. I needed it with me while I thought."

"What did you need to think about?" Victoire asked impatiently. She hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night and she had hoped that she could have had even a two-hour power nap before classes started. It didn't look like that was going to happen.

"Did you know that this is an antique?" Sandra asked gesturing to the gold and emerald necklace she was wearing.

Victoire raised an eyebrow, "Well since it looks like it's goblin made, and is in scripted in French even though Kyle doesn't speak it despite the fact that both of his parents' do, yes I assumed that it hadn't been newly commissioned."

"Did you assume that it would be five-hundred years old though?" Sandra asked.

Both Victoire and Ally's mouths were open wide, "Seriously? Five-hundred-years?"

"Give or take a few decades according to Kyle," Sandra told them crossing her arms against her chest.

"Okay . . . I mean it's surprising . . . but is it a bad thing?" Ally asked not entirely sure where Sandra was going to take the conversation.

"No . . . I guess . . . I mean apparently it's a family heirloom," Sandra said starting to sound stressed.

"Is there a problem with that? Did his parents say something about you wearing it when you guys saw them yesterday?" Victoire asked not really believing that Kyle's parents would be upset that Kyle had given his girlfriend of almost five years a family heirloom, mostly because she assumed that he would have talked to them about it first.

Sandra shook her head, "No. The opposite really. When his Mum saw me wearing it she got really excited and hugged me. Like close to crushing me type of hug. It kinda made me suspicious."

"Suspicious about what?" Victoire asked now curious.

"Well for one thing I asked Kyle why he gave me a piece inscribed in French when neither of us can speak or read it."

Victoire and Ally both nodded at her to continue.

"And he gave me an odd look before laughing nervously and calling himself an idiot for not telling me the _story_ behind it."

"What _story_?" Ally asked very interested now.

"Apparently the necklace was given to a distant grandmother of his father's by her fiancée."

"So I'm to assume that the women in question was French then?" Ally asked.

"Again, distantly, but yes. So it's been passed down through the family since then apparently."

"Well I don't see what there is to worry about. I think it's a cute tradition. Might sound a little out-dated in this day and age but Kyle is a pureblood so . . ." Ally trailed off.

Victoire's face scrunched up in thought as she listened, "How has it been passed down in the family Sandra? Usually purebloods have a specific way of doing things where traditions are concerned. Giving his muggle-born girlfriend a family heirloom for Valentine's day doesn't seem to fit into a tradition."

"That's what I thought," Sandra told her, "And we're both right Vic. There was definitely more to this."

"Okay so what is it then?" Ally asked.

"After Kyle told me about the necklace he was looking at me like he expected me to say something, and when I didn't, well, his face went red, and he started to stutter. I guess he'd forgotten that I wouldn't _understand_ the hidden context to the gift."

"Hidden context?" Ally asked confused.

"Yes. There was a reason why those Slytherins were looking at me when I opened the gift besides from envy of the gift."

Victoire's eyes widened as a thought came to her, "Sandra, when you said that Kyle's ancestor gave the necklace to his fiancée . . . was it a 'here I got something for you because we're getting married soon'. Or was it a 'here, I'm giving this to you to symbolize that we're going to get married'?"

Sandra ran a hand distractedly through her hair, "Apparently the second."

"What's the difference?" Ally asked not realizing where the two older girls were going with the conversation.

"The difference Ally was that the first one was a gift to a fiancée, and the second one was a proposal," Victoire told her.

Ally's brown eyes widened and she finally seemed to be on the same page as the other two, "So you're saying that that necklace was like an engagement ring?"

"Yes," Sandra said her fingers twisting the emerald around.

"So . . . Kyle didn't mean to propose right? I mean everyone knows that rings are more 'in' as far as proposing marriage goes," Ally commented.

"Yes. So Kyle didn't propose. But what he did was close. Hundreds of years ago, before the ring became popular you would give the person you wanted to marry –or your already arranged betrothed- a piece of jewelry, or a set depending on how rich you were. They were handed down through the family to be given to the new family member who was usually a woman. The piece of jewelry was the engagement piece, but when rings became pretty much a universal symbol for such the jewelry was downgraded. It was still given to the woman that the man wanted to marry . . . buts its purpose was more like a promise ring. It was given to a younger girl from her betrothed to show that she was taken before she was old enough to actually get engaged," Victoire explained.

"Yeah Kyle explained as much," Sandra said quietly.

"So . . . he didn't propose but he pretty much promised to propose?" Ally asked trying to get to the point.

"Apparently," Sandra told them.

Ally opened her mouth to say something but then closed it without any words coming out.

"And?" Victoire asked knowing that there had to be more to the story.

"Well when Kyle essentially told me what the point of the necklace was he apologized for not realizing that I wouldn't see it as that. He just assumed that I would know what the specific piece of jewelry would mean. Joke was on me apparently though, because I didn't but half of the Slytherin house seemed to," Sandra explained.

"And his Mum was really excited to see you wearing the necklace because she assumed that you accepting it would be accepting his . . . not entirely a proposal," Victoire reasoned.

"Yup."

"And I'm guessing that Kyle also thought that you had accepted the gift for the . . . correct reasons because he didn't realize that you wouldn't know what it meant," Victoire said.

Kyle never meant to be an ignorant pureblood, he just grew up reasoning that when he was ready to give the family heirloom to someone, that they would understand what it meant because everyone in his parents' social circle definitely would. He'd overlooked the fact that Sandra wasn't a pureblood and that she knew less about traditional pureblood customs than most.

"And last night when you asked him about the necklace _he_ realized that _you_ didn't realize that he was essentially giving you a promise ring?" Victoire asked.

"Yup," Sandra said again her expression looking really stressed.

" . . . So how did that go then?" Ally asked.

Sandra sighed, "He apologized for not explaining the gift better, and for not catching our misunderstanding for the past two and a half months, and for letting me wear it to see his parents who obviously expect something now."

"Can I assume that because you're wearing the necklace you worked everything out and are 'promised' or whatever a person is when they accept a promise ring?" Victoire asked.

"That's what I needed to think about," Sandra explained, "He told me that I could take some time to think things through and that he'd understand if I gave him the necklace back in the next few days."

"Hence you coming down to the Common room at two o'clock in the morning?"

"Yeah."

"But you're wearing the necklace and not holding it or anything . . . so isn't that a good sign?" Ally asked.

"I-I'm not sure. I feel like it's crazy of me to even be thinking about marriage. Kyle and I are both only eighteen. But then I remember that he gave this necklace so he obviously thinks that we're ready to be . . . well close to ready. It's just hard to grasp, I know that in the pureblood community people marry young, but it's just a lot different elsewhere."

Victoire put a comforting hand on Sandra's shoulder, "I know it seems early because in the muggle world marriages are coming later and later, but not only people of the pureblood social scene marry young. My mum was twenty when she married my dad. Katie had just turned nineteen when she married Oliver and had Xavier pretty much nine months later. Aunt Ginny was twenty when she married Uncle Harry, and the common age for people to get married at in the muggle world right now is thirty. It just happens a lot earlier in general with wizards. We're also usually done school earlier too. Unless you do extra training for your job, which doesn't go past three or four years, by the time most people are twenty-four they will have established themselves in a job, if that's what they were waiting to do, and then get married. And with purebloods or other people who have money and can marry and buy a house and everything without being established in a job, well then it all happens sooner."

"It's just a hard idea to grasp. We're still in Hogwarts!" Sandra said starting to panic.

"Which is why Kyle gave you a promise . . . well necklace, instead of an engagement ring. He figured it would be less stressful."

"He figured wrong," Sandra muttered.

"Apparently," Victoire agreed dryly.

"And he's a complete nutter."

"I've never denied it."

"And a duffer."

"I've told him that."

Sandra was silent for a minute and Victoire gave her a slight smile, "But you still love him."

"Yes."

"And even though your rational mind says that this is crazy, you're heart's telling you to go with it, isn't it?" Victoire asked.

"God yes."

"So . . .?" Ally asked starting to bounce where she was on the couch.

"So I'm going to tell Kyle that I'd like to keep it," Sandra told them slowly.

"Even though you now know what it means?"

"Yes."

"Good. Just remember who helped you work through this when you go to pick your maid of honour for when you get married in a few years," Victoire told her with a smile.

Sandra's eyes went wide before she giggled a little, "I will."

The three girls broke out into a little series of giggles before Ally spoke next, "Well I'm glad that that all worked out for you, but now I'm even more depressed than I was last night."

"What's wrong Ally?" Victoire asked her.

"Let's see, Sandra's a step away from being engaged, you and Teddy were off doing who knows what who knows where yesterday, and I've spent the majority of my time feeling sorry for myself because Xavier's gone again."

Victoire gave her cousin a one-armed hug, "You're allowed to miss him you know."

Ally sighed, "I know. I just don't want to rain on your guys' parades. I'll just go up to my dorm and count down the days until I see him again at the final match for the House Quidditch Cup."

Victoire bit her lip as Ally stood up and went to her dorm, Sandra following after her. She wanted to tell Ally that she was most likely going to see Xavier much sooner than their Quidditch game, but because of Flannery, she wasn't allowed to.

* * *

If Victoire had known that Ally was going to find out about the change in schedule for the tournament later that day when they finally made their way down to breakfast, she would have told her beforehand so that she didn't have to deal with her friends' disappointed stares.

When the girls finally made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast –after Victoire obtained exactly seventy-three more minutes of sleep when she'd gotten back to her dorm- they sat down at the Gryffindor table where Kyle was already sitting. Ally and Victoire sat down across from Kyle while Sandra sat down next to him. She gave him a big kiss on the cheek before he could say anything, and his smile was humongous when he saw that she was wearing the necklace he'd given her.

"So does this mean . . .?" Kyle trailed off staring into Sandra's eyes.

She nodded, "Yeah."

Kyle kissed her sweetly on the lips, "I love you."

Sandra smirked, "Actually, it's Victoire you should be proclaiming your love to. Talking to her really helped me think things through."

Kyle looked across the table at the blonde, "I'm going to have to get you something super nice for your birthday this year aren't I?"

Victoire bit her lip at the mention of her birthday but quickly glossed over it and gave Kyle a smile, "No. I did it out of the goodness of my heart . . . and with the hope that this would mean that you will finally stop molesting me and kissing me on the mouth when you get the chance."

Kyle laughed as he threw his arm around Sandra's shoulder, "You're cute Vic. You actually think I'm going to stop that? Oh Honey, in five years from now when both Sandra and I, and you and Teddy are married, I'm still going to be molesting and kissing you when I get the chance."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Lovely."

The four of them slipped into a companionable silence as they ate, halfway through breakfast, when it seemed like the Great Hall was in maximum capacity, the sound of someone clearing their throat echoed loudly through the room and caused everyone to look up to the teacher's platform. Standing at the podium was Professor McGonagall, and to everyone else's surprise, Minister Flannery.

Victoire's stomach started to ache at the sight of Flannery and she stopped eating. The date was the third, so it didn't take her long to figure out what Flannery was about to announce to the Great Hall.

"So, I have a little announcement for everyone. The date for the third task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament has changed slightly. It will take place this Saturday, on the sixth, instead of in June."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the occupants of the Great Hall broke out into whispers. Victoire could feel three distinct pairs of eyes on her, but she couldn't see them because she was pretending to be interested in the leaves at the bottom of her teacup.

"Stalling Victoire?" she heard Kyle's voice ask.

"No . . . I'm just trying to read the future in my tea leaves," she replied pretending to squint interestedly at the mush in her cup.

"Vic, the only reason you got an 'O' on your Divination O.W.L. was because you made everything up, but made it sound so boring that it seemed believable," Sandra reminded her.

Victoire shrugged, still looking into the porcelain cup.

"Well since you're not cussing Flannery out right now, we're all just going to assume that you knew about this change a while ago and didn't tell us," Kyle said.

Victoire lifted her head up at that one. Kyle and Sandra looked more worried for her than they did hurt that she didn't tell them, but beside her Ally definitely look hurt. And angry.

Victoire opened her mouth to explain to her friends, when the tolling of the clock interrupted her. That was the signal that they needed to get to class. Ally left without a word to get to Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Kyle and Sandra left for Arithmancy as Victoire got up and walked by herself –she'd learned to almost completely ignore the presence of the aurors when she was walking to and from class- to walk to Herbology.

As the day went on, the whispers grew louder. Many people found it suspicious that the task was being changed and that they'd only found out about it now, whereas others were just excited to see the last task happen and to find out who would win. Victoire had no chance to talk to Sandra and Kyle during class about why she kept the change in date a secret from them, so she was grateful when lunch came around and she could finally explain herself. It took her some begging and pleading, but they finally listened to her reasons and forgave her for keeping it a secret. She was very glad about it too because if they hadn't her next option would have been to promise them her first-born child and she still had to keep that card in her hand just in case Xavier proved harder to win over. Victoire hadn't had a chance to explain to Ally though, because she spent her lunch hour writing a quick note to Xavier to tell him of the change in the date of the task. Flannery had said that there would be a press release about it in _The Prophet_ the next day, but she wanted him to know as soon as possible.

Victoire had to be content with the fact that she wouldn't be able to see Ally and explain it to her until after classes finished for the day, and because of this, it seemed like the latter half of her day would never end. A History of Magic was especially difficult, despite the fact that Professor Cooke was a great speaker. Because they were starting to get to the end of their unit on the Second War, and she had a hard time keeping her mouth shut when he would give them the bare minimum explanations for things, because that was all that was allowed of him. Victoire had tried to take notes, but she found herself supplementing her own information that she'd learned from her family, and had to keep erasing it because she wouldn't be quizzed on it. After erasing half a page of writing, she stopped taking notes and ended up doodling for the last half hour of class.

When the last bell rang, signalling the end of classes for the day, Victoire quickly stood up and threw her things in her backpack hoping to leave and directly find Ally.

"Miss Weasley? May I speak with you?" Professor Cooke called to her from the his desk at the front.

Sandra and Kyle shot her a glance but she told them to go ahead without her and that she'd catch up in a minute. Once they were gone, she walked over to Professor Cooke's desk.

"Yes Sir?"

"Please sit Miss Weasley, we need to have a little chat," he told her as he waved his wand and conjured a wooden chair for her to sit in, in front of his desk.

Victoire didn't sit, "I'm sorry Sir but I need to leave soon. Is this about the fact that I wasn't really paying attention for the last half hour of class? I'm really sorry but It's just hard to pay attention and not comment on what you haven't mentioned and-"

Professor Cooke cut her off and gestured for her to sit again, "No Miss Weasley this isn't about that. Although I appreciate you trying not upstage me in class, I know it must be hard to listen to me, when on this subject you know more than I'm allowed to teach, and probably more than I've even learned. But no, this isn't about that. This is about the next task on Saturday."

Victoire sat down in the chair this time, "Oh? What do we need to talk about."

"We need to discuss strategy, and since I've been the teacher in charge of you for this tournament, we need to come up with a plan of action for you."

Victoire gave him an odd look, "Huh? Strategy?"

Professor Cooke gave her a blindingly bright smile, "Yes. I'm sure your mother and your uncle have told you about their past experiences in the tournament . . . so I'm sure at one point they told you that they had strategy meetings with their professors?"

She nodded her head. She remembered her mother saying something along those lines, and she definitely remember her Uncle Harry telling her about the Death Eater who had been pretending to be Alastor Moody and had been his mentor through the tournament. And then tried to kill him when Voledemort hadn't been able to do the job.

"Good. Well then we'll need to figure out what your plan of action for this next task will be," Professor Cooke told her.

"Not to be rude Professor, but I've completed two tasks without a strategy session, why the rush for one all of a sudden?" Victoire asked.

"Because Miss Weasley, we have a better idea of what the task will be this time, and you'll have a specific advantage on the other two champions," he told her.

"What do you mean? How would you know what the task is?"

"I don't _know_ what the task is, but I can have a good guess. We're two tasks down, so that's fire and water gone. The only two that are left are earth and air. And which one actually seems more plausible as a task?" Professor Cooker asked her with a raised blonde brow.

Victoire snorted, "Earth obviously. Air would take a lot of imagination to create a task for."

"Exactly, so since we know the element we have a better grasp on this task than the other two."

"But what was that you were saying about a me having an advantage on everyone else? I don't have an advantage," Victoire argued.

"Yes you do Miss Weasley," Professor Cooke said with a smile, "Think back. What happened in the first task?"

"I jumped onto a dragon's back, apparated without a wand, and pissed off almost every single one of my family and friends," Victoire told him.

He rolled his blue eyes, "What happened in between the dragon and the apparation?"

Victoire thought, "I had to grab a map."

"Yes . . . and since that map wasn't used in the second task, I think it's safe to assume it will come in handy for this one," Professor Cooke told her.

Victoire's eyes lit up, "I haven't even looked at it since the first task."

"Do you need to go get-" Professor Cooke didn't even bother to finish his sentence as he saw her wave her hand and a piece of paper came zooming into the room from the door that led to the hall.

She unfolded it and set it on the desk in between them.

"Wasn't it originally hidden to look like an old Slytherin banner?" Professor Cooke asked her as he looked at the browned paper.

"Yes, but I transfigured it back into paper the minute I was done with the scores. No way was I keeping it as a Slytherin banner," Victoire told him firmly.

They looked at the paper and Victoire was struck again with the odd layout of the map. It looked half finished with certain trails leading off to blank spaces and with some parts looking damaged by water even though they didn't respond to the restoring charm Professor Cooke cast on them.

"The first time I looked at this I thought it looked like a map of Hogwarts, but it almost looks like it's a map of tunnels underneath Hogwarts. That part right there is obviously under the Whomping Willow, but while there is a tunnel there it only connects to the Shrieking Shack and nothing else like this map suggests," Victoire said.

Professor Cooke gave her an interested look, "It's true then? The rumour that there's a tunnel under the Whomping Willow?"

"Yup, just immobilize the tree and slide in under the roots, take the tunnel, and you end up in the Shrieking Shack" Victoire replied.

"As your Professor, I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"It would make sense if it was a series of tunnels under the school grounds though. That's definitely related to the earth," Professor Cooke reasoned.

"Yes, but some sort of maze of tunnels wouldn't be the only challenge they probably have some sorts of dangerous magical creatures that have some sort of connection to the earth, wouldn't count out dangerous plants either," Victoire mused.

Professor Cooke looked at her attentively, "Speaking of, how are you with other types of magic. I know your defensive stuff is good, but how are you at Charms? Transfiguration? Herbology? Are you taking Care of Magical Creatures at N. E. W. T. level?"

"I'm fantastic at Charms, to Linkwell's displeasure Transfiguration's a breeze. I'm ace at Herbology, which is a good thing because if I wasn't that would have meant extra summer lessons with Neville and that doesn't seem like fun at all, and I stopped Care of Magical Creatures after I got my 'O' in O. W. L.s because I didn't need it and couldn't fit it in," she reeled off.

Professor Cooke gave her a suspicious look, "You got an 'O' in Care of Magical Creatures?"

"Just because they don't like me doesn't mean I can't handle them. Besides, despite what people think of Hagrid's teaching style, it was always under semi-safe and structured environments. It's when I come across animals in the wild that I have a bit more trouble. But I've pretty much seen everything so far that could kill me. I've faced griffins, dragons, a manticore, and lately kelpies so I think I'll be able to handle what they throw at me."

"But will you be able to handle them without a trip to the Hospital Wing being needed by the time the task's over?"

Victoire glared at Professor Cooke, "Just you wait, I'll get through this task without needing to visit the Hospital Wing."

Professor Cooke gave her a look that said that he didn't believe her before going back to pick out certain points on the map in front of them. Forty-five minutes later, they figured that they'd discussed everything they could seeing, as they weren't sure, what the task was going to be and that they were working on conjecture. After Professor Cooke wrote down a list of advanced spells that weren't part of Hogwarts curriculum, but had to do specifically with earth magic, Victoire left his classroom. The list wasn't very long, and he didn't expect her to become an expert on them in three days, but he thought he'd give them to her to look over and maybe store the words in her memory in case she needed to use one in a serious situation.

Victoire ignored the curious glances of the two aurors who had to hurry to catch up to her as they followed her when she finally exited the room.

"Miss Weasley?"

Victoire stopped abruptly and turned. None of the aurors had attempted to talk to her before, and she had hoped that she could get through the school year without that record being broken. It didn't seem like it was going to happen. She frowned when she saw that it was Auror Lassoder who had spoken to her. She didn't like him. And while she knew that she was judging him mostly on the few times she'd spoken to him and seen how he treated Teddy. And what Jilly had told her about him, and how they used to date, when she had been in Teddy rooms' one night. She also didn't like him because she had an odd feeling when she was around him, almost the feeling of antipathy she felt when around Austin Pennington, but not as strong.

"Yes Auror Lassoder?" she asked giving him a perfect disdainful look.

"What were you doing for so long in Professor Cooke's classroom?" he asked her curiously.

Victoire had to bite her tongue from saying something overly rude, "I don't think it's part of your job description for me to tell you my reasons for doing everything that I do. But I will tell you that he just wanted to give me a list of spells that he thought might be useful for the next task."

"I'm sorry Miss Weasley but it's important for us to make sure that you're safe and you were by yourself with him for quite a while without any other people present. I was just trying to make sure that everything was okay," Lassoder told her.

"Your job is to make people think twice before attacking me and to help me when I ask for it. I didn't ask you for help, so I prefer for you not to try to interfere with my life. If I need your help then I will ask for it," Victoire told him calmly.

"No. If you need help you'll ask Lupin for it," Lassoder corrected with a sneer.

Victoire folded her arms against her chest, "I ask whoever I feel is capable of helping me. It's not my fault that Ted comes across as more capable than you."

Lassoder frowned at her and looked like he was going to rebut when she turned on her heel and began walking back to Gryffindor Tower.

First, she was going to explain to Ally why she'd kept the change in date of the task a secret from her.

Second, she was going to write a note to Teddy and ask him if he could in anyway keep Lassoder off her auror patrol. Just talking to him for two minutes had given her a headache. If she had to deal with anymore of him for the rest of the year, she'd probably scream.

* * *

**A/N:** Well that's the chapter, I hoped you liked it. What do you guys think about Sandra and Kyle's situation? How about Victoire's upset with Lassoder? Justified?

**Next Week:** Well, I'm sorry but I don't know if I'll be able to update on time next week. I've hit a bit of writer's block, and what time I do have to write will be cut short because I'm back home from university for a few days before we go down to Toronto for my brother's hernia surgery. Good news though, if I do update, we'll only be a few chapters off of the third task.

Thanks to everyone who had** followed, favourited, read, and reviewed!** Oh, and don't forget I'm on twitter informing of updates with this story, so if you don't have an account and read this, then you can always follow me there and find out when I update. Just search **TryandTriAgain**

**A big, BIG thanks to:**

**Infinity Lily, Roxas4Ever13, EsaHufflepuff, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, Eighteen Inches, marmar8089, Last Ride Of The Valkyries, why the caged bird sings, As the Robin Flies, chocolatelover33, owlcity2013, Teddy Lupin, MiraclesHappen94, Shinethedown, Kari Winters, niallsprincess180, PoofPillow, Forever Siriusly Sirius, Guest (1), RoLouG, MaddieMonkey, xSuperNovax, simpson, brilliant incandescence, lilylunaluver, rockon88, and Guest (2).**

**MagicalNinjaUnicorn:** I'm planning on keeping this T because I'd like this to be able to been seen by a wide variety of ages from 13+, and I feel that I can express everything I need to with the T rating. If I need to change it I will inform everyone, but I don't think I will be changing it.

**Last Ride Of The Valkyries:** Some things affect people differently than others. Her birthday might affect Victoire more because so many of her family have been through such horrific events, and even if they didn't all happen on the same day, the day pretty much symbolizes everything that happened. Like how Remembrance Day (or Veterans in America) remembers and memorializes everyone who has fought in all wars, not just WWI or WWII.

**why the caged bird sings:** Remembrance day was actually the comparison that I was thinking of when i first got the idea of how Victoire would react, because I always wondered how someone would feel being born on Remembrance Day, but I changed the analogy in the last chapter to 9/11 because I thought it would be a little more well known because I'm not sure how many of my readers would know what Remembrance day is, or that it's the same as Veterans day and Armistice day.

**MaddieMonkey:** Aww, thanks. And I'm as far as Tasha's reasonings go, well they're not very important in the big picture. Will she show up in this fic? Probably not. May she show up somewhere else . . . well if I ever get to it she may.

**xSuperNovax:** I'm fine if you take my Teddy for yourself, however, there are probably a lot of other readers here that would be upset if you took Teddy all for yourself ;)

**simpson:** Thanks :) I love it when new reader's join us on our journey.

**brilliant incandescence:** Why thank you, I'm glad you can see my may.

**lilylunaluver:** Yay! another new reader! Welcome and enjoy :)

**rockon88:** I hope this chapter fell under 'fun', and was up to your expectations.

**DFTBA everyone! :)**


	84. Visitors Part Three

**A/N:** Well it's Victoria Day here in Canada so I thought I'd update for everyone! (Whether you're Canadian or not ;) Hope everyone who is though, enjoyed their long weekend.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything that resembles JKR's Harry Potter.

* * *

**Visitors Part Three**

Ally had gracefully forgiven Victoire for not telling her the truth about the change in date. And it had only taken the promise on Victoire's part to be her assistant when she went to practice in the dungeons for her Potions exam near the end of May. Victoire would have promised her much more but Ally had rationally listened to Victoire's explanation and couldn't fault her too much when she heard that Flannery had forbid them to tell anyone. (Although she did ask why Victoire had picked that instance to actually do as Flannery told them.)

The two days left in between the third of May and the sixth went by quickly for Victoire with one night full of a Quidditch practice –their semi-final game against Hufflepuff would be the weekend after the task- and the other, the night before the task, being taken up by patrol with Colton Knott. Surprisingly, Colton hadn't tried to insult her or get her riled up over the upcoming task; in fact, he hardly spoke two words to her the entire night. And she couldn't help but wonder if he'd refrained from speaking to her because she was obviously distracted with thought of the task the next day.

When Victoire woke up on the morning of the sixth, she wasn't very surprised to see that she was the only one left in the room. It had taken her forever to get to sleep the night before, and she had been exhausted when she'd finally succumbed to slumber. She was a little surprised that Sandra wasn't still in the room, but was glad when she realized that her best mate probably figured out that she'd want a few minutes to herself when she woke up before she had to get into her mindset for the upcoming task.

Victoire took her time as she changed into the same black track pants and short-sleeved black and red tee shirt that she'd worn for the first task. After double knotting her trainers to her feet, she left her dorm and took the stairs down to the Common room.

"Victoire!"

Victoire stumbled a bit when she felt Ally jump at her as she gave her a hug, but she didn't have time to worry about falling because she quickly felt more pairs of arms going around her and squeezing her into a group hug.

"Can't –Breath –Too –Tight," Victoire managed to wheeze out with what little air was left in her lungs when she felt her friends beginning to crush her into an even tighter hug.

After hearing her speak, the arms quickly dropped and they all took a step away from her to give her space. Once she'd caught up on her breathing she looked up to see her friends and was excited to see that there were four people staring back at her instead of three.

"Xavier!" Victoire yelled when she jumped at him with a hug. He laughed and caught her before spinning her around in a circle.

"Hi Vic."

When she let go she gave him a big smile, "You don't know how glad I am that you're here."

Xavier raised an eyebrow at her, "Did you really miss me that much?"

"No, Ally just wouldn't stop talking about you and it was starting to get annoying," Victoire teased her cousin.

Ally's face went red. She knew that Victoire was joking –partly- but she had been talking about Xavier often in the past two days.

Xavier grinned widely and wrapped his arms around Ally to pull her to him. He raised her head up with a finger under her chin, so she had no choice but to look at him, "Really?"

She nodded her head, her cheeks turning even redder. He smirked at her before pressing a kiss to her lips, "I've missed you too."

"Well if I felt like eating earlier I'd say that my appetite has just disappeared," Victoire commented dryly even though she was having a hard time keeping the smile off her face as she watched them.

"C'mon Vic, you should really eat something. You have no idea how long this task's going to take," Kyle told her wrapping an arm around her shoulder in a comforting way.

Victoire shook her head at him.

Xavier shot her a look over Ally's head, "Not even if that something was bacon?"

Victoire felt her stomach rumble, "Maybe . . . but I really don't want to go down to the Great Hall and see everyone . . . speaking of. How did Xavier get in here? He's technically not a student anymore?"

Xavier shrugged, "None of the Professors told me that I couldn't come up here today. So I'll be here until someone tells me I can't."

"Back to breakfast though, we can go straight to the kitchens if you don't want to see everyone," Sandra suggested.

Victoire shook her head again, "No. I don't think I can even handle dealing with the houselves."

"Well it's a good thing then that you have such a fantastic younger brother," a voice called as they heard someone walk into the otherwise empty Common room.

Louis came in with a bright smile on his face and with a bacon sandwich on a plate. He held it out to Victoire, "I'd say that you didn't have to thank me, but that'd be a lie. I want to be thanked."

Victoire took the plate with a smile but rolled her eyes at her brother. She opened her mouth to say something but was stopped by another voice.

"It wasn't your idea Louis! It was mine," Cecilia complained as she walked into the room with her arms crossed against her chest.

Louis pouted at her, "But I need those extra points Cecilia. You don't. She already loves you more than she likes me."

Victoire laughed, "Some days that is very true. Hey Xavier, want to switch siblings for the summer?"

Xavier chuckled, "Nah, depending on how the baby acts when it's born I might need Cecilia as a buffer."

"C'mon Victoire. Eat the food already, you need to have something," Sandra tried again.

Victoire gave her a playful salute before eating the sandwich, halfway through she stopped and gave her friends and odd look, "Don't you guys need to eat too?"

"Nah, we ate earlier this morning, we figured that you'd sleep in a bit and that when you woke up you wouldn't want to go to the Great Hall and eat with us," Kyle replied.

Victoire nodded at him before going back to finish the food. She'd just vanished the empty plate away when Louis exclaimed, "Oh! Vic I'm supposed to tell you that Teddy told me that he wants to see you."

"When was this?" Victoire asked hurriedly.

"About an hour ago?"

Victoire groaned and looked down at the watch on her wrist. She only had about two hours before the task was supposed to start, and she was supposed to go down to the Quidditch pitch and to where she was told to meet Minister Flannery and all of the other champions.

"That would have been good information to know about an hour ago Louis," Victoire told him before saying a quick goodbye to her friends and running out of the Common room.

She knew that it was rude to just leave her friends like that, but she also knew that she'd be able to see them right before the task started during designated visiting hours. As for Teddy, he had told her that Kingsley had arranged that only the fully qualified aurors would be security for this last task because he especially didn't want something to go wrong. Because of this Teddy would technically be 'off work' today, and would be expected to watch the task with the rest of the family, and not stay with her until she had to go do the task. She knew she could see him during visiting hours, but she would be seeing him with all of her family present and she wanted to talk to him without everyone else watching them.

She could hear the aurors who had been stationed outside of Gryffindor tower, running behind her as they tried to catch up. She muttered under her breath. She hadn't thought ahead about running out of the Common room like that and how it would look to the aurors. She decided to ignore them and figured that Teddy would be able to send them away or something when she finally _did_ find him.

She had just streaked past a girl's lavatory when she felt an arm reach out and grab her. Suddenly she was hidden in a secret passage behind a tapestry beside the lavatory, and she had a pair of lips pressing forcefully against her lips.

She threw her arms around the guy's neck and tangled her fingers into his hair as she kissed back with just as much force. She felt herself being walked backward until she felt her back meet the wall. The body in front of her didn't stop moving forward even though she couldn't move back anymore. The movement brought the man's body to press tightly against hers, and if she hadn't recognized the feel of the man's lips earlier when he'd kissed her, she definitely recognized the feel of his body against hers and the automatic heat that spread through her body by touching him.

The lips against her mouth sucked her bottom lip in between them and she moaned and ended up pulling harder at his hair. The man's hands went to the back of her thighs and she realized what he was trying to do. She jumped a bit and wrapped her legs around his waist so he didn't have to bend his head anymore to keep their mouths connected.

When her breathing started to come in pants, she broke her mouth away from his so she could start to breath regularly. She also didn't think that fainting from a lack of oxygen would be fun when things were just starting to get good.

Teddy had started peppering kisses across her face when she stared breathing and he spoke to her in between kisses, "Promise me you'll be careful today?"

She nodded her head before he attacked her mouth again with a scorching kiss. She slipped her tongue into his mouth and felt his tangle with hers as she trailed one of her hands down from his head, around his neck and shoulder, and to his chest where she clutched at the fabric of his shirt. She was trying to pull him closer to her even though she figured that it would be physically impossible by now.

One of Teddy's hands was still wrapped around the underside of her thigh while the other was gently cupping the back of her head and trying not to twist into her locks and ruin the braid that she had done her hair into. He shivered when he felt her teeth nip gently at his bottom lip before swiping her tongue across it to ease the sting of pain.

After a minute, he pulled his mouth away from hers with a groan and moved the hand on the back of her head a little so that his thumb could reach her cheek. He stroked the skin there as he stared into her darkened blue eyes.

"I don't know what I'm going to do if something happens to you this time. I'm not supposed to be working so it's not like I'll be able to step in like last time. You have to be really, really careful," Teddy told her worry etched across his handsome face.

Victoire felt her heart starting to ache as she saw just how scared he felt for her, "I promise I'll be careful. I won't go looking out for trouble this time. But I can't guarantee that it won't find me."

He stroked her cheek gently as a cautious smile brome across his face, "Well of course it's going to find you, you're last name is Weasley after all. I was just worried about you inviting extra trouble in."

"I promise if I hear a knock that I'll look through the peephole first," Victoire told him with a small smile.

He grinned back and pressed a sweet kiss against her lips. When he pulled back he helped Victoire down onto her feet.

"Merlin! What are my aurors going to think? They haven't seen me for a while," Victoire said her eyes wide. She could care less about worrying her aurors about her absence, she was afraid that they'd be close and would see her when she left the passage.

"Calm down, those aurors are not what you need to worry about now. But because I know you are worrying, I'll tell you that Harry's the auror who's supposed to be following you as of five minutes ago," Teddy told her soothingly.

Victoire cast a glance down at the face of her watch and saw that it was usually time for the aurors to switch off on patrols.

Teddy continued, "They will have assumed that you went into the washroom, and since neither of them are female, they aren't allowed in. Harry would have come by five minutes ago and told them that he would take over waiting for you and then take you down to the pitch."

"How do you know this?"

"Because that's what Harry told me the plan was," Teddy told her with a smile.

Victoire rolled her eyes. Of course, they expected her to go running out of the Common room once Louis told her that Teddy was looking for her, probably playing perfectly right into their plan.

"C'mon," he told her grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the passage, but not before giving the hallway a good look first.

"Is it okay to look yet?" Harry asked as he stood a few paces away from them with his hands covering his eyes.

Victoire rolled her eyes and poked her uncle in the stomach.

He pulled his hands away from his face as he flinched away, "Just trying to be respectful."

Teddy rolled his eyes at Harry too, shot both ends of the hall a cursory glance, and pressed a kiss to Victoire's forehead before making a motion to leave. Victoire didn't let him go until he told her that he'd see her in ten minutes when the rest of her family would see her on the pitch. After she reluctantly let him go, he gave her a kiss on the temple before leaving.

Harry watched her face slip into a pout as she watched Teddy walk away and shook his head, "And you two thought that you could actually make it through a year without each other?"

Victoire shrugged, "We did it last year."

"Yeah, and you weren't even snogging last year and you were both miserable without each other when you weren't busy with your work," Harry replied.

Victoire thought about her uncle's words. He was right. She did remember feeling sad and thinking about Teddy a lot last year whenever she had free time.

Harry threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug, "Less than two months and you'll graduate and then only work and Healing class will keep you apart."

Victoire nodded her head.

"Now let's get you down to the pitch so your mother and aunts can have a chance to freak out about you one last time before you go in there and win the tournament."

Victoire's head shot up and she gave Harry a smile before letting him walk her to their destination.

* * *

"Promeese Victoire?"

"For the love of Godric Gryffindor, yes Mamma, I promise," Victoire replied starting to get annoyed.

"Repeat wat I said," her mother told her sternly.

"Ugh! Fine. I promise not to jump on a dragon's back, apparate without a wand, attempt to battle a manticore, anger kelpies or the giant squid, or allow myself to be kidnapped to save someone else," Victoire listed off although depending on the seriousness everyone knew that she might break the last one.

Fleur finally cracked a smile, "Good."

Victoire rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath while everyone else around her just started laughing. They knew that Fleur was serious but the look on Victoire's face was just too funny not to laugh at.

"Your face will stick like that if you keep frowning," Xavier told her as he pulled her into a hug.

Victoire placed her hands on his chest –which had gotten _a lot_ more muscular since the last time she'd touched him- and pushed him away, "It'll still be more attractive than yours."

"Ouch," Kyle commented before laughing with everyone else.

Xavier pouted and Victoire patted his cheek condescendingly, "Sorry, but someone had to tell you."

Xavier opened his mouth to say something when Ally leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek, "I don't care that Victoire's more attractive than you."

Everyone laughed at Xavier's expense again as he grabbed Ally by the waist and started to tickle her.

While Xavier was still torturing Ally, Bill walked up to his daughter and pulled her into a hug, "Last task. How're you feeling about it?"

"Excited for it to be over."

"That's the spirit," Ron muttered dryly from beside her.

Victoire winked at him before turning to her Uncle Harry who had just placed his hand on her shoulder, "Remember the strategy you worked out with Professor Cooke?"

"I'm not sure if I'd go as far to call it a strategy, but yes, I remember it," Victoire said.

"I'm wounded Miss Weasley, we spent a good forty-five minutes on that," Professor Cooke said with a smile as he walked into the tent she was standing in with her family and friends.

"Well I'm sorry that it hurt your feelings Professor but it would have been rude of me to lie," Victoire said sweetly.

He rolled his eyes at her before looking more serious, "They're asking everyone to start getting seated. Once that's done they're going to start the task."

"Do we not get to know wat eet eez zis time?" Fleur asked looking at Kingsley who was standing off to the corner of the group.

Kingsley shook his head, "No. Flannery wants it to be a surprise for everyone. He's going to announce it to the champions in front of the crowd right before it starts."

"How melodramatic of him," Victoire muttered rolling her eyes.

"Well we should be going then, wouldn't want someone to steal our seats," Ron said before pulling Victoire into a hug, "Just remember we don't care if you win, make it out of this without getting injured and you'll still have done better than your Mum or Harry."

Victoire laughed at her Ron while her mother and Harry glared at him. Her parents were next to hug her goodbye and to wish her good luck. Her family had decided that only a few –in proportion to the size of their family of course- of them would see Victoire before the task started as not to overwhelm her. Her brother and sister gave her quick hugs after her parents, and then it was her friends' turn.

Sandra told her to kick some arse; Kyle pulled her in for a hug and planted a kiss on her lips before she could pull away from him. He claimed that it was for good luck but she still took her wand out and sent a tripping jinx at him when he moved to stand back beside Sandra. Ally squeezed Victoire into an _incredibly_ tight hug and told her that they'd be cheering for her, and Xavier kissed her on the cheek and refrained from messing up her hair like he had before the first task.

After them, Kingsley came over to her. He pulled her into his strong embrace and she pressed her face into his chest.

"Last go at this kid. How about we do something different this time and you try not to get injured or pass out, okay?" Kingsley asked her.

"Well it'll make it less entertaining for everyone, but since you asked me I'll try," she replied in an easy tone.

Kingsley sighed but gave her a small smile when he pulled away, and kissed her forehead. Harry gave her one more hug and then stepped away leaving Teddy standing closest to Victoire since everyone else was starting to make their way out of the tent.

Victoire bit her lip and looked at him, not entirely sure what she was supposed to do, when he opened his arms wide and she ran into them. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight.

"Make sure to keep your wand during this one. You had a bit of habit of dropping it in the past two tasks," he whispered into her ear.

Victoire's head was in the crook of his neck so he felt it when she nodded at his words.

"Good luck. I know you're going to be amazing. You can do this. And remember, don't go flying off the broom handle," he whispered before pulling away and kissing her temple.

Victoire nodded and watched sadly as her family walked away. She didn't even crack a smile when she heard her father telling Teddy that he'd saved him a seat right in between him and Charlie again. Harry left with them when Professor Cooke told him that he'd watch over her until it was time to start, and then it was just the two of them left.

Victoire looked at Professor Cooke after a minute of silence, "Do you actually think that I can win this?"

Professor Cooke gave her a smile, "I think you have the best chance to win out of all of the champions. If I was going to bet on this tournament, I'd bet on you."

She gave him a bit of a smile, and sat down on a chair near where she'd been standing. After what seemed like twenty minutes, a witch from the department of Magical Sports and Games came by and told them that they were ready for her. She asked her to hold out the arm opposite her wand arm, and she tied an inch thick piece of black cord around her wrist. When she asked what it did, the witch told her that it was something she needed for the task, and that each champion would have one, and then turned around and walked out of the tent, expecting Victoire to follow her.

Professor Cooke had wished her good luck before she left the tent and began walking to the Quidditch pitch.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, so this wasn't very exciting, but I had a chapter like this before all of the other ones so I kinda felt like I had to have one here too.

The next chapter is definitely the third task, and once that starts we're really going to be jumping into the action, so hold onto your hats people.

I'm sorry this update took so long, but the next few chapters had to be written back to back and I couldn't update them until I had the next few done in case I needed to change things, so bare with me for the next little while, please.

However, **NEXT WEEK:** I'm definitely going to update. And it's the third task. And it's lotsa fun. And we also may get to see a little bit of a pregnant Katie Bell, so that'll be fun :)

A** BIG** thanks to everyone who has followed / favourited / read /and reviewed! And followed me on twitter :)

**An especially big thanks too:**

**rockon88, alicenotinwonderland, MaddieMonkey, Thia Lingam, Infinity Lily, cherrybubble, marmar8089, brilliant incandescence, Last Ride Of The Valkyries, Oddliver, Roxas4Ever13, Eighteen Inches, lilylunaluver, pryce123, rarityunicorn, MiraclesHappen94, xSuperNovax, Michaelarules2013, Guest (1), Encypher, zvc56, As the Robin Flies, Forever Siriusly Sirius, StillWaitingForThatLetter, MuggleCreator, Guest (2),** and** smileybox.**

**alicenotinwonderland:** I'm glad you liked it, and thanks. His surgery went perfectly.

**Thia Lingam:** Sorry, but next week will be one time :)

**Infinity Lily:** Thanks. The task will be very exciting, and my brother's surgery went very well.

**Last Ride Of The Valkyries:** Poppy day? I've never actually heard Remembrance day referred as that. Although I guess the name makes sense.

**xSuperNovax:** Wow, love the long review, thanks. And as for the story . . . well Vic and Teddy might not be done when this story's done, but I don't want to make any promises.

**Encypher:** Yay! New reader! And you never know, we may or may not run back into Chris.

**StillWaitingForThatLetter:** First, I love your name, my brother said the same thing two days ago ;). Second, I'm always glad to have new readers, and 9 1/2 hours is pretty good timing. Third, I hope that your feel better now. Fourth, I absolutely love long reviews, but yes, a review of any type helps me write :) Thanks again!

P.S. Yes, Canadians are awesome :)

**smileybox:** Third task will take place in the next chapter, and Quidditch semi-finals are the next week (in the line of the story, not the way chapters are distributed) Gryffindor verses Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw verses Slytherin. The week after that the winners of both games will play off in the finals for the House Cup.

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please Review, and DFTBA!**


	85. The Third Task

**A/N:** Hi, here's the Third Task! Now, I'll tell you right now that when I was writing it, it ran a little long so I had to cut it into two chapters. Next chapter will be out next week.

This chapter might be a little confusing to read because I wrote it as what Teddy sees from the stand as he watches (Kind of like part of the first task) so I hope that you don't get confused reading it :)

Enjoy!

**P.S.** Happy Memorial Day for my American readers :)

* * *

**Third Task**

The seating area for the audience seemed to have doubled in size compared to what it had been at the last task; Teddy would have wondered how they were going to find enough people to fill it. But the fact that it took him and the rest of the Weasleys ten minutes to get through the line-up and show their tickets to one of the wizards who were directing traffic, told him that there wouldn't be many empty seats in either the Quidditch stands or the extra seating that was added. He followed behind Bill and in front of Harry as they walked to the same seating area that had sat in for the first task. Audrey, Ginny, Hermione, Charlie, and the rest of the kids were already seated scattered in the section of about four rows. Teddy spotted Percy up at the judge's platform that was only a few metres away from them, and Harry and Fleur took a minute to speak to their families before going to the platform themselves since they were required to sit there with Viktor Krum and the judges. Kingsley and Ron left a few minutes later to double check on some of the security measures which Teddy had no idea about because they were trying to keep most of them a secret to those who weren't directly involved.

Teddy stopped to give Ginny and Lily a hug before moving down one of the aisles to sit next to Charlie, Bill followed him after he had greeted his parents. Ally and Xavier sat down in the row front of him, beside Louis and Cecilia, while everyone else was getting themselves situated.

"Xavier, are Katie and Oliver coming today?" Angelina asked him.

Xavier looked at her, "Yeah, they should be coming . . . they're probably just running late, you know how they are."

"Yeah," Cecilia piped up, "And if they don't show up by the time the task starts we can just assume that Mum went into labour three weeks early."

"And you sound so excited at that prospect Cecilia," Katie commented as she and Oliver walked up the stairs to their section. Well, Oliver was walking up the stairs; Katie seemed to be doing more of a waddle as she travelled to the row where Angelina and George were sitting.

Cecilia smiled brightly, "I'm only thinking about you Mum, the baby's not due for at least another three weeks."

Katie rolled her eyes and customarily placed a hand on her large and round stomach, "I can't say there's much more room for this baby to go. I feel like I'm going to pop soon."

"Any weird cravings?" Audrey asked her conversationally.

Katie thought for a minute, "Not that I can think of . . ."

Oliver shared a look of disbelief with his son before wrapping an arm around Katie's shoulders and placing a kiss on her temple, "Well then what do you call having me make you a chocolate milkshake at two o'clock in the morning?"

Katie shrugged, "To tell you the truth, I don't think that craving's going to stop once this baby's out."

Oliver chuckled, "Well we're probably going to be up at two in the morning anyway by then so that shouldn't be a problem."

The adults continued to chat while Teddy looked at Ally and Xavier in front of him, "Where are Kyle and Sandra? They were just with us in the tent."

"They were going to find his parents I think," Xavier told him craning his neck a little to see if he could see either Kyle or Sandra in the crowd of people that were still steadily streaming into the seats. It wasn't hard to pick the two out when they finally did show up a few minute later, their Gryffindor coloured attire set them out compared to the surrounding dress robes of the many Ministry bigwigs that were just now claiming their spots in the seating area.

Sandra and Kyle stepped over Louis and Cecilia, and Ally and Xavier to sit in the two empty seats beside Xavier.

"Who's ready to see Victoire kick some arse and win this thing?" Kyle asked jovially as he punched Xavier lightly on the shoulder. Xavier raised an eyebrow at him and smirked at little as Kyle retracted his arm and shook his hand out. The punch had seemed to hurt Kyle more than it did Xavier.

Teddy rolled his eyes but answered Kyle's question because it was directed more towards him, "I just want her to get out of this in one piece. I don't care if she wins."

"Yes, but for the sake of all of us, we should hope she wins. Because if she does, and then we act less than excited for her we're going to be the ones in trouble," Kyle said as he smoothly tossed an arm over Sandra's shoulders.

Ally nodded, "Very good point. Did you end up finding your parents?"

"No, they'll be here soon though, they actually got seats in our section this time, so they shouldn't have to sit elsewhere," Kyle told her.

"Which also means that we won't be subject to the Knotts' _delightful _presence again?" Katie asked hearing the tail end of the younger Gryffindors' conversation.

Kyle opened his mouth to answer, but a pretentious voice behind them beat him to it.

"Well I'm sorry Bell but it seems like you're day will be enriched with our presence after all."

Teddy turned his head and saw Kyle's parents, along with Colton Knott and his parents standing on the stairs beside the rows he and the Weasleys were sitting in.

"Well now _I_ feel like I'm going to vomit. But oddly enough, I'm pretty sure it's because of the sight of your face, Creighton, and not morning sickness," Katie said as she crossed her arms against her chest.

Mr. Knott rolled his eyes and gave Katie a scathing look before turning to look at Mr. and Mrs. Line, "Are you sure you want to stay down here slumming with the Weasleys and the Woods?"

"Yes, because our ideals of equality and tolerance for all definitely equates us with rubbish," Katie said sarcastically.

"Glad that you understand," Mr. Knott said with a smirk, "Of course your shoddy Quidditch playing is always a factor to consider."

"Apparently I'm a good enough Quidditch player to beat you on the pitch," Katie said reminding him of one of the games they'd played against each other at Hogwarts, "And I guess I'm also good enough to have been offered a spot on a professional team."

Creighton Knott rolled his eyes, "What? You played for barely a year before you got pregnant with your eldest, and then for about three years before you became knocked up with your second and quit Quidditch. You can barely call that a professional Quidditch career. Although I will say that, it _was _smart of you to leave the bread winning to your husband where the job belongs. For some reason half of the Wizarding world actually believes that, he's a good enough player."

"Really _Cretin_? Well we wouldn't want you to feel as though you were slumming it too, so how about you just fu-" Katie's tirade was cut off by Oliver's large hand as it unceremoniously covered her mouth.

His other hand moved around her waist and sat tenderly on top of her round baby bump, "Pregnancy hormones," he offered as an explanation and excuse. He didn't so much as want to apologize to the Knotts as he wanted to prevent Katie from getting into a screaming match with them and causing her an the baby unneeded stress.

Mr. Knott gave Oliver's bright smile a dubious look but didn't do anything else but roll his eyes.

The silence was almost more awkward than the previously charged conversation, and it seemed that the only people with the proper manners to distill the uncomfortableness were Mr. and Mrs. Line.

"Well," Mr. Knott began in breezy tone as he gave the Knotts a polite smile, "Thank you for the company as we walked but we should probably get our seats since the task will most likely start soon."

"You're very right Marshall," Mrs. Line said as she gave her husband a smile. Afterwards she shot a glance down the row at her son, "Now Kyle, come give your mother a hug."

Kyle's face turned red in embarrassment but he stood up from his seat and walked over to follow through with his mother's request –dragging Sandra by the hand with him. The Knotts were just about to leave and find their own seats higher up in the stands, when Kyle pulled Sandra close enough to them for to see the ostentatious emerald necklace her neck. Mrs. Knott gasped incredulously when she saw Mrs. Line pull Sandra into a tight hug after she relinquished her hold on Kyle.

Mrs. Line saw that Mrs. Knott's eyes were closely scrutinizing the family heirloom that her son had given his girlfriend and smiled sweetly at her, "Is there a problem Allegra?"

There was no doubt that Mrs. Line, nor Mr. Line who had joined in inspecting Sandra and her choice of jewelry, recognized the necklace and understood what it meant for her to be wearing it.

Mrs. Line shot Colton a look that said, 'How-could-you-not-tell-me-beforehad-about-this-pi ece-of-gossip', before giving Sandra a withering glare and answering Mrs. Line's question, "No, no problem Geneviève, just a very large and confusing surprise."

Kyle frowned at her and opened his mouth to defend his girlfriend when a loud booming voice filled the stadium and effectively stopped his argument.

"If everyone will please be seated the Third Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament is about to begin!"

Mrs. Knott gave Mrs. Line and Sandra one last acerbic glance before turning around and continuing up the stairs to find her seat with her husband and son.

Before they were completely out of hearing range, Katie spoke up irritated, "I hate them."

"Hate's a strong word Love," Oliver told her as he helped her into her seat, her large stomach had started to make it difficult for her to get seating in more constricting spots.

"Yet completely appropriate when referring to those two plonkers," Katie reasoned as Mrs. Line and Mr. Line sat down next to her.

"I wish I could say that they aren't always like that, but they usually are," Mrs. Line sighed.

As the rest of the stragglers started to be seated, Kyle and Sandra stepped over Cecilia, Louis, Ally, and Xavier's feet to get back to their seats. Teddy leaned forward so that it would be easier to speak to them.

"What was that whole thing with Mrs. Line about?" he asked. He'd been watching the interaction and was confused by the hidden subtext of the conversation.

Sandra gave Teddy a considering glance as she lightly ran her fingers along the emerald of her necklace, "Didn't Vic tell you?"

Teddy shot her a perplexed look, "Tell me what?"

"WELCOME EVERYONE TO THE THIRD TASK OF THIS YEAR'S TRI-WIZARD TOURNAMENT!"

Sandra glanced quickly to the raised part of the judges' platform where Flannery was making his way to where the magical microphone stood before looking back at Teddy, "It'll hold. We'll tell you the good news after the Victoire is named winner of the task."

Teddy nodded at her words even though she'd turned back to face the large screens before she'd be able to see it.

* * *

Teddy looked at where Flannery was standing at the platforms instead of the larger picture of the screen in front of him. He knew he was minutes away from seeing Victoire and he didn't want his last glance at her before she started the task to be the streamed image on the screen. He wanted a real look at her, even if she was smaller, and a little harder to make out than normal.

Flannery spoke to the crowd, "Hello everyone. Please join me in welcoming this year's Tri-Wizard Champions. Mlle. Noëlle Varens from Beauxbatons Academy."

There was a loud applause as Noëlle walked to stand just behind Flannery on the judges platform.

"Mr. Konstantin Krum from Durmstrang Institute."

The clapping didn't end until Konstantin stopped a few feet away from Noëlle."

"And lastly, Miss Victoire Weasley."

The crowd went wild at the first sight of Victoire, and Teddy could hear Kyle and Ally whistle loudly from their seats in front of him, and he could even make out Dom's high-pitched and incredulous voice as she yelled.

"WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND ALLOWED HER TO WEAR THOSE DINGY TRAINERS?"

In front of him, he heard Ally and Sandra giggling. Obviously, they encouraged Victoire to put on her older pair of running shoes this morning when she was getting ready, despite the fact that Dom had a grudge against them.

"And know," Flannery said in a louder tone as he attempted to re-capture the attention of the crowd, "To announce today's task."

The crowd went quiet and Teddy watched Victoire thoroughly as Flannery opened his mouth again.

"The theme of today's task is earth, and that will be demonstrated with today's activity," Flannery waved his wand and three holes roughly 2 metres each in diameter and about 2 metres apart from each other materialized in the middle of the Quidditch pitch.

"Each of those tunnels leads to a different section of a series of interconnected tunnels underneath the entirety of Hogwarts grounds. Somewhere near the middle of the series of tunnels will be the Tri-Wizard Cup. The rules are easily enough, first person to find and grab the cup wins. The minute someone lays a hand on the cup, all three champions will be transported via a charmed piece of cord on their wrists, back onto this platform. The champions will have to battle a series of dangerous creatures and such as the navigate the underground tunnels to get to the cup, and each step they take will be on the large screens to the front so that everyone will be able to see."

Teddy moved his view from Victoire and Flannery at the front to the large screen in front of him. The screen was broken up into three sections, each one showing a different champion's face as Flannery spoke, and he figured that that was how the rest of the task would look to them.

"Now if the Champions would please go and stand next to their designated entrance," Flannery said not even bothering to look at the champions behind him.

Teddy could see Victoire roll her eyes before she followed Konstantin and Noëlle out onto the pitch. Victoire stood right before the hole in the middle with Konstantin on her left and Noëlle on her right.

"And, begin!" Flannery yelled. Noëlle and Konstantin both had slightly apprehensive looks on their faces as they tried to ease themselves into the pitch black holes, Victoire on the other hand grabbed her wand form the holster on her left leg and jumped right in.

Teddy's head quickly shot up along with the rest of the Weasleys' as he looked at the centre panel of the screen.

The hole Victoire had jumped into must have been pitch black because the screen was showing nothing. If he didn't see anything on the screen in the next few minutes, he would probably start to worry. Although the muttered swear words that he heard mumbled from either side of him told him that both Bill and Charlie were way ahead of him on that task.

Thankfully, Teddy thought, a minute later a light thump was heard, and the black screen became illuminated. On the screen, Victoire held out her lit wand ahead of her and walked around in a tiny circle to see what was around. Teddy's eyes searched her form minutely to make sure that there was no mark on her, he wasn't sure exactly how far down in the ground she was, or how far she had to fall. As he watched Victoire move around he saw an opening in the dirt wall of the cave just behind her. It looked like the bottom of the slide, and he assumed that that was how she had gotten there, instead of just falling straight down.

On the screen, Victoire frowned before muttering a spell. A second later the tunnel she was in lit up and she was able to see the three tunnels around her better. On the walls, a few feet apart were brackets filled with torches. Her spell had conjured up a flame and lit all of the ones in her vicinity up so she didn't have to hold her wand aloft to see around her anymore. The tunnels around her were nondescript walls of dark, almost black, dirt. There was a tunnel leading off to her left, one to her right, and one in the middle. Neither Konstantin nor Noëlle were anywhere to be seen or heard on Victoire screen, but a quick glance to the other two's screen told Teddy that they were both just figuring out their lighting problem like Victoire had. The other two were nowhere in sight of each other either.

Victoire sighed as she glanced at the three tunnels.

"So the cup is in the middle, well might as well start with the middle tunnel then. But how to mark the way so I know where I've been . . ." Teddy heard her voice muse as her figure on the screen placed a finger to her chin in a universal gesture that denoted that she was thinking.

In front of him, Teddy heard Kyle and Xavier talking.

"Three galleons says she leaves a trail on the ground behind her," Kyle was saying with a smirk.

"Because that worked so well with Hansel and Gretel," Sandra commented dryly.

Kyle gave her an odd look, "Who are Hansel and Gretel?"

Sandra rolled her eyes at her boyfriend while Ally laughed and Xavier snickered, "Muggle fairy tale. You really need to learn more about muggles mate. But back to that bet I say she leaves marks on the walls."

Ally giggled at the both of the boys, "Well if I know my cousin she's going to do something that won't be able to be covered or wiped away so easily, something she can still control when she's walked away from it."

"What in the world would that be Ally?" Kyle asked not entirely sure what she was getting at.

Ally turned around to look at Teddy. She had a black brow raised on her forehead, "What are the chances she takes a page from Theseus and the Labyrinth?"

"Well she'd need a magical spool of thread for that one so I don't know-" Teddy's comment was stopped when he felt Bill elbow him in the arm. He smirked at the younger man and pointed to the screen in front of them which his daughter was using her wand to slice her black track pants at the knee and unwind the thread on them. She waved her wand a little and the pieces of black fabric unwound only to wind back up into a ball of fabric that quickly changed to a shiny bright gold colour. She took the end of the thread and went up to one of the brackets that held a lit torch. She wrapped the thread around the bottom of the bracket twice before she started forward into the middle tunnel, with the ball of thread in one hand and her wand at the ready in another.

"She really likes to be dramatic doesn't she?" Xavier asked with a smirk in his tone.

"It's a good idea so she doesn't get turned around," Sandra defended.

"Yeah, and now we get to look at her fantastic calves," Kyle said brightly.

Ally, Xavier, and Sandra all started to laugh while Teddy shook his head. Kyle just loved riling Victoire up. He looked back up to the screen and watched intently as Victoire forayed deeper into the tunnels.

Roughly, fifteen minutes had passed and Victoire had taken a few wrong turns here and there, but for the most part, she was following the tunnels deeper in, and hadn't come across her own golden thread yet. She'd been pretty safe, and the scariest moment so far had been when she ran into a patch of _Brugemannisia_, a large batch of vine-like crawlers that contained a series of white drooping flowers that held a dangerous raw poison that produced an amnesia-like effect on any person who came into contact with it.

Teddy had no idea what the plants were when he saw it on the screen and was surprised when Victoire suddenly stopped in front of it instead of just walking through the large pit of it. When Ally had gasped loudly at the sight and started bouncing up and down anxiously in her seat, he, along with Xavier, Sandra, and Kyle told her to spill.

Ally hadn't been able to pull her eyes away from the screen, but she quickly told the others about the properties of the plant and that she'd had Victoire help her with an extra credit potion for class and that the poison from the flower was an ingredient. The plant wasn't one that Teddy had studied in Herbology, and Xavier had told him that it wasn't one that he had been told to study for class this year either.

Victoire had ended up putting a spell on her shoes that allowed her to walk along the wall of the tunnel as opposed to the ground that was covered in vines. She made it past the vines without problem, took the spell of her shoes, and began running along the rest of the tunnel.

Teddy thanked Merlin that Victoire had helped Ally with her potion and had recognized the plant because her getting knocked out of the race for the cup because of a miniscule plant would have been something that she wouldn't have been happy about.

"This seems way to easy," the Victoire on the screen, mused and in his seat, Teddy agreed with her. She'd navigated tunnels and ran into a semi-dangerous plant but it was the last task of the Tournament, there had to be more to come.

Victoire kicked a chunk of dirt when the tunnel she was then following ended in a dead-end. She'd been doing rather well but the last few turns she'd taken, all ended in dead-ends, and it was obvious she was getting frustrated.

"Fine. I guess it's time to take out that half-finished map and see what it says," Victoire complained on screen. She reached down to the holster on her left thigh and pulled out the folded map she'd found during the first task. Whatever camera they were using for to follow, her didn't have the best zoom, so the map looked like a brown and beige blur. Victoire seemed to get something out of it though, because after staring at it for two minutes her eyes lit up and she retraced her steps outside of the dead-end to the next closest tunnel. She jogged into the tunnel and kept taking the next few corners sharply as she entered a series of tunnels before quickly exiting them into another.

She started to slow down after she'd be jogging through a rather straight tunnel. Teddy couldn't see anything on the screen near Victoire, but she must have had a feeling that something was going to happen because she started to tense up and she clutched her wand tighter in her hand.

Victoire took a few more cautious steps before she came to a sharp 90-degree turn in the corner. She stopped where she was, looked down at the ground and swore in French.

Teddy followed her gaze and saw a small collection of dirty off-white objects along the ground in front of her.

"Are those . . . ?" Ally trailed off her face turning a little green.

"Bones," Xavier finished for her, but not in the cute couple-y way.

"They don't look like human bones, though. From that size I'd say a large bird, like a turkey."

Teddy whipped his head around along with the four in front of him and stared at the largely pregnant Katie Bell who was staring interestedly at the screen.

"Mum, how would you even . . . ?" Xavier asked not able to finish his sentence.

Katie looked at her son, "Well it's obviously not chicken, or pigeon bones; they're smaller."

Xavier opened his mouth but shut it without saying anything, he decided that he'd probably not want to know how his mother was able to identify the bones from where she sat.

Back on the screen, Victoire was looking between the bones on the ground and the corner she'd yet to move around. From where Teddy sat he could start to hear a low rumbling sound and assumed that it was coming from the other side of the corner.

"Well let's see what my daughter does next. There are bones on the ground and a suspicious and scary sound coming from around the corner, what will she do?" Bill asked sarcastically as he folded his arms against his chest.

"Well if she has any Weasley in her at all she's going to go running right around that corner," Charlie answered.

"Agreed," several voices around Teddy, answered.

Teddy sighed and looked back up on the big screen. It seemed the majority vote won and Victoire moved closer to the corner. Thankfully, she didn't run right in, she backed up against the corner and peeked around it instead.

The camera followed her view so when she swore in French again, Teddy could see what it was about. Lying three metres around the corner was a giant troll. If he stood, he would be just under the height of the tunnel and was just as wide. The rumbling sound they'd heard grew louder and was obviously coming from the chest of the troll.

"Is that troll asleep?" Sandra asked looking at the sleeping mass of troll that was blocking the rest of the tunnel.

"A sleeping troll? Seriously?" Victoire asked on the screen.

"Looks like you've got your answer Sandy," Kyle told her before everyone looked back at the screen.

Victoire sighed, "Cavern trolls. Look scary but they sleep seventeen hours a day."

She tilted her head to look at the troll again, "But awake or not, it's blocking my way."

"Well if I'm awake it might as well be too," Victoire commented before waving her wand and causing a loud cracking sound like that of a firecracker.

The troll jolted awake with a loud roar and stumbled to its feet, swinging its burly arms as it moved. Victoire had to dodge the swinging limbs because even though the troll wasn't purposely aiming for her, space was tight.

"Did she actually just wake a sleeping cavern troll?" Bill asked exasperatedly.

"Yes. But to be fair, that wasn't on the list of things you told her not to do," Teddy said.

"Well I figured she'd be able to understand that anything close to something that Harry, Ron, and Hermione did when they were younger would probably be off limits," Bill grumbled.

Teddy didn't respond because the screen had captured his attention again. The troll was just figuring out what had woken him up and was glaring angrily at the wand in Victoire's hand. It picked up a piece of wood that Teddy blatantly realized was fashioned like a club and swung at Victoire.

The club was aimed low so Victoire jump over it as it swung at her and flipped backwards, landing in a low crouch on her feet. The surprised look on her face told everyone that she was just as shocked as they were that she'd completed the move without hurting herself.

She straightened up quickly and looked at the troll she smiled at it and confused pretty much everyone who was watching.

"Hey," she said quietly yet confidently, "Sorry I woke you up."

"Is she trying to apologize to the troll?" Xavier asked incredulously.

"Shhh!" Ally scolded him; she wanted to hear what Victoire said next.

"You know, that's an interesting toy you have there," Victoire said smiling winningly at the troll and gesturing to the club, "May I see it?"

"Is she flirting with the troll?" Kyle asked dubiously.

"SHHHH!" That time it was Sandra.

The troll looked at Victoire with an oddly blank look on his face before holding his hand out and pointing the club to her direction Victoire reached out with her hand opposite the one holding her wand and grabbed the club. She slowly loosened it from troll's hand and threw it behind her. It skidded on the dirt floor of the tunnel and ended near the 90-degree corner.

The troll didn't even blink and just kept staring at her.

"Well I guess we can assume that the troll is male then," Xavier said still not entirely sure of what he was seeing.

"Very true, the look on its face is kinda like the look Pennington gets when he looks at her," Kyle commented.

"Shut up!" Both of the girls cried in unison this time. Teddy barely had time to watch the four's antics because at that moment the troll decided to lung forward and try to grab Victoire with its large hands.

Victoire dogged the limbs again but because of the tight space, she ended up throwing herself into the wall of the tunnel. Teddy thought he saw her head hit the wall followed by an echoed thump, but she was back on her feet so quickly he didn't have time to ascertain that what he saw was correct.

Victoire had gotten past the troll because it had taken a few more steps toward her that she dodged and she was no one the other side of the tunnel. She turned back around so that she wouldn't have her back to the troll and saw it staring at her with a possessive look on its' face.

"Bugger, I used too much magic," Victoire sighed before turning her back on the troll and sprinting away from it. There was corner very close to her so she took it and kept running. The minute the troll was out of sight a loud growl echoed through the tunnel and a loud thumping sound started. Teddy assumed that the sounds meant that the troll was angry that Victoire had gotten away from him, and that he was beginning to follow her.

"How fast can trolls run?" Cecilia asked from her spot next to Xavier.

"Um, I'm not sure," Xavier told her honestly, "But Victoire's fast; she should be fine, especially if she takes a few turns into different tunnels."

"But I think we're forgetting the fact that she's still got that gold coloured string following her around and marking everywhere she'd been," Sandra said.

"Bloody hell."

Another look at the screen showed Victoire running into another dead-end. She turned so that the wall was at her back and held her wand clutched tightly in her hand as the troll came running into the tunnel. When it saw Victoire a look similar to a smile came across its' face.

Victoire swallowed thickly as it slowly approached her, "Listen I'm sorry about waking you from your nap and that little bit of Veela-magic-thing that made you give me your club, but really I don't think I'm your type. I mean if you gave me the opportunity I'd probably sleep for longer seventeen hours a day and that's not fun. Plus, I have horrible table manners, I mean you're probably a more attractive eater than I am-"

Xavier couldn't help but snicker at that even though it earned him an elbow in the stomach from Ally.

"Not to mention," Victoire continued as she clutched her wand tighter, "You really can't take me anywhere. And I don't do well with other magical creatures, or other people really. And imagine what your mother would say if you brought me home, nothing nice really. Parents don't like me; they take one look at me and think I'm airheaded and flighty."

"She does realize that the troll probably has no idea what she's saying, right?" Kyle asked.

Sandra shrugged, "Maybe it just likes listening to her voice?"

That may have been, but it seemed like the troll wanted more from her than her voice because it kept coming closer to her.

"Seriously, I'm not worth all this fuss and I'm extremely high maintenance," Victoire said trying to reason with the troll.

The troll took another step and Victoire sighed, "Fine, but don't say I didn't try to give you an out. _Reducto!_"

She pointed her wand at the floor just underneath the troll and after a loud cracking sound; it started to give way. The troll let out a strangled yelling sound but it couldn't move because the ground underneath him was giving way to fast. It fell down and Teddy watched as the earth began to swallow the body of the troll. The troll stopped moving down when it was buried to about its' shoulder height. Some rocks from the ceiling fell as a residual from the spell Victoire had cast and buried the troll's shoulders and body in even deeper.

After the ceiling stopped shedding Victoire released herself from the protective bubble she'd cast above her head to protect her from the falling rocks and she considered the troll, "I told you to stop. Although if you ask some of the blokes from my school they'll tell you that I let you off easy with this."

She listened to the troll growl for a second and struggle to get out. When she saw that he couldn't she delicately stepped around its' head and began to walk back out of the dead-end tunnel to find another to go into. She unraveled the map again and studied it for a minute.

"Is she seriously just acting like that was no big deal?" Louis asked shocked from his seat next to Cecilia.

"It's Victoire, what else do you expect Louis?" Dom spoke up from her seat in the row in front of him.

"Let's hope that that troll is the worst thing she'll have to run into to finish this task," Charlie muttered from beside Teddy.

He couldn't really help but agree with Charlie. He looked back up to the screen just in time to hear a blood-curdling scream.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, now I know it wasn't nice of me to leave it as a cliffie, but hey, now you're guaranteed to get the next chapter on time next week because I already have it written!

Oh, and I apologize for any spelling/grammar errors in this I've had a tough past couple of days. I woke up on Friday and got sick, good thing I was already scheduled to have a check-up with my family doctor or that could have meant a trip to emerg. And then when I got to the doctor's and he confirmed that it was just a bit of a virus, I showed him a bite mark on my leg that I'd gotten over the weekend, and he told me that it was a tick bite and now I'm on antibiotics for three weeks just in case.

Oh well, reviews will help me feel better :)

A Big thanks to everyone who has** followed / favourited / reviewed/ or just read it** :)

**Next Week:** We get to find out who screamed and the end of the third task!

And an especially BIG Thank You too:

**lilylunaluver, Eighteen Inches, Oddliver, brilliant incandescence, owlcity2013, marmar8089, Guest (1), niallsprincess180, Ace of Hate, MiraclesHappen94, chocolatelover33, why the caged bird sings, Encypher, Infinity Lily, MuggleCreator, Guest (2), MaddieMonkey, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, incendio, Forever Siriusly Sirius, Em, rockon88, **and **1retf, **

**lilylunaluver:** Apology accepted?

**owlcity2013:** I would love some cookies but I just took some antibiotics so I can't eat for another hour. Oh well, more for you.

**Guest (1):** If it was a _Hunger Games_ reference, then it was unintentional. Even if the books and movie were fabulous.

**Ace of Hate:** Ahh, well thank you.

**MiraclesHappen94:** Trust me, if I could find a Teddy I wouldn't be spending so much of my time writing this ;)

**why the caged bird sings:** Thank you! And yes I do like the May long-weekend, although I liked it more when I was in elementary and high school, in university you're already out by then.

**Forever Siriusly Sirius:** Thanks. And you could always Google Victoria Day in Canada, but it's in celebration of Queen Victoria's birthday but over the years it's changed to mean different things, and since they date changes to make sure it's a Monday, sometimes it coincides with the U.S's Memorial Day. A lot of people consider it really the beginning of spring (Because there's a smaller chance of getting a frost after the date) so it's a big gardening weekend. People do parties and fireworks sometimes, I live near the Ridaeu Cannal so that's when the locks officially open on it and people can start boating. But it's only a STAT holiday in B.C., Ontario, and Saskatchewan, a general holiday in Alberta, Manitoba, Nunavut, Yukon, and the NWT, and in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and P.E.I. each provincial government has a different rule on its observances. In Quebec, because they have to be different, the day's name is changed to National Patriot's Day and commemorates the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837, but they do it on the same day so that everyone who lives in Gatineau but works in Ottawa doesn't get confused (JK, but Quebec can't have too many more provincial holidays than the other provinces and they already do things differently than everyone else. And possibly only people from Canada, mostly Ontario will get that comment either. oh well).

**rockon88:** Oh trust me, I know about poppies. Made one every year for craft in November, and in Gr.12 I cut out about three hundred ruler sized ones for our Remembrance Day Assembly. In fact, one of the reason's why the poppy was made to be a symbol is because of the poem in "Flanders Fields" (In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row . . .) written by Canadian army physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae**. **Trust me, we Canadian's know our poppies just as much as most of us have that poem memorized by about the time we graduate high school. But I can honestly say that I've just never heard it refereed to as Poppy Day. Interesting fact, thanks.

**1retf:** Aww, well thanks.

**Thanks, for reading and DFTBA!**


	86. Third Task Part Two

**A/N:** Here's the new chapter :)

**Last chap: **_"Let's hope that that troll is the worst thing she'll have to run into to finish this task," Charlie muttered from beside Teddy._

_He couldn't really help but agree with Charlie. He looked back up to the screen just in time to hear a blood-curdling scream. _

* * *

**Third Task Part Two**

A quick glance at Victoire's screen told him that it wasn't her, his eyes scanned for the first time the screens beside Victoire's on it Noëlle had been surprised by some large creature that looked like a piece of clay come to life. As he watched, the creature grabbed Noëlle by the ankle and held her up upside down. As it held her, his body seemed to take more of a shape and began to resemble the size and shaping of a very large and thick man with wide shoulders and dense limbs. There were no facial features on the rather small head except for two black eyes, and despite its torso and two legs and two arms it looked far from human. Noëlle waved her wand but her arm was grabbed before she could finish her movement. Below her, another creature of the same type was growing up out of the dirt of the ground she was hanging above.

Noëlle screamed again but it was a sharp movement from Victoire's screen that caught Teddy's attention. Victoire closed up her map and walked cautiously closer to one of the tunnels across from her. The closer she got to the left one, the louder the sound of Noëlle's screams became from Victoire's screen.

"She's close to her," Ally said oddly quietly.

"And cue her running headlong into the situation," Bill sighed as he watched his daughter take off into the tunnel that she heard the screams coming from.

As Victoire got closer, the screams became louder. Teddy glanced at Noëlle's screen and saw that she was now right side up but she was being physically restrained by one of the creatures while the other had taken up its shape –similar to the first- and took her wand. It didn't snap it but it was looking at it with interest. Teddy looked back at Victoire's screen and assumed that she was about one corner away from running right into Noëlle and the two creatures.

Victoire had just gotten to the corner and Teddy was dreading her next move when he saw an arm reach out and grab Victoire around the waist and mouth, muffling her scream. She slid out of the arm around her waist but ended up with her back to the tunnel wall and the large hand still across her mouth. She lifted her wand up threateningly, only to lower it when she realized that she recognized the dark eyes and accompanying heavy eyebrows she was she was staring at.

Konstantin removed his hand away from Victoire's mouth when he saw the recognition in Victoire's eyes and took a step away from her.

Victoire glared at him and spoke in a harsh whisper.

"What in the bloody hell was that!? Do you know what I could have done to you? Next time you try to do something like that send my wand away first, I was this close to either cursing the heck out of you or turning you into a ferret," Victoire complained as she held up a thumb and a finger to show a very limited space between the two.

Konstantin frowned, "Sorry, but I needed you to be qvuiet. Ve element of surprise vill be vun ov ve only vays to help Novëlle."

Victoire nodded and folded her arms against her chest, "May I see what we're up against now that I'm not running right into the middle of it?"

Konstantin nodded and Victoire moved quietly against the wall until she could get a peek at what she was seeing.

The camera followed Victoire's movement and her screen was now showing what Noëlle's was, but from a different angle. When she moved back to be near Konstantin again, her screen showed a scene similar to what Konstantin's screen showed.

"So what are they?" Victoire asked not having any idea about what she had seen besides the fact that Noëlle needed their help and fast.

"You don't know vat vey are?" Konstantin asked her surprised.

"No. I haven't taken Care of Magical Creatures since fifth year."

"Vat's not vhere ve learned about vem but I guess each school teaches some different concepts," Konstantin mused.

"Well then what are they?" Victoire asked a little vexed. She hated not knowing things that most others did.

"Vey are called golems. Vizards make vem vrom inanimate substances vrom ve earth. Ve most popular are made vrom clay. Vich I assume vose ones in vere are made ov. I can't see Novëlle just running into a room vull ov vose creatures. Vey must have taken vorm avter she vent in. Vey are very strong and quvick," Konstantin said.

"What can they do? What are their weak spots?" Victoire asked.

"Vey can't do magic, but since vey are made of clay, vey do not veel and regenerate quvickly."

"They have to have a weakness," Victoire said.

Konstantin though for a minute, "Vell technically vey do. Vey do not last very long in vere vorm before vey revert back to vat vey vere before."

"How long? Minutes? Hours?"

"A veek tops."

"They can't last longer than a week?" Victoire asked confusedly.

"Nope. None ov vem live past Sunday. But vat does not help up here."

"No it doesn't. Would it help if we cut them off from their element, the earth?" Victoire asked plans running through her mind.

"No."

"Well is there anything else?" Victoire asked helplessly.

"Vell vey aren't very bright, and vey like to vink vat vey are human even vough vey aren't."

"That's it?" Victoire asked sceptically.

"Ves."

Teddy ripped his eyes away from the screen to scan down the row he was sitting in. His glance, along with everyone else in the vicinity was on Hermione.

"Is Konstantin right?" Ginny asked her sister-in-law from her seat next to her.

Hermione nodded, "There's not much known about how to defeat them. There's lots of information on how to make them since it's rather easy, but there's not a lot on destroying them since they can't live in their form for longer than a week. Once Sunday rolls around, they revert back into whatever they were made of and can't be recreated until the next day. Usually people have dealt with them during that time, taking care of the witch or wizard that made them."

"But Konstantin's information on them is correct?" Angelina asked from behind her.

"Yes as far as I know. But each golem is essentially different because they're made from different substances. I'm not sure how they're going to work around them," Hermione said sadly.

Teddy looked back at the screen fearfully. Noëlle still seemed to be fine but it was obvious that the golems' were getting bored with their study of her wand, and when that happened Victoire and Konstantin would probably have to step in.

On the screen, Victoire was still quizzing Konstantin.

"Water, light, fire? Things they wouldn't be used to this deep in the ground?" Victoire asked trying to see if anything would jog Konstantin's memory of the golem's weakness.

Konstantin shook his head, "No. If vey vere told to vey could go outside. Being down here is not a problem and being outside or in vater is also not a problem."

"Then how do we tackle this?" Victoire asked. She would have been fine running headlong into the room if she knew even a little of what she was dealing with, but in this case she didn't and it actually made her hesitant.

"Vell vey act like regular humans so surprising vem should give us enough time to get Novëlle out of vere grasp, but aside vrom vat ve'll have to vink on our feet," Konstantin said.

Victoire smiled a little, "Well then you're lucky that I'm so good at that."

"Okay, you go in and do vat you must to distract vem and I'll get Novëlle avay vrom vem. Ven ve'll just have to ving it."

Teddy held his breath as he watched Victoire suddenly round the corner and join Noëlle in the room with the creatures.

"_Accio_ wand!" Victoire yelled needlessly. Once Noëlle's wand was in her possession, she added a wand-full of coloured sparks to add to the distraction.

The two golems looked at Victoire in surprise, and Konstantin was right when he told her that they were rather slow on the uptake. They were too busy staring at her and trying to figure out what her sudden appearance meant than to notice Konstantin's quiet arrival into the room. He got right next to the golem holding Noëlle before alerting them to his presence when he called out, "_Reducto!_"

The golem holding Noëlle exploded into bits of clay and she fell from his grasp. Konstantin caught her and then helped her to her feet. They ran past the destroyed form of the golem –which Teddy noticed was starting to reassemble itself- to the opposite side of the tunnel.

"Are you alright?" Konstantin asked Noëlle quickly.

She nodded, "W'ere's Victoire?"

The two turned their heads at the same time and saw Victoire still on the opposite side of the tunnel, holding her wand in one hand and Noëlle's in the other. She was looking slowly from one golem to the other, which had swiftly and fully regenerated by then.

"Um, do you guys mind? I need to get through," Victoire said sternly, hoping that her commanding tone would confuse the golems; they were already not sure where to look seeing as she was on one end and Konstantin and Noëlle were on the other.

The golems looked at her confusedly.

"Seriously, I kinda need to get through."

"Why does she keep trying to take sense into them?" Xavier asked with a sceptical look on his face.

"I really don't know," Teddy, told him. His eyes were still glued to the screen.

The golems had just decided to lunge at Victoire. She saw their intent a moment before they did it and was able to cast a reductor spell at each of them before running past their remains and to where Konstantin and Noëlle were.

Victoire handed Noëlle back her wand while Konstantin pushed them forward, "Ve have to get out of here. Vey are regenerating quvickly."

The three began to run along the tunnel but the golems had caught sight of them and were close behind.

"Does aneebody 'ave any ideas?" Noëlle asked as they sprinted through the tunnel.

"No," Konstantin said fearfully as he cast a glance back and saw the golems coming closer.

"Maybe," Victoire said casting her own glance behind them.

"Wat ees eet zen?" Noëlle asked her.

"I don't know if it will work," Victoire said biting her lip nervously.

"Vot is it?" Konstantin asked.

"You said that they act like humans, like men?" Victoire asked.

"Ves."

"Then they probably have a hard time getting around with no light?" Victoire asked.

"Possibly."

"Well we better hope that that's a probably because that's all I got," Victoire said as she took out the map and tried to study it as she ran.

"Wat are you doeeng?" Noëlle asked.

"You guys just have to trust me. Each of you need to cast a reductor curse at a golem and then grab each other's hand, and then Noëlle needs to grab mine with her free hand, and we need to keep running. I'll guide you," Victoire informed them.

"But vat-" Konstantin started.

"Do you guys trust me?" Victoire asked them quickly, they both nodded hastily, "Then do it. Okay? Now!"

Once the words left Victoire's mouth Noëlle and Konstantin turned and shot reductor curses at the golems. The minute they finished they grabbed hands as Victoire instructed. Once Noëlle's hand grasped Victoire's free, Victoire waved her wand sharply, and both the tunnels and the all three screens went black.

"What just happened?" Ally asked worriedly.

"I think Victoire's just nixed all of the light," Teddy told not taking his eyes off the dark screen.

"But then how will they know where they're going?" Teddy heard Louis ask someone.

Nobody had time to respond before the screens got an image. It was still dark, making the quality poor, but there was enough light to see that the three were still moving and attached by their hands. The only light was coming from the small but relatively bright flame that was sitting in the palm of Victoire's hand as she led the way.

"I think we're okay here. We need to stop anyway and look at the map again, we can let go of each other's hands," Victoire said letting go of Noëlle's and pulling out the map.

Once the had their hands free both Noëlle and Konstantin lit their wands up and helped Victoire look at the map.

"Ees zis ze map from ze first tazk?" Noëlle asked looking at the dark paper.

"Yes. It's not complete but I can get a sense of where we are, and where we need to go," Victoire told her.

"And vere do ve need to go?" Konstantin asked.

Victoire gave the two a considering glance, "Let's be realistic here for a minute. This task, if it's anything like the others is going to be ridiculous. I mean look at what we've already ran into, golems that don't actually have a weakness and can't be destroyed in this short time frame, poisonous plants, cavern trolls . . ."

"Camazotz," Konstantin supplied.

"Really?" Victoire asked suddenly distracted.

"Wat are camazotz?" Noëlle asked confused.

"A large and rather deadly bat-like creature," Victoire supplied.

Noëlle made a face, "I zink I'd razer 'ave 'ad ze golems."

"Anyway," Victoire said getting back on track, "This task is insane and I for one just want it over. How about we just all try to find the cup and decide what to do about it when we find it?"

Noëlle and Konstantin shared a look before Noëlle answered, "Sounds good to me. Let's just get zis over weeth."

Victoire nodded and looked back at the map, "Okay. Well I used this map to get us away from the golems. I memorized the first few tunnels and turns we took in the dark, but it probably led us further away from the cup. We need to get back on track and keep going to the middle, and we need to find a way to make sure that we're not just going over our old steps again, because I lost my technique."

Teddy and Bill shared a stunned look but then Ally piped up and told them that she'd ditched the gold thread when they were running from the golems because they might have used it to trace her.

Back on the screen, the three champions had made a system. Konstantin would go through tunnels first because he was quieter than both the girls and if there was a creature coming up he'd see it first without it seeing him. Noëlle would be just at the end casting some marking charm on the wall to identify where they'd been because Victoire really had no idea how to do the charm she was using, and Victoire would be in the middle with the map. They also decided to light the torches on the wall as they went along and to extinguish them as they went in case a creature tried to follow them that way.

Their system seemed to be working for the next fifteen minutes, or it did until Victoire had them all stop. Konstantin and Noëlle walked over to her and the three of them stared at the map together.

Victoire's face was filled with confusion, "We took a wrong turn at the last fork because the directions weren't clear, but this map clearly shows that this is supposed to be a dead end."

"But it's not," Konstantin said pointing to how the tunnel kept going for much longer.

"But it should stop," Victoire said starting to pace forward. "Right about here," she said standing a step past where the tunnel should have ended.

"But it-"

Konstantin was cut off by the sudden shift in the ground beneath them. A hole -smaller than the first one they'd travelled through to get into the caves- appeared beneath Victoire's feet and she didn't have time to yell out before she fell out of sight.

"Victoire!" Noëlle and Konstantin yelled as they took a step towards the hole she'd disappeared through. They didn't have the chance to reach it before a wall of rock fell down from above them, blocking their way to the hole.

They both cast a series of spells at the wall to get rid of the rocks but they wouldn't budge. Konstantin went up to the wall and tried to touch the rock, but he was stopped by a force field a foot away from it.

Konstantin turned and looked at Noëlle, "Vis is not good."

* * *

"What the hell just happened?" Ally yelled looking frantically at the middle screen where Victoire's video was usually shown. It was completely black, but not in the sense that wherever she was, was dark, but in the sense that there was no video of her.

Teddy's head moved from where it was to look to his right at the judges' platform. Harry, Kingsley, Professor McGonagall, Minister Flannery, Mr. Granville from the department of Magical Sports and Games and were on their feet talking to each other and Harry and Kingsley looked like they were starting to move away.

Bill and Teddy were on their feet at the same time, "Something's definitely not right here."

The two stepped over the rest of the people in their row before hitting the stairs and running to the platform like they did after the first task when Victoire had apparated there.

"What happened?" Bill asked angrily as he got closer to the group of people.

"They've lost her," Kingsley replied tersely.

"What!"

"Calm down Mr. Weasley it's not like that-" Flannery tried to still him.

"What happened?" Bill asked again giving Flannery a glare but asking Harry and Kingsley.

Harry gestured to the map he and Mr. Granville were looking over, "This is a complete map of the entire cave system. The dots are each of the champions' trackers, which are incorporated into the cords they had around their wrists. Victoire was right in the tunnel. That should have been a dead end. Someone must have extended it and added that hole in there that Victoire fell through."

"Can you find her with the tracker?" Teddy asked.

"No, her the magic for the tracker isn't working for some reason and we have no visual. According to the department of Magical Sports and Games there are not tunnels under their own caves, so we have no idea where Victoire went," Kingsley commented.

"So she's lost and in the hands of Merlin knows who?" Bill asked.

"Yes, although it's probably not too far off to suggest that its' the same people who have tried to get their hands on her all year," Harry said.

"So what's being done about this then?" Bill asked heatedly.

"Mr. Weasley Shacklebolt has almost all of his aurors who were stationed today in those caves trying to get around the wall where your daughter was last seen. They'll find her," Flannery said placatingly to Bill.

Bill frowned at Flannery and looked at Kingsley, "Is that really all that's being done? Konstantin proved that there was a force field around it!"

"That's the orders that Flannery had me give my aurors. Don't worry Bill he'll find Victoire, but Harry and I have to get things into action," Kingsley said nodding his head discretely in Teddy's direction.

Bill narrowed his eyes, he knew that Teddy technically wasn't working, and wondered what Kingsley had up his sleeve. He didn't have the chance to ask because it was obvious that he wanted to keep his plans secret from Flannery, so he just nodded and prayed that his daughter's godfather would be able to find her.

Kingsley placed a subtle hand on Teddy's arm and pulled him away from the platform with Harry closely behind them, clutching the map from the Department of Magical Sports and Games.

"What's the plan?" Teddy asked mentally getting into his 'auror mode'.

Kingsley walked quickly across the grounds and Teddy saw that he was taking him in a direction that would bring them around back near the Herbology greenhouses.

"Whoever we're dealing with isn't a pushover. Those guys aren't going to break through that force field, and if they do it may not be in time."

Teddy nodded.

"Flannery wouldn't listen to me, but that may be a good thing because we don't need a lot of people barging in and trying to save Victoire. The caves are small and too many people down there could prove to cause more damage. I'm going to send you in, along with Donaldson, Bristol, and Hobson once Ron gets them over here."

"How do we get to her though? We don't know where she went or even if she just fell into a simple hole."

"Victoire's smart," Kingsley said.

Teddy nodded, "Yes."

"Making that turn into that tunnel was a mistake. Her map showed that it was supposed to be a dead end."

"Yes."

"They can't have known that she would have made an easy mistake like that," Kingsley said giving Teddy a look.

Teddy's eyes narrowed, "You think there are more spots in those caves that would lead to the same place."

"They would be very stupid if they only set up one way to catch her."

"So if we can find another spot that they created it should lead us to where she is."

"Hopefully," Kingsley said.

"How close was she to the cup?" Teddy asked.

Harry showed him the map as they walked. He pointed to where she was when she disappeared and where the cup was. She probably was about ten minutes out. Teddy studied the map and found the three places where Victoire, Noëlle, and Konstantin began. They started on almost opposite sides, but the tunnels became less, as they got closer to the heart of the maze where the cup would be, and Teddy even recognized the tunnel where they all met near the golems.

"It would make more sense for them to have the traps near the middle of the maze and the cup because it's more likely that she'd been in those tunnels opposed to the ones on the sides. The closer to the cup, the more traps there should be. Are Noëlle and Konstantin still allowed to continue with the task?" Teddy asked.

"That's what Flannery wanted, but I agree with you Ted, if they're allowed to continue they might hit a trap that was set up for Victoire. I don't know what it was exactly that set it off. There might have been something specific, or it could have just been the fact that she stood over it but I don't want to risk the two others," Harry said.

Kingsley nodded, "Harry when we get these guys situated send a message to the aurors down below to get the other two kids out."

"How do we get into the caves?" Teddy asked.

By that time, they'd made it to a spot just behind the Herbology greenhouses.

"The room with the cup is directly under us, about fifty feet down. We'll create a hole and send all four of you down, but then it's up to you to find a way to Victoire," Kingsley told him.

Teddy nodded, "That should work. There's probably a trap in the room with the cup because if anything it would be a last ditch effort to get to Victoire before she grabbed the cup."

Kingsley and Harry both nodded.

"But we're not supposed to be on duty today."

The three turned their heads and saw Ron walking towards them with three younger aurors all in casual clothes.

Jilly Donaldson, who had spoken, stopped where she was when she saw Teddy, Kingsley, and Harry standing behind the greenhouses, "We're going in to get Victoire aren't we?"

"Yes Ms. Donaldson you are," Kingsley said, "There's no time to explain the mission. Lupin's in charge because he knows what's going on and realistically he's probably the only one Victoire's going to trust when you do find her."

The three other aurors in training nodded and followed Kingsley as he moved to the correct spot. He waved his wand and a hole appeared, he looked up at the aurors, "I've asked McGonagall to lower the apparation wards around this area of the school. No one else knows so I hope that whoever these people are won't try it, but I needed a way for you to get out once you had Victoire. Whoever secures her apparates away with her right away."

The four aurors-in-training nodded at Kingsley.

"Good," Kingsley aimed his wand at the ground and created a hole, "That should take you straight into the room with the Tri-Wizard Cup. Lupin will explain what to do when you're down there. Good luck and hurry."

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, I hoped that you enjoyed!

**Next Week:** We get to hear from Victoire and see what's going on with her.

**Thanks to everyone who has followed / favourited / reviewed / and read!**

An especially **BIG** Thank You to:

**lilylunaluver, Sweet-matty, owlcity2013, Roxas4Ever13, marmar8089, MaddieMonkey, why the caged bird sings, Eighteen Inches, breezered, Thia Lingam, twilightlover427, MuggleCreator, brilliant incandescence, Encypher, StillWaitingForThatLetter, MiraclesHappen94, Forever Siriusly Sirius, loveislife94, Ace of Hate, As the Robin Flies, Oddliver, ntlpurpolia, xSuperNovax, zvc56, Em, .3, Professor Slythergeek, isabelleatalante, **and** rockon88!**

**Sweet-matty:** Thank you. and honestly? I can't give you a number. Not too many more, but I'm still writing.

**MaddieMonkey:** Thanks, and I am feeling a bit better, but I still have a very annoying cough to deal with :(.

**breezered:** Well then, welcome to my 'world' I hope that you enjoy your stay, and thank you. Oh, and *Canadian high-five*.

**Thia Lingam:** Well if you thought_ that_ was cruel . . .

**brilliant incandescence:** Well, I gave you some more then . . .

**StillWaitingForThatLetter:** Haha, well if you thought last chapter's ending was suspenseful . . . And if you want Teddy you'll have to fight off Vic, although at the moment she seems to be missing.

**MiraclesHappen94:** I'll try to work something into a few chapters away from now but I'm not sure if I can make any promises . . . Should I just try to write a one-shot about them instead?

**Forever Siriusly Sirius:** Yes, probably, again, I blame any mistakes on the fact that I was running a fever and debate ably delirious. Good guess last chapter with the scream being Noelle's!

**Oddliver:** Okay, my ending wasn't as bad as the last season finale of Doctor Who. My brother was silent in disbelief for a good fifteen minutes because of that before he was able to say anything.

**xSuperNovax:** Awww, thanks.

**Em:** I'm sorry but I can't. This update is late as it is, and my week is really busy. My mom is going to have surgery on her foot, and I have to go to two of my cousins' plays, and one of my cousin's has formal so we're going to go take pictures . . . and it's just really busy but I hope that you have a super-spectacular birthday!

**Professor Slythergeek:** Why thank you!

**rockon88:** Ha, thanks, and yes, I'm feeling a bit better :)

**Thanks again for reading, don't forget to review, and DFTBA!**


	87. Salvaged

**A/N:** Okay, here's this week's update! I'm just going to say that you need to read this chapter closely because we will be referencing it a couple times, a little later.

Enjoy! :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything that is property of JKR's. (Duh)

* * *

**Salvaged**

Victoire landed with a large thump on the ground.

She up at the hole she'd just fallen through and frowned when she saw that it was a straight drop and not an angled slide like the first one that she had taken at the start of the task. If the fact that the tunnel that held the hole wasn't on the map, wasn't enough evidence, the fact that as she stared at the dark hole above her -contemplating how to get back up through it- it suddenly disappeared just as easily as it had reappeared.

"Good luck getting back up there."

Victoire's head jerked to her right, the direction she heard the words come from, and saw a group of men walk out of the dim tunnel from the direction and come closer to her. There were a few lit torches along the walls, but the amount of light wasn't the same as the tunnels above her.

"Now, we can do this the hard way-"

The man in front of the group kept coming closer to her, but he still had to get about three feet away before the faint lighting would be enough for Victoire to get a good look at the features on his face.

"-Or we could do this the easy way, the choice is really up to you."

She didn't recognize the voice as one she'd heard before, but she definitely wasn't going to wait for him to get closer. She was still lying on the ground in the same position she'd been in when she fell through the hole, but her grip on her wand was tight and confident.

"_Impendimenta!_"

All four of the men were slammed back by the force of Victoire's spell and she was quickly on her feet and running down the tunnel in the opposite direction. As she ran, she cast wordless _Aguamenti _spells at the torches on the wall, extinguishing the light behind and in front of her and making the torches hard to re-light. She was able to focus enough to manage a bit of Veela flame on the palm of her hand so she could have some light to see, but was still able to use her wand for spells other than _Lumos_.

She knew that she was probably faster than the four men that were following her –almost four years of Quidditch practice with Xavier Wood had made sure of that. But she still didn't feel comfortable enough with her lead so she started to cast a few spells to create holes and such on the floor of the tunnel behind her so that their chase would be a bit more complicated.

There were very few chances to turn off into other tunnels compared to the maze above her, but when the chance arose, she took it. After a sharper turn than some of the previous ones, she stopped and pressed her back against the wall to collect her breath. She couldn't hear any movement at all, so she assumed that where she was, was better than nothing at this point.

_What to do now? I doubt there's more than one way out of here, and all of these tunnels probably lead to the same place in the end; wherever those men were going to take me. So what do I do?_

Victoire thought hard for a minute. Realistically she knew that her initial fall through the hole, and subsequent disappearance from the tunnels of the task would have already raised a red flag. Kingsley and her Uncle Harry wouldn't just sit and wait to see if she would end up showing up. They would have jumped into action the first time they realized that something bad had happened.

_And knowing Kingsley he's trying to get as many aurors as he can down here._

She tried to run through everything that had just happened to her, and tried to figure out how she'd go about this mission if _she_ were Kingsley. Once she remembered the part of her falling through a hole that was in a tunnel that wasn't on the map she had a bit of a eureka moment.

"They didn't know that I'd take that tunnel, so there has to be more than one hole that leads down here. Kingsley will find a way to get his aurors in through there, but they'll still have to travel around to find me. If I stay in one spot, it'll be easier for the aurors to find me but it will also be easier for those thugs to find me too. I'll have to keep moving and hope to stumble into the aurors before stumbling into someone else," Victoire whispered her plan to herself.

She took a few more minutes to get her thoughts organized and realized that if she was going to be wandering around the tunnels, there was a spell she could cast on herself that could help hide her even a little bit.

She pulled her wand out, tapped it on top of her head, and whispered the correct words to the Disillusionment charm. The small trickle of warmth that she felt spread through her body caused her to hope that she'd preformed it properly. The spell wasn't one that they were required to learn for school, but having the head of the Auror Department for a godfather meant that it was one spell she'd definitely needed to have in her repertoire. She knew that Teddy was always better at casting the particular spell than she was –he had more reasons to practice- but she still hoped that she'd done a good enough job to give her just the slightest edge as she travelled through the tunnels.

She decided to move on and followed the direction of the tunnel she was already in. She wasn't sure for how long she'd been walking, but she did notice that the brackets filled with lit torches were becoming closer to each other, and more numerous in number. She'd stopped putting the light out when she was certain that she'd lost her tail, knowing that she'd be more conspicuous wandering around in the dark with one hand lit on fire if someone came to her from the other end of the tunnel, like she'd been anticipating for the last ten minutes of her travel.

_I have to be coming up to something particular if there's more light. It has to mean something,_ Victoire reasoned with herself. She started to walk slower.

A few more minutes passed and as she neared the end of the tunnel, she saw even more light coming from around its corner. She approached it with caution, and only moved enough so she could see just around the corner.

What she did see was another tunnel that was very well lit, it stretched a great distance horizontally, and she saw that a little ways down from her there was some sort of opening that was emitting an even brighter light. She was just about to leave her darker tunnel to go see the opening that was emitting the large amount of light when she heard the not-to-distant echo of footsteps. She stood stock still the way she was and saw two men walk down the tunnel that resembled a hallway and enter the room filled with the light, and immediately heard voices start up.

Victoire waited a minute to see if anyone else would enter or exit the room before moving closer into the more well lit hallway so that she could hear better. It hadn't occurred to her to turn and go the other way, not once, the only thought that had popped into her head was that she could get more information, and that that was only bound to help her even in the slightest way.

Once she was close enough to hear what the voices were saying she stopped and took the disillusionment charm off herself. The bright light of the tunnel would hinder more than help her if she kept the charm on, because her charm had a tendency to reflect a bit of light back instead of allowing it to bend through the charm. Once she was finished, she bit her lip as she listened at the mouth of the opening.

". . . her. We have ten of our men out in the tunnels looking and they still haven't come up with anything. The four who were initially sent to out to capture her are still searching also."

"How hard is it to find one teenaged girl? All of these tunnels end up leading to the same place. Here! And you imbeciles still can't find her?!"

Victoire had to bite down even harder on her lip to stop her gasp. She recognized that second voice. It was the same one as the man that had her captured in the cave during the second task.

The first voice –that she didn't recognize- spoke up again, "I understand Sir. But she's a quick and sly little thing. Besides it's only a matter of time before Shacklebolt gets the rest of the aurors down here and when that happens we'll have to clear everybody out of here. Not one them can be risked to be caught."

The second voice –the one she did recognize- didn't answer. In fact, the room seemed almost completely silent. After a few minutes of quiet Victoire couldn't stand it anymore, she moved closer to the opening that was still radiating a lot of light, after casting a wordless silencing charm on the bottom of her trainers, and peeked inside.

She was on her knees because she would be less likely to be seen at that height, so most of what she saw were tables or low seated wooden chairs. But she was able to see the back of three people standing near a large monitor that was somehow affixed to the dirt wall of the cave-like room. The two men on either side of the middle one were the two men she'd caught a glimpse of as they'd walked into the room. She could roughly identify them by the dark clothes they were wearing. The man in the middle however, was dressed in a plain white dress shirt and pale khaki pants. His choice of lighter coloured clothes wasn't what caught Victoire's attention however; it was the shock of orange hair that was on top of the man's head.

Victoire had assumed that the third man would have been the man who was in the cave with her from the second task. Since she could positively identify that it was his voice and that neither man on either side of him, even looking just from behind was the same man, it meant that the one in the middle had to be. However, the bright head of orange hair said otherwise. Of what she remembered from the man from the second task, he had brown hair, definitely not the carrot-colour that the man in the middle that she was looking at, was wearing.

"They haven't found a way past the force field yet," The orange-haired man said pointing to something on the screen. Victoire saw that the screen was split into three views, and even though she couldn't see past that, she assumed that it was using the cameras from the task to give them a view of what was going on from where she had fallen down the hole. What shocked her the most was the fact that when the orange-haired man spoke, his voice was exactly that of the other man from the first task. His change in appearance was surprising but could be expected if he had been using some sort of appearance charm. What she wasn't sure about, was whether the first look she had of him, or the one she had now was the way he actually looked.

The unrecognizable voice said something else as Victoire's scanned the room they were in. From her position, she could only see a bit of it, but there were a few pieces that stood out. There seemed to be pieces of parchment and maps everywhere, and in the corner diagonal to her she thought she saw a bundle of robes in a dark red colour. The colour that auror robes, and only official auror robes could come in. The other thing that caught her attention was the table closest to the three men. It was no higher than an end table would be really, and while it seemed like it was covered in papers like almost every other surface of the room, on top of the papers was a shape that she made out to be that of a mask. It was plain white in colour, and looked like it would cover the whole face. Even the eyes. She wasn't sure what the purpose of a mask such as that would be for, and only figured out that it was a mask because the shape of it was so similar to the stereotypical facial structure of a human.

_What would they need a plain white mask, with no mouth, or even eyeholes for? And why in the world is there a pair of aurors robes in the corner?!_

"The men seem to be so incompetent that I'm not sure if they'll be able to find the girl before the aurors come," the orange-haired man said with a barely hidden tone of anger.

"Well then what do you suggest Sir? The men are trying their best, it will be hard to get the girl anyway, they said that they didn't want her hurt," the other man said.

"That was the plan at the beginning but I think our previous failures prove that she will be hard to control without the threat of bodily injury. They wanted her unharmed because they thought that they could scare her into agreeing with their plan. I highly doubt that will happen. They didn't realize exactly how hard it would be to corrupt a Weasley. I think we can forget that command about not harming her. They just need her alive and breathing before they decide what they want to do with her in the end," the orange-haired man said in a calculating and cold voice.

"So I should go out and spread the word that anything needed to be done to handle her is a go? Aside from killing her of course," the other man said.

Victoire felt a shiver run through her body at the man's tone.

The orange-haired man spoke again, "Yes, but I think we can add a little something else in the fray, something to flush her out."

Victoire wasn't sure what the man was talking about, but the others seemed to.

"Are you sure Sir? They said that they wanted her alive, I believe that what you're thinking would be more dangerous than anything."

The orange-haired man let out a laugh that sounded much more like a cackle, "You two idiots don't know anything do you? A dementor won't kill her; they'll just take her soul away. She'll still technically be alive, or she'll at least look alive enough. Besides, the little brat knows how to produce a patronus. She'll be able to save herself from that fate, but it will also draw attention to herself and help flush her out."

"How will we know that it's her though? The men could think that it's just one of them casting the charm."

"What good is having me on the inside if I can't provide you with that inside information? She along with the other champions had to have their patronus tested and copied down earlier in the year by us aurors. Her patronus is an eagle. A large silver bird shouldn't be too hard to find in these dim tunnels, now should it?" The orange-haired man asked condescendingly.

Victoire had to hold in a gasp again. She'd just heard the man admit he was an auror in the castle. But she didn't have enough information yet to know if he was actually an auror, or if he was just posing as one.

"Alright then Sir, I will get onto letting the dementor out," the other man said.

"Good."

It seemed like the two men were being dismissed and Victoire had to jump up and get away from the opening of the tunnel before they came out and found her. She began to sprint down the corridor closest to her, but she wasn't fast enough because she could hear the men behind her yelling.

"Get her!"

They'd seen her and now they were deciding to give chase.

Victoire ran as fast as she could, but the tunnel didn't veer off into many directions, it was rather straight. There wasn't enough distance between her and her pursuers for her to feel confident in turning around and shooting spells at them while she ran so she wasn't able to formulate much of a plan. She just kept running.

The corridor started to turn and she followed it. As she barreled around it she belated noticed that there was a dark tunneled opening just before it, that led off to who knows where. She didn't have time to regret taking it though, because a few metres ahead of her she noticed that the tunnel came to a dead end.

She came to a stop right in front of the thick dirt wall that ended the tunnel and swore in French.

"Well, well, well. Looks like Miss Weasley has run out of road," a voice from behind her called out in a taunting voice. When she heard the footsteps behind her stop, she turned around and faced the six men. The man in front of her had a shock of orange-hair, but Victoire couldn't focus on the particulars of his face.

"I don't want to hurt you, so you should really just give up and come with us," the man offered.

Victoire rolled her eyes and scoffed, "How gentlemanly of you. And incredibly stupid. What on earth would make you think that I would go without a fight? Haven't my past escapes said enough?"

The man smirked, "I don't see any aurors around to save you right now, and it's six against one. You may be a Gryffindor but you can't be that silly enough to think that you could win."

Victoire raised a blonde brow condescendingly, "You never know."

"Well I do. Last chance before things get ugly _Princess_," the man warned.

Victoire's eyes narrowed and she glared at him, "I didn't think it was physically possible for you to get uglier."

The man growled at her before waving his wand, "_Expelliarmus!_"

"_Protego!_" Victoire yelled, anticipating the spell.

The man just smirked at her and threw a wordless hex. Victoire saw the hand movement and dodged it before shooting an _Incarcerous _spell. The man used a shield charm and cast a body binding curse almost simultaneously.

Victoire didn't have much room to maneuver so she had to use a shortened _Protego _before casting a wordless stinging jinx.

The man anticipated her movement and dodged the spell instead of blocking it. Victoire saw a chance to shoot a _Confringo _curse and hoped that the quick succession of spells would set him off balance.

The man mustn't have been lying about being an auror because he easily used a shield charm to stop the blasting curse.

Victoire took a chance and cast a stunning spell at him while dodging the blasting curse as it rebounded off of his shield charm and came back at her.

The man parried the stunning charm and waved his wand quickly when he saw that Victoire was still unsteady from dodging the last jinx instead of casting a shield charm. He yelled, "_Diffindo!_"

Victoire felt a searing pain slash across her wand arm and dropped her arm out of reflex. She looked down, saw blood gushing from the laceration on her arm, and mentally calculated the damage done by the fact that her arm was quickly losing feeling.

"Not the best dueler out there, are you?" the orange-haired man asked in a disdainful voice as he took a few steps closer to her. The five other odd men behind him didn't move, they seemed to be allowing the orange-haired man to do whatever they wanted, further correcting Victoire's assumption that the man was the leader of the group.

When the man was about less than three feet away from her he pushed her harshly against the wall behind her.

Victoire felt her head hit the wall in a similar spot to where she'd hit it earlier when she was battling with the troll and felt her vision jolt sharply and go fuzzy.

However, the orange-haired man was close enough to her that she could tell that he had opened his mouth and was beginning to gloat.

* * *

Teddy anxiously jogged down the dirt tunnels with four of his fellow aurors-in-training behind him. All of the fully qualified aurors were already on duty and where following the orders Flannery told Kingsley to give to them, so Kingsley was only able to send aurors-in-training along with Teddy since they weren't already working.

Relatively speaking it hadn't taken them too long to find one of the traps in the room with the cup that would lead them to the tunnels under the task. However, to Teddy if felt like an eternity. He had no idea if whoever was in charge already had their hands on Victoire, but what he did know was that the minute they did have her, they would leave. They'd waited too long during the second task and he'd been able to get her out because of that. Teddy knew that they would try all that they could to get her out as quickly as possible so that that wouldn't happen again.

Teddy would have felt better if their group of five had been able to split up somewhere along the way so that they'd at least have two sets of people looking for Victoire. They hadn't had the chance though, because the tunnel they'd first entered had been rather straight and didn't veer off into other tunnels. It was easier because they didn't have to worry about getting lost yet, but everyone following the same route lengthened the amount of time it may take to find her.

He took a little notice when the torches on the side of the tunnel started to become brighter and closer together, but he wasn't confident that that would connect with them finding Victoire easier.

He was about to doubt that they were even in the right tunnel to find her when Teddy heard the first signs of movement. He could hear running footsteps and what sounded like spells. He picked up the pace slowly quietly gesturing to the aurors behind him to move faster but to stay quiet. A minute later he kicked his speed up to a full on sprint when he heard a male voice shout '_Diffindo_'.

A corner came up that he rounded and he found himself in another corridor. He heard voices and what sounded like laughter from the left so he followed in that direction. Another small turn later and his heart started to beat furiously at what he saw.

There were about five men just standing in a bit of a group closest to him, but past them he saw a man with bright orange-coloured hair pressing Victoire against the tunnel's dead end. He could tell that the man was jeering at Victoire but he didn't pay enough attention to listen to what he was saying. All of his attention was on Victoire's rather limp figure and the stream of blood that was gushing out of her left forearm. An arm whose hand wasn't clutching a wand like it should have been.

Teddy looked behind him to the other aurors before he did something reckless like jumping into the middle of the men.

Jilly looked back at Teddy with determination, "Should we take the guys at the back out quietly first?"

Teddy shook his head. The man with Victoire would still notice that something was going on and they didn't know if he had a portkey on him that could transport him and Victoire away before they had the chance to get to her.

"No, we go in loudly and try to distract. You all handle the few at the back and I'll try to incapacitate the orange-haired man for long enough to get to Victoire. We need to get her out first, and all of that blood pouring down from her arm makes it important to get that over with first," Teddy told them quietly but authoritatively.

He made sure that he saw all four of them give him some sort of nod before closing the distance between him and the men.

Beside him, Teddy heard Jilly along with the other aurors cast a series of different spells on the men whose backs were to them. As Teddy predicted, the man with Victoire reflexively turned his head to see what the commotion was and Teddy was able to hit him square in the chest with an _Impedimenta_ jinx.

The man's body flew away from Victoire's and Teddy ran through the crowd of the other men who were busy attacking his fellow aurors. He had to dodge a jinx or two, but he got to Victoire before the orange-haired man was able to get back to his feet. She had fallen to the ground without the presence of the other man to push her against the wall and was barely moving.

"Victoire are you okay?" Teddy asked worriedly as he knelt down beside her.

"_Petrificus Totalus_!"

Teddy whipped his head around and was able to cast a protego spell around both him and Victoire before the orange-haired man's spell was able to get to them. Teddy was about to release the shield to cast a spell at the man when one of the other aurors sent an offensive curse at the man causing his attention to be diverted for the moment.

Teddy looked back at Victoire. Her eyes were open, but they were glassy and unfocused. He was worried that the orange-haired man had used a spell against her before he'd had the chance to get to her when he noted the puddle of blood on the ground near her and the soaked parts of her shirt and pants. The laceration to her wand arm was deeper than he'd thought at first glance, but the closer distance told him that she was barely conscious due to the blood loss.

He grabbed her gently and pulled her close to him. He turned his head, grabbed her discarded wand, and then gripped his own tightly so that he could apparate the both of them out of there.

* * *

**A/N: **I know, I know, it's another cliff hanger. It's how I had to end it. I promise the next chapter won't end as abruptly.

Anyhoo, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and please review with your thoughts.

**Next Week**: Vic'll wake up, and we get to here a bit about the kidnapping investigation.

A big, **BIG** thanks to everyone who has followed / favourited / reviewed / read / and enjoyed. An especially big thanks to:

**Ace of Hate, Oddliver, twilightlover427, Roxas4Ever13, marmar8089, Eighteen Inches, Encypher, niallsprincess180, As the Robin Flies, lovestoreadnething, isabelleatalante, Teddy Lupin Forever, MuggleCreator, MiraclesHappen94, alicenotinwonderland, Forever Siriusly Sirius, xsuperx, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, brilliant incandescence, .3, MaddieMonkey, **and** rockon88!**

**twilightlover427**: Nice comparison.

**Roxas4Ever13:** How's this for epicness?

**marmar8089:** Plans for it? Yes. But let's not put the wagon before the horse.

**Eighteen Inches:** Thanks :) It did go well, she's just in a lot of pain, which is understandable.

**lovestoreadnething:** Thank you, and welcome to my story.

**MuggleCreator:** Yes, yes you did ;)

**Forever Siriusly Sirius:** Yes, I do like Doctor Who, my brother likes it a lot more, but I made a bigger fan girl noise when they showed John Hurt on the season finale, because he played the voice of the dragon on Merlin. Aww, thanks, I do feel better :)

** .3:** Thanks, sometimes I feel like I may over think things, but I can't stand a new plot point that doesn't have logic.

**MagicalNinjaUnicorn:** I love reviews so two long ones isn't a problem for me :) And I'm glad that you're thinking deeper and trying to figure out what these people want with her ;)

**Thanks for reading, please review and tell me what you thought, and until next week; DFTBA!**


	88. The Secret's Out

**A/N:** **Hey everyone who's still reading my story. I'm so so so so so sorry about how long it has taken me to update. I got really busy staring my new full time job, along with babysitting on the weekends, and I just didn't have time to update. I'm getting up at five every morning that I work, I'm really tired when I do have the time and just don't usually have the energy for it. And I got sick again, And since my last update my mother's had foot surgery and my brother and I have had to do a lot of extra things for her, and around the house so I haven't had much time to write.**

**But I'm still very sorry and I hope that you forgive me. And to all of my Canadian and American readers, I hope that you had fantastic Canada Days, and Independence Days this past week.**

**Anyway, I hope you like this.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything here.**

* * *

**The Secret's Out**

"I don't want her to wake up."

"I don't think you really have a say in it Ally."

"Yes I do. She doesn't need to wake up right now. All it would take is a 15 mL dose of a commercial sleeping potion. Madam Pomfrey wouldn't be able to tell if I gave it to her because the pain controlling potion she gave Victoire to numb the feeling of her arteries re-growing has a side effect of sleep between two and five hours."

"Well maybe Victoire won't wake up until the five hours are up. She does like her sleep after all."

"Nah, everything's a bloody mess right now so of course she's going to wake and get into the middle of it."

"I could hold force her to stay in the hospital bed."

"No you can't Xavier. As much as you hate to admit it she has you wrapped around her fingers."

"What about . . ."

Victoire noticed that while it sounded as though Xavier's voice had drifted off, if she tried to listen she'd be able to focus back in on what he was saying. She usually didn't have that much control over her dreams. Moreover, she didn't usually dream about Ally trying to drug her to keep her sleep. She figured that she must have woken up, and spent a few more minutes trying to get the energy to open her eyelids. When she was able to, the voices around her stopped.

"Vic?"

Victoire tried to sit up and noticed that it didn't hurt, nor did she feel dizzy, and since feeling dizzy was really the last she remembered before blacking out, she figured that both were a sign that she had been fully healed of whatever injuries she'd had.

Once she was in a sitting position, she looked to her left, where she'd heard the voices coming from, and saw Ally and Xavier sitting in chairs right next to her bed. Very close to her hospital bed. A little too close to her hospital bed actually.

"Um, hi. So what's the damage?" Victoire asked deciding to cut to the chase.

"You had a minor concussion. Whether it was from when you smacked your head against the wall when you were battling the troll, or from something else . . . Madam Pomfrey wasn't sure. You've been given two blood-replenishing potions and Madam Pomfrey magically healed the broken arteries and veins in your arm along with the skin covering it. The cut happened magically so she was able to close it up pretty easily and it actually didn't scar you," Ally said grabbing Victoire's left hand and squeezing it gently.

Victoire looked down at the arm Ally was holding and inspected where her injury was, despite the fact that she trusted Madam Pomfrey's work. As she examined herself she noticed that she was still wearing the tee shirt and track pants –that she'd cut off to her knees during the task- just sans blood. She looked to the other side of her bed and was surprised that she didn't see anyone else standing there. In fact, Ally and Xavier were the only ones in the Hospital Wing besides her.

"Where is everyone else?" Victoire asked automatically suspicious. She had enough friends and family to fill up the Hospital Wing and there were only two people there. When she almost died from the manticore attack, she had a mob of visitors. Compared to most of her other injuries a concussion and a slashed arm was like a paper cut.

Ally and Xavier shared a look –further proving Victoire's assumption that something wasn't right.

Xavier spoke first, "There's an investigation going on of course, but McGonagall thought that it would be safer and easier if everyone was ordered back to their towers for the rest of the day. All of the visitors had to go through some sort of review process where they showed their tickets, and then were sent home."

Victoire gave Xavier an odd look, "Then why are you still here?"

Ally and Xavier shared another look before Ally fielded the question, "Kingsley along with Uncle Harry and Ron are busy with the investigation, which is to be expected. Someone is speaking with your parents about getting permission to use your memories from the past few hours to use in the investigation. But they wanted someone to watch over you and since Sandra and Kyle had to go back to the tower, McGonagall allowed Xavier and I to stay to be with you."

Victoire nodded, their words made sense, but she had a nagging feeling that Ally was purposely leaving something out.

"Well what about Teddy? Why isn't he here? Or is he busy handling stuff for the investigation too?"

Ally and Xavier shared the same damn look again and it was really starting to piss Victoire off.

"Where's Teddy?"

"He's being questioned," Xavier answered curtly.

"You mean he's giving his report about what happened?" Victoire asked.

"No . . . last we heard he's being questioned by some guy from Magical Law Enforcement about what happened," Ally told her.

Victoire's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, "What does MLE have to do with anything?"

Another shared look.

"They've officially taken over the investigation. Details are tight but Uncle Harry was able to tell us that they found some things in those tunnels that you were found in that would point to an inside job with at least one person in the Auror Department. Flannery gave the case over to MLE because of it until they find out more details," Ally said quickly.

Victoire swallowed thickly, for some reason she still felt like they were hiding something, "So they've already gotten to the step where they question everyone in the Auror Department then? I mean that has to be why they'd be questioning Teddy because if they wanted to know about what happened in the tunnels, proper format would be to read his report instead of asking him again and again what happened."

"Um . . . not exactly no. They haven't gotten around to asking everyone from the Auror Department yet."

"Then why are they questioning Teddy?" Victoire asked not understanding what her friends were telling her.

Ally grabbed Victoire's hand again and squeezed it gently while Xavier gave her a sympathetic look. She knew automatically that she wouldn't like what they were about to say.

Xavier was the one to deliver the news, "They're questioning Teddy because they think that he had something to do with the attempted kidnappings concerning you."

* * *

Kingsley sighed heavily as he paced past person after person wearing their navy blue department of MLE jackets. They had swooped right onto Hogwarts grounds and into the Castle as soon as all of the students had been sent back to their towers, and once the grounds were cleared of all other visitors. Flannery had barely told Kingsley that he was moving the entire investigation over to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement until they had more concrete evidence, before what seemed like all of MLE was entering the Castle and taking over the rooms that Kingsley had originally had for the aurors to use during their own investigations.

Kingsley had had his aurors work with the department of magical law enforcement before, and usually all cases were handled well, but ever since Ainsley Carver had been promoted to head of the department there had been a strain between the two divisions. Ms. Carver was an auror department drop out similar to about one-fourth of MLE. From what Kingsley remembered, she hadn't made it past the first year when she dropped out and decided to take the slightly easier and shorter training course that qualified her for the department of Magical Law Enforcement instead.

Kingsley had no problem with Ms. Carver's work, but she was one of the few who still held sour grapes about not being able to handle auror training and it was reflected in the difficulties she usually made arise whenever the auror department needed their manpower or help.

Kingsley might have been kicked off of the court of the investigation temporarily, but he wasn't going to give up his seat on the bench without a fight.

He walked through the room that was acting as the main hub for the MLE personnel but stopped when he saw Bill and Fleur Weasley sitting down at one of the tables with a pair of MLE agents. They both had worried expressions on their faces and he knew what the cause was. The MLE agents wanted their permission to convince Victoire –once she was released from the Hospital Wing- to give them her memory of what happened during the task to the last thing she remembered before Teddy apparated her and himself back into the stadium. Kingsley wanted to go over to them and tell them that it was okay to agree to that and that it would help them all in the long run, but he was already late for where he needed to be because he was held up by Ms. Carver's inadequate personal assistant who kept asking him the most useless of questions.

Kingsley bypassed a few more tables filled with working MLE agents before he came to the interrogation room. The department of MLE had only taken half an hour to set up the room, complete with a wall caring a one-way mirror charm that made it possible for the people on the other side of it see into the interrogation room and hear what was going on. Kingsley walked into the small room adjacent to the interrogation room so that he could see what was going on in the room.

When he walked in, he saw Harry and Ms. Carver along with two more of her MLE agents standing near the wall and looking into the interrogation room. Ms. Carver gave him a pompous smile in greeting which Kingsley ignored as he made his way to stand beside Harry, who was standing a little away from the MLE agents as if the physical distance between them also represented the professional distance between them.

Kingsley saw that Harry's expression was tight, but besides that emotionless.

"What happened while I was away?"

Harry didn't move his gaze from the wall but he answered Kingsley, "They did all of the normal legal crap to cover their arses. He's decided to answer the questions now instead of waiting for a lawyer, and he willingly took the veritaserum to speed up the entire process. He wants to prove that he has nothing to hide and most importantly he wants to get it over with as quickly as possible so they can focus on catching the people who are actually involved."

Kingsley nodded and followed Harry's gaze until his own dark eyes were resting on the image of Ted Lupin sitting in the interrogation room adjacent to them, on the side of the table so that he was facing them. Across from Ted in the room was a MLE agent who couldn't have been more than five years older than Ted himself. The MLE agent sat opposite Ted, not saying anything but giving him some considering glances.

Harry peeled his eyes away from what he was watching and looked at Kingsley, worry breaking through his calm façade for the first time, "Do you think he was right to forgo the option to have a lawyer there. I don't want them trying to trap him in something he says, especially since he' taken the veritaserum."

"Don't worry. Ted knows what he's doing. We teach them how to deal with interviews in training. Besides, I don't know what they're trying to get out of him, but we know that he has nothing to do with these people that have been trying to kidnap Victoire," Kingsley told Harry.

Harry nodded just before the MLE agent in the interrogation room with Teddy began.

"So Mr. Lupin, do you know why you're in here?" The agent asked.

Teddy's face was in a calm mask, "I assume it has something to do with the attempted kidnapping investigation, but it mustn't have anything to do with what had just happened during the third task, because I've already written my report on that and everything you'd need is already processed."

The MLE agent nodded, "Yes, I'm not going to question you on what just happened. However, I do have some other questions for you. Are you aware of why MLE has taken over the investigation?"

"Why they have temporarily taken over? Yes, because evidence was found that suggests that someone in the auror department has been involved with the group who have been trying to kidnap Miss Weasley," Teddy replied readily.

"Yes. But we've adjusted to the theory that there is more than one person within the auror department working with the group."

Kingsley frowned and a second later Teddy's facial expression matched it. The last Kingsley had heard was that they had circumstantial evidence that someone was involved, but the idea that there were a few more people was new to him.

Teddy answered the agent, "And I take it I'm here because you think I'm somehow involved?"

The MLE agent scowled, "Auror Lupin, we're not accusing you of anything; I just need to ask you a few questions to clear some things up. Now, when you were in the tunnels under the ones that the department of Magical Sports and Games made for the task, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that we needed to hurry and get to Miss Weasley before the men that had kidnapped her had the chance to move her elsewhere," Teddy replied truthfully.

"But what did you think about the tunnels?" the agent asked.

Teddy gave the man an odd look, "I didn't really take much time to consider them; my first thought was to find Victoire."

The MLE agent stood up and walked around the interrogation room for a minute before ending up standing behind the chair he had vacated, "Mr. Lupin, were you aware that it took the department of Magical Sports and Games two months to create those tunnels for the third task?"

"No but it would make sense. Tunnels like that would take time," Teddy responded.

Kingsley could tell by the calculating look in Teddy's eyes that he was trying to figure out where the MLE agent was going.

"Then it would make sense that it would take at least more than the three days since Minister Flannery announced to the world that the task would take place to create the tunnels that were underneath the tunnels for the third task?"

Teddy seemed to understand what the agent was getting at this time, "Most likely. But that would mean that they'd have to have had the information beforehand. Which would make sense since you're already looking for a mole."

The agent smirked, "Exactly Mr. Lupin, but the thing is, the date of the Tournament has been a very closely guarded secret. Auror Shacklebolt only informed a few of the top aurors of the change when the Minister told him a few months ago, and most of the aurors had only found out about the task's change in date three days ago along with the rest of the wizarding world. Yet, Mr. Lupin, I'm told that you were one of the few aurors who knew about the change in date weeks ago."

Teddy nodded and explained, "Auror Shacklebolt had me go with Victoire Weasley to the meeting weeks ago where Flannery announced that the date for the task would be changed and that the rest of the population would know only a few days prior to the task."

"Why did Shacklebolt have you go with Miss Weasley?"

"Because she's not supposed to be left alone when walking around the Castle. She's had two –three now- attempted kidnappings before and this was one of Shacklebolt's security measures," Teddy explained calmly.

The agent moved forward at that moment and searched through a small pile of papers on the table between him and Teddy. When he found what he was looking for he looked back at Teddy, "This is the original schedule, written by you as per Shacklebolt's instructions, of who was to follow her that day. Why did you intervene and take over at that time if there were already aurors following her?"

"Victoire doesn't take well to the aurors following her. In this case, Auror Shacklebolt thought it would be easier to have me go with her instead of arguing with the other aurors for who knows how long," Teddy replied easily.

"Understandable, but my question to you is why did Shacklebolt pick you to go in for this case, when you've hardly shown up on any of the other guard schedules around her for the past few months? I have the schedules over the past school year, and you were on almost every patrol around her since the beginning, and yet, right after the Second task happened, you're name drops almost completely off the schedules. It's replaced in other sections and patrols, but you haven't been placed on Miss Weasley's specific patrol since right before the second task, why is that?" the agent asked interestedly.

Behind the one-way mirror, charmed glass Kingsley shared a look with Harry. They had been right to change Teddy's patrol and to use his time to make up the schedules concerning Victoire instead of following her manually most of the time, but their reasons for why they did, wouldn't be easily explained to the MLE agent. Especially since a large factor in the change was because Teddy didn't want his feelings for Victoire to manipulate, his judgement like it had earlier in the year with the notes.

Kingsley was also worried about the fact that Teddy had taken the veritaserum. In training, the aurors learned how to circumvent the potion by telling vague details or purposely answering the question with a different meaning, but if the MLE agent knew what questions to ask, he could specifically get Teddy to admit to his feelings and/or relationship with Victoire. And if that happened Kingsley knew that Ted would be in a lot more real trouble than the imagined trouble he was in at the moment.

In the interrogation room, Kingsley watched Teddy look precisely at the MLE agent.

"After the near-kidnapping during the Second task Auror Shacklebolt wanted the security around Victoire to be tightened. Normally, I would be in many of the patrols around her because sometimes I was the only auror she'd listen to. After the second task, Victoire promised Shacklebolt that she'd do what he said without complaint. Shacklebolt decided that if that was how it was going to be, he'd give me the task of creating the schedules for the aurors instead of one of the higher ranked aurors whose time would be better spent working on the investigation form the task. With me creating the schedules I'd also be able to know who was supposed to be around her at each time, and it freed me up to be able to show up as an extra auror whenever needed," Teddy explained.

"And Shacklebolt decided that you were needed in the meeting when the champions were told about the change in date?" The MLE agent asked.

Teddy nodded his head, "Yes."

The MLE agent looked at the papers on the table again before changing tactic, "I have a list of everyone in the auror department who had information on the change in date of the task before everyone else. And everyone who was told by Shacklebolt specifically were all told under a diluted version of an unbreakable vow. Everyone that is, except you since you found out from Flannery."

Teddy's face turned hard, "Are you trying to accuse me of-"

"Please Auror Lupin, let me finish," the MLE agent said with a sneer, "Now, what I was about to say is that both Aurors Potter and Shacklebolt have already declared that it would have been impossible for you to have told the potential kidnappers about the change in date because you're staying in the Castle and almost every movement of the aurors outside the Castle grounds has been recorded by the Department of Magical Transportation."

Teddy opened his mouth to say something but the agent interrupted him again.

"Unbeknownst to the champions and everyone who was told by Flannery, Professor McGonagall also put a spell on everyone to make it impossible to send out the information of the change in date by writing until it was announced officially, so even the champions wouldn't be allowed to owl their family members ahead of time to tell them. Because you were in the room at the same time, that spell encompassed you also, so our department knows that it would be impossible for you to have leaked the information, unless it was personally, which I already stated, I was told to be next to impossible by your superior aurors."

"Then why are you asking me these useless questions if it's been proven impossible that I'm the leak?" Teddy asked. Neither the MLE agent in the room with him, nor the other two nor Ms. Carver who were in the room with Kingsley and Harry could detect the slight undertone of anger in Teddy's voice. Yet Kingsley and Harry, two people that had known him his whole life, they could tell that he was starting to get fed up with the nonsensical interrogation he was getting.

"Because Mr. Lupin, while I was searching through the department of Magical Transportation's records, I found one instance where your whereabouts were unknown. And it just so happened to be four days ago on May second."

Teddy's facial expressions didn't give anything away but Kingsley could tell by the slight widening of his eyes that he was starting to get worried about the way this series of questions would end.

"Now I know the kidnappers would have been told of the change in date much earlier than on the second, but it was a date close enough for the task for a meeting to take place to make sure that all last minute details were in place, wouldn't you agree Mr. Lupin?" The agent asked.

Teddy didn't respond besides a cold glare.

"And the day would have been perfect too. All of the aurors were given the day off after the Memorial service, and with all of the visitors to the grounds coming and going at different times you apparating away from the grounds wouldn't have drawn much attention. And you did apparate away from the grounds, according to the Department of Magical Transportation and McGonagall's own security wards, at around two o'clock. And the same papers say that you didn't come back to the Castle until six a.m. the next day, just a few lone hours before you were scheduled to be in a meeting with Shacklebolt and Potter. What my department wants to know Mr. Lupin is where did you go during that time? What were you doing?" the agent asked with a determined look.

In the interrogation room, Kingsley saw that Ted's mouth was shut. The MLE agent had asked him a specific question and if he went to answer, the veritaserum would force him to answer truthfully. Kingsley watched him take a deep breath before answering.

"I was at the beach."

The MLE agent frowned at him. He knew that because of the veritaserum he'd told the truth, but his answer wasn't one that he was expecting.

"And what were you doing at the beach?"

Kingsley shared a look with Harry. They both knew what had happened but they weren't sure how Teddy would be able to answer.

"I was with my girlfriend. We were celebrating her birthday," Teddy told him vaguely.

The MLE agent looked surprised but carried on, "Really? Well then Mr. Lupin, if you would just give me the name of your girlfriend than I'd be able to check your alibi and clear you of all suspicions involving you in this case."

Beside Kingsley, Harry was cursing under his breath. If Ted told the agent his girlfriend's name he wouldn't be a suspect anymore, but he would have to face some sort of discipline for breaking the rule about being involved with a student while in the Castle.

Teddy just stared at the agent, not even bothering to try to answer. This in turn made the agent angry.

"Come now Mr. Lupin, not answering my question is just as good as admitting your guilt in this situation, because if your alibi was real, you wouldn't feel nervous about telling me the name of your girlfriend so that I could check."

Kingsley watched as the two had a pretty intense stare-down in the interrogation room. Even the room he and Harry were in was quiet as Ms. Carver and the two other MLE agents studied Ted's mannerisms and facial expressions for a tell.

It was during that short silence that the door to the room banged open.

Everyone turned to look at the person who had run into the room as the MLE agent in the other room spoke to Teddy again.

"This is your last chance Mr. Lupin. Tell me whom you were with on May 2nd. If we can't confirm your alibi you will still be on our suspect list!"

"He was with me."

* * *

In the interrogation room, Teddy stayed silent. Neither he nor the MLE agent knew that in the other room Victoire had just burst through or what she had admitted. Neither of them were able to see the shocked and beseeching looks that Harry and Kingsley had sent Victoire seconds after she'd spoken; their eyes begging her to retract what she'd said. And neither Teddy nor the MLE agent were present to see the triumphant and resolute look that had come to Ms. Carver's face when she understood Victoire's outburst.

* * *

**Wait . . . what?**

**A/N:****Well I hope that you liked that, and to make up for my extreme tardiness, I'm gonna post the next chapter today too!**

**I hope that you liked, thank you to everyone who has favourited, followed, read, and reviewed.**

**An especially big thanks to everyone who has reviewed, and even though I don't deserve them, I hope they keep coming?**

**Next Chapter: Coming right up!**


	89. Interview or Interrogation?

**A/N: Here's the second update for all of you lovely readers!**

* * *

**Interview or Interrogation?**

"Would you like some coffee Miss Weasley?"

Victoire looked up from her hands and looked at the young woman in front of her. She couldn't have been more than five years older than her, and she had a sweet yet concerned look on her face. Victoire had expected the sweet look, but not the concern.

_Then again, not all of the MLE agents are heartless. Last, they heard I was still out cold from blood loss. They didn't expect me to be up so soon or they would have been waiting outside the Hospital Wing to question me._

Victoire glanced at the simple mug in the MLE agent's hand and shook her head gently, "No thank you. Large amounts of caffeine aren't very good for someone who's recovering from a concussion."

The agent blushed and left the room, only to return seconds later with a different coloured mug, "How about some tea?"

Victoire sighed and started to absent-mindedly tap her nails on the table in front of her, "No thank you. Tea doesn't actually have a lot less caffeine than coffee. Some teas even have more caffeine."

The woman frowned this time and left again. Before Victoire could count to ten the blue jacket, clad woman came back into the room with a clear glass in her hand filled with water.

"How about some water then? It must have been quite some time since you've eaten or drank."

Victoire smiled, "Yes it has, but no thank you."

The woman sighed exasperatedly as she sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the table from Victoire. She pushed the glass in Victoire's direction, "C'mon a glass of water isn't going to mess with your health. Just take a few sips, even you have to be even a little thirsty."

Victoire touched the edge of the glass and began to make circles in the condensation from the sides.

"Being thirsty doesn't even factor into this conversation. The only reason why you want me to drink this is because it has veritaserum in it," Victoire said shooting the MLE agent in front of her a look before looking past her to the mirrored wall behind her. She couldn't see past the mirror into the room on the other side of the wall but she knew that there were people there watching and listening to her.

She turned her attention back to the MLE agent in front of her and almost smirked at the shocked look on her face.

"Now Miss Weasley I don't know what you're talking about as you can obviously see there only seems to be water in that glass and-"

The woman was cut off by the sound of the door opening. Two people entered, the first was the woman who had been in the same room with Kingsley and Harry when she busted in and saw Teddy being interrogated, and the other was the man who had been on the other side of the glass interrogating him.

When Victoire burst into the room all she had been focused on was seeing Kingsley and asking him to explain to her what was going on before she freaked out completely. Ally and Xavier hadn't had any more information for her than what they'd told her already, and she couldn't very well just lie in her bed while everything else was going on a few floors behind her. Therefore, she got up out of bed and promptly ran to find Kingsley. Ally and Xavier had been so surprised at her sudden movement that by the time they realized what was going on and followed behind her, they didn't have the chance to catch up. They followed her down two floors and right into the room that MLE agents had taken over, and a little after that stopped behind her as she stood in the open doorway and answered the question that the MLE agent had been asking Teddy in the attached room.

The woman who had been in the room with Harry and Kingsley hadn't stopped smirking since Victoire had burst through. Not even the trial of moving Victoire into a different interrogation room or arguing with Kingsley over the fact that he demanded that he along with her parents would be allowed to sit in behind the mirror-charmed wall to hear what was going on could dispel the woman's smile. And even now, as she looked at the young MLE agent who was sitting in front of Victoire she couldn't wipe the smile off her face. The smile that said that she'd heard what she needed to hear.

The older woman looked at the younger MLE agent, "Agent Greenberg you may go now, Agent Alesci and I will take it from here."

The younger woman stood up but frowned, "Ma'am I can handle this I promise-"

"Now Agent Greenberg, we don't want to waste any more time do we?"

"No Ma'am."

With that, the younger MLE agent whisked out of the room and the other two sat down across the table from Victoire. The man introduced himself as Agent Alesci. Victoire inclined her head in his direction but she didn't shake his proffered hand.

The older woman gave Victoire a considering look, "I'm Agent Carver, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"I know," Victoire responded curtly.

The woman frowned for a second before giving her an overly bright smile, "Yes, of course you do. You must know a lot about the ministry since so many of your family members work there. And with so many in high positions. Your Uncle as the head on the Department for International Co-operation, and your godfather as head of the Auror Department."

Victoire didn't respond. She knew that under this woman's orders the previous agent had attempted to force her to drink veritaserum. Hidden in a drink that she willingly took and drank was on the line, but not necessarily against the law from what she knew about the law and its regulations. Especially since, she wasn't being interrogated or 'charged' for anything. They had told her that they just wanted to ask her some questions. No pressure. Yeah right.

"Miss Weasley I know that you're not stupid, and I also know that you know a lot more about the magical law than most do because of your godfather and uncles, so let's just cut to the chase shall we? Could you please repeat what you said when you barged into the room while Agent Alesci was interviewing Auror Lupin?" Agent Carver asked.

"Agent Alesci asked Auror Lupin where he was on May 2nd, he wasn't answering, so when I came in I informed you that he was with me," Victoire told them straightforwardly.

Agent Carver nodded and began looking through some files before her while Agent Alesci took over the questioning.

"You said that he was with you, yet Auror Lupin told me that he was at the beach with his girlfriend celebrating her birthday. You have to admit that your two stories don't add up."

"I'm Ted's girlfriend and if you check St. Mungo's birth records you'll find that I was born on May second 1999," Victoire answered.

Agent Carver seemed to make a note on the papers in front of her and Victoire had no doubt that one of the other MLE agents on the other side of the wall had left to go check St. Mungo's records.

"So you can account for the entire time that Auror Lupin was away on the second?" Agent Alesci asked her.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "He side-along apparated me away from the grounds at two o'clock on the second. We went to a beach near my parent's house, and we apparated back at six a.m. on May third. He was with me the entire time that he was unaccounted for. Now if that's all you need I'll be going."

She didn't expect them to let her go but she did stand up from her chair and turn her back to them simply for dramatics' sake.

"Wait Miss Weasley, we, understandably, have more questions to ask you," Agent Carver told her.

Victoire sat back down, "Shoot."

"What were you doing when you were away with Auror Lupin?"

"That's none of your business," Victoire answered looking down at her nails.

"Oh I _think_ it is Miss Weasley."

"And I _know_ that it's not. What happened between Ted and I is between Ted and I. You don't have to know everything," Victoire told them acerbically.

Agent Carver and Agent Alesci shared a look. Agent Carver leaned forward and patted the hand that Victoire had resting on the table, "Miss Weasley, I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation here."

Victoire pulled her hand away, "Then tell me."

Agent Carver sighed, "We found evidence in the tunnels you were found in that leads us to believe that at least one person in the auror department has been working with your kidnappers. We have more evidence to suggest some people, but we need all the information and cooperation we can from others to figure out who is to blame."

"And you actually think that Teddy has something to do with this? That's funny. He's saved me from being kidnapped before! How could you think that he was a part of it?" Victoire asked outraged.

"Yes, he's saved you each time. Meaning he's been there each time, we can connect him to each incident, even back to the failed force-field during your first task which would could have killed you-"

Victoire interrupted agent Alesci's sentence, "Oh my Godric you MLE guys are complete nutters! You know what? Go ahead. Go ahead and try to explain to me how Teddy's connected to all of these situations."

Agent Alesci sent Agent Carver a look before continuing, "Fine. He wasn't slated to work during the first task, yet when all of the other aurors travelled to the site of your task to search for clues as to how the force field failed, he signed in as going with them. Why would he do that if he weren't on duty? Maybe to hide evidence that had been accidently left behind. It would be a perfect cover."

Victoire snorted, "Or he could have gone with them so that he could find and return my wand to me since I lost it during that task. Which he did by the way. If he were in cahoots with my kidnappers why not destroy my wand? That would definitely have hindered my being able to protect myself later on."

Agent Carver looked at her with narrowed eyes. She nodded a minute later and wrote something else down on the paper in front of her while Agent Alesci continued, "Shacklebolt has informed us that you were also attacked on the night of the Yule Ball. And the two aurors who were first on the scene were Auror Ted Lupin and Auror Kurt Williamson. Interesting how Lupin was the first on site to _save _you."

"If you did your research Agent Alesci, you would know that I was attacked outside on the grounds by someone who was masquerading as another student. The same area where Aurors Lupin and Williamson were scheduled to patrol. They found me first because it was their job," Victoire bit out.

"Yes Miss Weasley, I know. But you have to admit that it is rather convenient that you were attacked around the area where they were supposed to be patrolling."

"Not really," Victoire scoffed.

Agent Alesci's eyes brightened, "Would you like to illuminate us with what you mean Miss Weasley?"

Victoire sighed, "I assume that my attacker was following me during the night and attacked me when and where he did because he assumed that it was secluded enough. I think the setting was only important in the sense that it was convenient in timing for the attacker. I was alone and without someone following my every move as they had earlier in the week."

"Why were you going out on the grounds in the first place Miss Weasley? And why were you alone?" Agent Alesci asked.

Victoire bit her lip before deciding to answer honestly, "I was going out onto the grounds with the intention to see Auror Lupin, and I was alone because I'd left all of my friends in the Great Hall to finish enjoying their night."

"Did your friends know that you were on your way to see Auror Lupin?"

Victoire nodded, "Yes. I wasn't feeling very well and when I decided to leave my cousin Ally suggested that I find Teddy first and have him walk me back to Gryffindor Tower so that I wouldn't be going by myself."

Agent Alesci tilted his head, "What of your date then? All of the champions were required to bring dates."

Victoire swallowed, she had hoped that she wouldn't have to bring up what had happened with Chris again, but it seemed the only way to explain what had happened so that Teddy wouldn't be in any more trouble.

"My date and I actually ended up in an argument. He tried to . . . force his affections on me. One of my friends had followed him out and got him away from me. My friend then told me to go find Teddy to make sure that he took me back to the tower, while he dealt with my date."

"And is there anyone who can verify that your friend told you to go find Lupin?" Alesci asked.

Victoire eyed the man incredulously. He didn't seem worried that her date had attacked her, he just wanted to know if anyone could prove that going to see Teddy was Victoire's idea, and not one forced on her by Teddy himself.

"My friend Kyle Line is the person who told me to go and find him," Victoire answered him quietly.

Agent Carver nodded her head and wrote something down while she asked another question, "Now you did say that he was a friend of yours . . . is there anyone else that can verify your statement who isn't a close friend of yours? Someone more unbiased?"

Victoire sighed, "Colton Knott came in near the end. He didn't see the attack but he and Kyle both ended up taking my date to the Hospital Wing because of a locked jelly-legs jinx that Kyle had put on him."

Agent Carver nodded again and Agent Alesci continued, "So you don't believe that Auror Lupin had anything to do with that attack?"

Victoire gave his a 'duh' look, "He saved me, contacted Professor McGonagall, Kingsley, and my father, and convinced me to tell them what happened even though I didn't think I'd be able to pull myself together and explain."

"He also, single-handedly, saved you during the second task. How is it that only one auror was sent in, and it ended up being him?"

"We needed someone who looked like Konstantin Krum to accompany us. Teddy's a metamorphmagus and an auror; it made sense to use him. Minister Flannery agreed to it and it was Kingsley's idea to start with. He saved everyone who had been kidnapped before and got them all back safely before coming back to get me. And yes he did save me, but I also played a part."

"You were passed out when he apparated you back," Agent Alesci pointed out.

Victoire felt her face heat up, "I was conscious when we disapparated. Somewhere in between leaving and arriving, I passed out from blood loss. This was my fault because I didn't get proper treatment from my wound before leaving to rescue the kids. And if you ask Noëlle Varens she'll tell you that she told him to go back and save me before they had a chance to go back and come back with more aurors."

Agent Carver continued to jot down what Victoire was saying while Agent Alesci eyed her with interest, "And this last kidnapping attempt. I know that you're still suffering from a concussion so we'll take your memories after we're finished with this interview so that we don't put too much more strain on you today, but what is the last thing that you remember before passing out today?"

Victoire closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. When the orange-haired man had pushed her against the wall she'd hit her head again and her vision had gone fuzzy. She was pretty sure that that was what had given her the concussion, and because of it, she couldn't really remember what she'd last seen. She had heard more than she had seen at the end, but the lightheaded feeling she'd had made her hesitate to ascertain that her memories were perfectly intact.

She finally decided to answer with this; "I remember hearing Teddy and the other aurors arrive, but my vision wasn't the best. The exact last thing I remember was feeling Teddy hold me –I assume because I'd fallen- and asking me if I was okay. Everything immediately after that is black."

Agent Alesci spoke gently to Victoire, "Miss Weasley, I know that you don't want to think this, but we have good reason to believe that Auror Lupin was involved in your kidnappings and you trying to defend him doesn't help us convict him."

Victoire's eyes flashed and she bristled, "Teddy had nothing to do with the kidnappings besides stopping them."

Agent Alesci decided to change the topic, "Miss Weasley, you said that you are involved with Auror Lupin, am I correct?"

"Yes," Victoire spit out through gritted teeth.

"You do know that it is against the rules that _your_ godfather established for an auror within the castle to be involved with a student, right?"

"Yes."

"So if Lupin has broken this rule, how much farther of a stretch is it to believe that he could be involved with this group that has tried to kidnap you?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Um, a jump about the size of Canada. If he's my boyfriend, why would he try to hurt me? Furthermore, why would he have to settle with these crazy and conspicuous plots to kidnap me during the tasks when I would literally, willingly go anywhere he wanted me to?"

Agent Carver and Agent Alesci shared another look, but this one seemed to share that they hadn't thought of it from that side before.

"Miss Weasley I know that you want to think well of Mr. Lupin because you're infatuated with him-"

Victoire cut Agent Carver off right there, "First of all, I'm not infatuated with Teddy. I love him. I've always loved him, he's been my best friend since I was born and he's one of the last people that would want to hurt me, he would have nothing to do with anything that would harm me. Second, why are you so insistent that he has something to do with this? What is this evidence that has been found that would make you start pointing fingers at Teddy?"

As if by some unspoken cue, both of the MLE agents stood up. Agent Carver was piling up her papers while Agent Alesci walked over to the door to open it and gestured for Victoire to exit through it.

"Miss Weasley, we apologize for using up all of your time but we thank you for cooperating and answering our questions. We told Auror Lupin that if someone could verify where he was on May the second that we would then be able to clear him of all the charges laid against him. You've done that so we will clear him and he will no longer be a subject in this investigation. However, he will still have to answer for the consequences of breaking the rule about involvement with a student. But that will be to his superior aurors' discretion," Agent Alesci told her.

Victoire stood up from her chair but didn't move out of the room, "What is the evidence that made you start pointing fingers at Teddy? Why would make you think that he was involved?"

Agent Carver gave her a bright smile, "We need to get to our next interview Miss Weasley, so if you'd please leave . . ."

Victoire opened her mouth to argue when her father suddenly walked into the room. Bill stopped just inside and gave his daughter a relieved look.

"Victoire, your mother, and I would like to have the opportunity to speak with you before the next set of agents come and have you give them your memories."

She didn't want to leave without finding out why the agents were so adamant about blaming Teddy, but she knew better than to argue with her father, especially since he hadn't seen her since before the last task.

She nodded to her father and followed him outside of the room. He stayed close to her and placed an arm gently around her shoulders as if to shield her from the stares she got from the MLE agents in the outer room. He walked her out of the room and into the hall. He directed her two doors down into another room that she hadn't seen any MLE agents enter or exit yet.

The minute she stepped into the door, she went running straight into another man's arms.

"Teddy!"

Victoire wrapped her arms around Teddy's waist, and buried her head into his chest. He squeezed her tightly back and whispered into her ear, "Godric I was so worried about you."

She moved her head away from his chest just enough to be able to look him in the eyes, "I'm sorry."

He ran a hand through her hair gently. He knew that she was referring to telling the agents about their secret, and the fallout that would soon happen.

"Why did you do that? I would have thought of something to say . . . I would have come up with something. I didn't want you dragged any farther into this than already necessary," Teddy told her softly.

Victoire knew where Teddy was going to go with their conversation and stopped it, "Teddy, did you want to save me when you found me in the tunnels?"

His eyes widened incredulously and he gave her a look that said he was worried for her mental health, "Of course Vic. I wanted to take care of you."

She nodded, "You always take care of me. I wanted to take care of you this time."

He locked his sapphire blue eyes with her ocean blue ones.

"I promise that I thought about what I was doing before I blurted it all out."

That made his lips pull up into a small smile.

Victoire separated from him a little bit, belatedly realizing that her father was still in the room, and turned to see not only her father, but also her mother, Harry, and Kingsley. She looked at the latter for a minute before speaking.

"Do you need me to go over what happened during my interview?"

Kingsley shook his head, "Your father and I were allowed to sit in on the other side of the wall to make sure that they weren't trying to take advantage of you."

Victoire swallowed thickly, "How did I do?"

Kingsley smiled gently at her, "The best that you could do. You were able to give them names to check with, that will back up your stories, and you convinced them that you didn't believe that Teddy was involved at all."

"How did that help? They were persuaded that Teddy was involved and it seemed that nothing I said could convince them of the opposite."

"You're the one who was almost kidnapped, even if you were wrong about whom you thought was involved with your kidnapping, they would only be able to go so far with you refusing to condemn Ted," Kingsley explained.

Victoire nodded and changed the topic of conversation to something she really needed to know, "Why did they think that Teddy was involved? What kind of proof do they think they have?"

Teddy, Kingsley, Harry, and her father all shared a look and she was starting to get upset about not being in on whatever they already knew.

Teddy moved his arms away from Victoire's waist and took both of her hands into his. He looked at her seriously, "They have reason to believe that Kurt, Jilly, and Professor Cooke are involved with the kidnappers."

* * *

**A/N:**** Oh snap! What just happened?**

**P.S.**** Sorry about the cliffie, but I wanted to give you more than just the last chapter because my updates were so late.**

**P.P.S:**** Next chapter will hopefully come out in a week, I just need to get back into my writing groove . . . and reviews may just help with that . . . ;)**

**Thanks for reading everyone! and DFTBA!**


	90. Clues

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm so sorry that this update is so late. I've just been super busy working, and spending time with my family before my brother and I have to leave for university again in the fall (Especially since my brother has to leave in the middle of August for football training camp at his university and after that I won't see him in person until Christmas).**

**Also, writing used to be an outlet for me to expel some of my excess creative energy that builds up during the school year. However, working with kids for eight hours a day does a marvelous job of using up excess energy. So by the time I get home at night my mind is far away from magical adults and teenagers. On the upside, if I ever want to write a story entitled 'Kid's Say the Darnedest Things' I'd have lots of anecdotes!  
**

**Anyway, this chappie has a few more answers for all of you, and a little bit from several favourite characters.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, which should be obvious since I'm Canadian and not British.**

**Enjoy! **

* * *

**Clues**

Victoire was exhausted. When she woke up earlier that morning she never thought that they day would turn out the way it did. That she'd spend three hours in the third task just to be kidnapped, again. She especially didn't count on getting a concussion and essentially losing a duel with her would-be kidnappers. The icing on the cake though, had to be the three hours she spent after waking up, in either an interrogation room with MLE agents asking her questions or getting her memories of the event from her and looking through them with a pensieve. And of course, since the Auror Department technically wasn't allowed to be involved, she had to find the time to tell Kingsley and her uncles Harry and Ron everything that happened, so that they could do their own investigation into the kidnapping on the sly. What was worse was the fact that she had to admit to her and Teddy's relationship so that he wouldn't get charged for kidnapping, and then finding out that not only did they think that he was involved, but they also thought that his friends Kurt, Jilly, and Professor Cooke were involved also.

She was nowhere close to being ready to go to bed for the night, but Kingsley and her father had practically forced her out of the room and instructed her to get back to Gryffindor Tower to get some sleep. She wouldn't have listened to them, but they had already contacted Ally and Xavier and they were waiting for her to walk her back to the tower because there was no way that they were going to allow her to walk around the Castle alone. Victoire was confused as to why Xavier was still allowed in the Castle especially since all visitors had been sent home more than six hours ago. But the minute the three of them walked into the common room she was bombarded with question after question from her friends and family that were gathered there, so she didn't have the opportunity to ask him.

It was ten o'clock when she got back, but sleep was the farthest thing from her mind as she fielded questions and answers about what had happened during the kidnapping and the interrogations she was a part of. There were relatively few questions until after she finished explaining that they'd thought that Teddy was involved with the kidnappers.

"So they thought that because Teddy is friends with Auror Donaldson and Auror Williamson that he was also involved in the kidnapping?" Xavier asked Victoire from beside her.

She nodded her head.

"What is this evidence that puts blame on the aurors and Professor Cooke anyway?" Sandra asked worriedly from the chair she and Kyle were sharing across from the loveseat Victoire, Xavier, and Ally were sitting on.

Victoire sighed and ran a hand frustratedly through her hair, "Apparently they found enough circumstantial evidence in the tunnels that the kidnappers made. My memories seemed to confirm it somewhat. There was a certain room that was set up with monitors that allowed them to watch the task, and in that room they found maps of the tunnels and lists of names-"

"But the lists of names is a good thing, it's something they can check with records," Kyle pointed out.

"It would be a good thing if it wasn't all in some sort of code. But that's not what caught their attention, they found a bundle of auror robes in the room, and I can remember seeing them in the corner of the room," Victoire told them.

"So that, along with what you overheard about the one man admitting to being an auror on the inside is proof that someone is involved, but why Williamson and Donaldson?" Dom asked from her couch near the empty fireplace.

"Most auror robes have names printed into them. They all look the same and if they take off the badge, so names are printed in them so that can be identified. These robes were on the smaller and shorter side, meaning a female auror, and the name written on the inside was Jilly's."

"But isn't it possible that someone could have bought auror robes and just put her name on them, or that someone could have taken a pair of her robes?" Ally asked concerned.

"Possible, but not probable. Auror robes can only be bought by aurors, they have to show a badge when they go to purchase them. They also already interrogated Jilly a little and she didn't say anything about missing a pair of robes," Victoire said.

"Do all aurors know how many sets of robes they have, and where their robes are?" Xavier asked in disbelief.

Victoire nodded, "They're supposed to have an idea, so things like this, with people stealing robes or even badges, doesn't occur."

"So just because they found a pair of robes that belonged to Auror Donaldson, they think everybody she's close to, is also involved? That doesn't make sense. She was with Teddy and the other aurors when they went in to save you, and the person who tried to kidnap you and said he was in the auror department was male," Sandra reminded her.

"According to MLE she could have joined to put herself past suspicion. What was suspicious was that Ron was also looking for Auror Williamson when he was looking for people to go in with Teddy and he couldn't find him. That, and the fact that he's close to Jilly, and that they spend their free time together is enough to make him a suspect until they find evidence to the contrary. They even think that he may have been the man who tried duelled me earlier in the day, just under some sort of disguise," Victoire told them. Kingsley had told her earlier that after Teddy had apparated her out, all of the suspects in the tunnel had managed to leave, via hidden portkeys on their persons. The times from when someone last saw Kurt earlier that day, to when he resurfaced after the third task was suspicious enough to have him brought in for questioning. After hearing Victoire tell them that the orange-haired man claimed that he was in the Auror Department, MLE started to think that it may have been Kurt.

"But there has to be more evidence than just Auror Donaldson's robes and that Auror Williamson was unaccounted for during the time that you were missing," Kyle said.

Victoire nodded, "There was. There was a note that was found in the tunnels that wasn't coded. It briefly outlined a plan that sounded like what had happened to me, only they didn't get their 'end game' as they put it, because I was rescued before they could take me to the 'meeting place'. The note also made reference to what they told me was a large sum of money, although none was found on the premises. What really cinched it was that the note had some romantic undertones, and that it was addressed to 'J' 'with love, Prof. C'."

"To 'J', so Jilly. And love 'Prof C.', meaning Professor Cooke?" Ally asked.

"Yes. They admitted to dating early in their interrogations to prove that they weren't trying to hide anything, but that just put more blame to them when this note surfaced. MLE also said that it helped explain how these kidnapers could have found out. Everyone Kingsley told had to make an unbreakable vow so the leak being from there seems very unlikely. When they interrogated me, they tried to put that blame on Teddy because he was in the room with me and the other Champions when Flannery told us about the change in date weeks earlier."

"But if they think that Professor Cooke has something to do with this, then he could have been the leak about the change in date to the kidnappers because he had to be told because he's the teacher in charge of Victoire for the task," Xavier reasoned.

"Exactly. Jilly and Kurt have lived in the Castle all year like Teddy, all of their movements outside can be tracked with the department of Magical Transportation, like I told you that they did with Teddy. MLE has looked for suspicious movement within Kurt and Jilly's records but they couldn't find much. However, they would have really no way to check Professor Cooke's movements since he's a teacher and they're pretty much allowed to come and go as they please off the grounds," Victoire explained.

"So the note and the robes are enough to make Auror Donaldson and Professor Cooke suspects. But they still need to be looking for a male member of the Auror Department who would be the person who has been a big part of trying to kidnap Vic, so then they look to someone else who spends lots of time with Auror Donaldson and they think Auror Williamson. The fact that they couldn't pinpoint him during your attempted kidnapping is enough to make him suspect too. And just the fact that Teddy knows them is enough for MLE to think that he's involved. And since they know that there is a mole in the Auror Department, Kingsley is no longer able to be in this investigation and try to find the kidnappers," Louis summarized from where he was seated. Until he'd spoken, Victoire had forgotten that he was there.

"So in other words, we've got a bit of a quagmire going on here?" Cecilia asked from her sear next to Louis.

Victoire nodded and rubbed her eyes tiredly. She was sure that when she would wake up tomorrow morning that she would question herself over why she agreed to allow so many of her family members to hear about the situation. Letting Louis and Cecilia in on it was something she wasn't too happy about, but she had lost all of her desire to fight when she'd finally been able to banish Rose, Al, James, and Freddie to their rooms telling them that they were too young to be involved in her problems. Louis, Molly, and Dom had capitalized on her exhaustion and had convinced Victoire to allow them to stay to listen to her story, but they had also promised that they'd go to bed right after and wouldn't breathe a word of it to any of the younger kids. Victoire hadn't mentioned that they weren't allowed to tell their relatives in other houses, so she was sure that by noon tomorrow Lucy and Baxter would also be aware of everything that had gone down that day.

Xavier may have given up his Head Boy badge when he took the offer from _Puddlemere_, but he didn't lose his authoritative tone, or his ability to herd all of the other kids to their dormitories for the night. Once all of the under-aged kids were gone, Victoire's friends spent another half hour trying to help her come up with even one answer to the abundance of questions she had concerning her kidnappings, only to come up empty handed. When Victoire could feel her brain pounding against her skull, she decided to _finally_ call it a night. She knew that there was still a whole host of information that they didn't know, but that they weren't going to find anything else out that night. Victoire wished all of her friends goodnight (Xavier finally leaving the tower because he had to get home and rest before his Sunday afternoon practice with his team the next day) and followed Sandra up the stairs and into their dormitory before changing into her pyjamas and effectively passing out on her bed.

* * *

_Victoire eyes narrowed and she glared at the man in front of her. He had a shock of bright orange on the top of his head, but she couldn't make out any facial features._

_He looked back at her and growled before waving his wand and shouting a spell. Victoire didn't hear the words coming out of his mouth, but she noticed the wand movement and the colored flash of light._

_Anticipating the disarming spell, she cast her own shield charm._

_The man just smirked at her and threw a wordless hex at her. She saw the hand movement and dodged it, before shooting an Incarcerous_ _spell at him. The man then used a shield charm, and cast a body-binding curse almost simultaneously. _

_She didn't have much room to maneuver, so she had to use a shortened Protego charm before casting a wordless stinging jinx._

_The man anticipated her movement and dodged the spell instead of blocking it. She saw a chance to shoot a Confringo curse, and hoped that the quick succession of spells would set him off balance._

_Next the man used a shield charm to stop the blasting curse._

_She took a chance and cast a stunning spell at him while dodging the blasting curse as it rebounded off of his shield charm and came back at her._

_She watched the man closely and saw him drop his wand arm just a second after his shield charm disappeared and smirked when she saw that her stunning charm had hit its mark. The man fell down with a bit of a yell and she walked closer to the man's body so she could get a closer look at his face._

_She felt her face scrunch up in confusion, as she got closer. The man's head was still covered in the bright orange hair, but his face was frozen into a familiar and friendly smirk; one she'd seen countless times on Kurt Williamson's face when she practiced dueling with him._

* * *

Victoire awoke with a start. Her heart was beating wildly from the adrenalin-inducing dream, and she was moving her head from side to side, as she tried to take in her surroundings.

"Oh my Merlin," Victoire said not very loudly, but with enough volume to wake up Sandra who had been fast asleep in her bed across from her.

Sandra yawned loudly and rubbed her eyes as she looked worriedly at Victoire, "What is it? What's wrong?"

Victoire jumped out of her bed and reached for her silk dressing robe on the chair beside her bed. She tossed it on and tied it at the waist, "I need to see the MLE agents – Godric what am I saying? I need to see Kingsley!"

Sandra was still confused but she could tell that Victoire was: A.) Serious about finding and MLE agent –or Kingsley, she wasn't too sure, B.) Still somewhat confused because she was probably half asleep, and C.) She was undoubtedly about five minutes away from running out of their dormitory, in her pyjamas and dressing robe.

"Okay, how about we swing by the boys' dormitory first and grab Kyle? I doubt Kingsley would be very happy to see you running around the Castle at five o'clock in the morning by yourself," Sandra told Victoire.

Victoire nodded her head, grabbed Sandra's hand, and dragged her out of their dormitory all the way to Kyle's.

To say that Kyle was confused when he was woken up to pyjama clad Victoire and Sandra five minutes later, would be an understatement. Sandra tried her best to explain to her boyfriend Victoire's odd behaviour as they ran after her in their own dressing robes, but Sandra didn't actually know much about the strange situation herself.

Victoire's friends followed dutifully behind her as she ran down a few flights of stairs and around corridors to where she knew the MLE agents were working non-stop. She didn't stop as she went crashing through the door into one of the rooms they had commandeered from the Auror Department.

It was very early in the morning but she wasn't surprised to see that there were a handful of MLE agents in the room, including Agent Carver and Alesci. She was very happy to see that also in the room, were Kingsley and Auror McKenny. She didn't bother to acknowledge any of the MLE agents, in favour of running right to her godfather's side.

"Victoire what in the world are you doing out of bed?" Kingsley asked her worry etched deeply into the lines of his face. His eyes were glued to her, only moving away for a moment to watch Kyle and Sandra's entrance into the room close behind Victoire's.

She knew that her sudden appearance would most likely startle her godfather, but she needed to tell him something, "Auror Williamson wasn't involved with my kidnapping and I know what they're all thinking but he wasn't the orange haired man who duelled me yesterday."

Kingsley looked at her in confusion that he wasn't able to voice before Agent Carver interrupted them.

"Miss Weasley you and your friends are not allowed to be out this late –or early in the morning!"

Victoire raised an eyebrow at Agent Carver, and barely spent the time to point to the Head Girl badge she had the foresight to pin to her dressing robe, before turning back to Kingsley; "I can prove that Kurt Williamson wasn't involved . . . or prove enough that would counter-act any of the circumstantial evidence that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has against him."

"Miss Weasley if you think you have any evidence that will help our case you should tell us," Agent Alesci said, "Not Shacklebolt, he has no authority over this case."

"But-" Victoire began before being interrupted by Sandra.

"Okay, let's just take a step back and try not to get our territorial egos into a twist. I understand MLE's worry about the Auror Department being involved what with the person who tried to kidnap Victoire unknowingly admitting to being in the department and being a mole. However, I think that leaving the Auror Department out of the entire investigation is simply an idiotic idea. They'd be extra manpower and this case needs to be settled fast! These people have tried to kidnap my best friend at least three times before so I doubt that this last setback will stop them. Everyone here needs to work together," Sandra told everyone sternly.

The MLE agents gave Sandra an incredulous look, but Victoire wasn't sure if it was because she just scolded them for acting like three year olds, or because Sandra's speech may have lost some of its oomph because she was delivering it while still in her pyjamas.

"And you are?" Agent Alesci asked Sandra as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Sandra stood up a little straighter, "Sandra Collins the almost kidnapped champion's best mate, which should be obvious seeing as I followed her out of our dormitory at five in the morning in my p.j.s even though I'm not entirely sure what we're doing here."

"Yes, well Miss Collins, the Auror Department shouldn't be involved with this for more reasons than just the mole. The kidnappers haven't proven to be using dark magic, therefore, the Auror Department shouldn't even be involved," Agent Alesci said.

Sandra rolled her eyes, "Fine. You want to talk dark magic? How about the kind of magic it would take to control a dementor?"

Kingsley gave Sandra a concerning look, "Yes, that kind of magic would be considered dark but-"

"There we go, loophole," Sandra said calmly examining her nails.

"How so?" Agent Alesci asked.

Kyle rolled his eyes the same way his girlfriend had a few minutes ago, "Did you guys not go through Victoire's memories? She told us last night that before she ended up duelling with the kidnapper that she overheard him telling two of his goons to let out a dementor that they had. If they had access to a dementor, then they have to have some way to control. Ergo, dark magic."

Victoire looked at Kyle stunned. She hadn't even made the connection yet, "Kyle, I could kiss you right now."

Kyle grimaced, "It's no fun if you actually want to kiss me."

Victoire rolled her eyes before she focused on the argument between Kingsley and the MLE agents that started up.

"One eavesdropped conversation doesn't prove that the kidnappers are dark wizards," Agent Alesci argued.

"Yet we have no proof that they aren't, and until we do the Auror Department has a duty to investigate," Kingsley argued.

Agent Carver glared at Kingsley, "I'm in charge of this investigation. I'll allow the Auror Department to be involved, but only the people that I allow."

Kingsley frowned, "Fine, but if I find out that you're keeping any bit of information from me we're going to have trouble."

"Can I explain how I know why Auror Williamson was not the man who attacked me?" Victoire asked fairly certain that they'd gotten past their territorial issues.

Kingsley nodded.

"I've duelled with Auror Williamson before, and I've almost always beat him. I know his duelling style and that man did not have it. I used the same sequence of spells because it's my go-to and the man ended up dodging my stunning spell. Auror Williamson has_ never _been able to dodge that spell when we duelled like that," Victoire explained.

Agent Carver gave Victoire a bit of a patronizing look, "Miss Weasley, perhaps in your previous duels with Auror Williamson, he let you win to try to make him seem harmless."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "He's a young man with an ego the size of Australia. He wouldn't purposely lose _every_ duel I'd ever had with him just to lull me into a false sense of security. Besides, in the heat of the moment in the middle of a duel a person follows their instincts and their ingrained styles of duelling. That man did not display the duelling techniques that I've seen Auror Williamson display countless times."

"Even if we did choose to believe your statement, you don't have hard evidence, just an inkling," Agent Alesci said.

Victoire placed her hands on her hips, "It's a feeling a lot stronger than an inkling, thank you very much. But you don't have any hard proof that Kurt's a part of it either. All you have to go on is that he wasn't accounted for during the time that I went missing, and that he's a friend of someone else who you _think_, is involved. My inkling should be enough to negate your non-concrete proof, and then he should be considered innocent until proven guilty!"

Agent Alesci shared a look with Agent Carver, causing Victoire to grumble. They still didn't believe what she was saying. She sighed heavily and reached over to a table next to her, picked up a quill and a piece of paper and quickly jotted down a list. She gave the piece of paper to Agent Alesci when she was done.

"This is the routine of spells I've used against Auror Williamson in the past, and against the man who tried to kidnap me yesterday. Kurt's never been able to get past the stunning spell at the bottom; I always hit him on his arm, but the man who tried to kidnap me yesterday dodged the spell. Test it out. Don't even tell him what's going on. Just surprise him and see what his first reactions are when you duel him. I bet he'll even use that other list I added on the side against you because it's a routine he falls into," Victoire challenged.

Agents Alesci and Carver looked stunned while Kingsley shared a look with Auror McKenny.

"Using the spells are worth a shot. You don't have anything to lose, and if Victoire's right about how he'll react, that'll be proof enough –added to his alibi when we finally get it checked- that Auror Williamson is not the auror involved or the man who tried to kidnap her," Kingsley said.

Agent Carver didn't look happy but she nodded at Agent Alesci as if to say 'go-ahead'. Agent Alesci left the room quickly with the paper Victoire had written on, only to return roughly fifteen minutes later with a grim line of mouth. He went right to Agent Carver's side and began to whisper back and forth to her. Victoire bit on her lip a little nervously as they spoke. Finally, Agent Carver nodded at Agent Alesci, he left the room again, and she turned to face Kingsley and Auror McKenny.

"We're still waiting to check Auror Williamson's alibi for where he was yesterday during the task, but both Agent Alesci and I have taken into consideration what Miss Weasley has said about Auror Williamson's duelling abilities."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "So in normal speak, I was right. Kurt ended up getting tripped up by the stunning spell, and you don't think he's the orange-haired man anymore."

Agent Carver narrowed her eyes at Victoire, "You did seem to be correct Miss Weasley, and however we still need to ferret out whom in the Auror department is involved –besides Auror Donaldson since the investigation about her is still ongoing. And since you eliminated one of our prime suspects, we need to pretty much start from scratch now to find him."

Victoire shrugged, "At least there's one less innocent person being blamed now."

Agent Carver leveled Victoire with a hard stare, "Miss Weasley, I thank you for bringing the information about Auror Williamson to my attention, but I do not need you trying to insert yourself into the investigation. I've agreed to allow Auror Shacklebolt and some of his aurors into the investigation, so now all I need from you is to answer any questions my agents have when they come specifically to you. And most importantly, I need you to keep your nose out of this investigation unless expressly asked."

Victoire opened her mouth to retort, but Kingsley stopped her before she could. He placed his hand on her shoulder and pushed her gently in the direction of the door, knowing that her friends would follow, "Victoire understands your entreaties and she will do her best to stay out of the way. She'll be very busy anyway, seeing as she has exams and the Quidditch House cup semi-finals and final games coming up."

Victoire would have still complained if she hadn't caught the very serious look that her godfather had given her, along with his use of the words 'she will do her best to stay out of the way'.

Even though Victoire had no intention of completely forgetting that the investigation was going on, it was five-thirty in the morning and she did feel the need to get more sleep. Therefore, she left Agent Carver with a mumbled promise not to interfere _too_ much, and began the trek back to her dormitory with Sandra and Kyle quietly walking with her.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, well I hope that you have some more answers, but that the chapter also has you pondering where I'm going with this. If you're keeping track, Kurt has been cleared of charges, but Jilly and Professor Cooke are still under suspicion.

FYI, I do know where this is going, so just trust me and stick with me please :) We're just encountering a bit of a bumpy portion of this ride. (Like turbulence or a pothole ;)

**Next Chapter:** I'm just going to give you the title and let you mull it over: 'Did Colton Knott Just Help Me?'

A **big, big** thanks to everyone who has waited so patiently and been so understanding about my slower updates and even slower writing this summer. You guys are so awesome!

Another big thank you to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed!

And especially,

**Infinity Lily, Eighteen Inches, Goonergirl, katerinaVD, GabrielaTJ, Break This Spell666, Roxas4Ever13, owlcity2013, emorley, Oddliver, MuggleCreator, As the Robin Flies, zvc56, sushimaster18, Esahufflepuff, Fluffyx2, xSuperNovax, Lobster, marmar8089, brilliantincandescence, XoxMountainGirlxoX, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, loveislife94, TedandVic4ever, MaddieMonkey, rockon88, supergirl818, zippyrae, Kass, and america-singer-maxon-shreave.**

**GabrielaTJ:** Thank you, I hope that this chapter keeps it going!

**Break This Spell666**: Thanks, her foot is getting better, but she had bone surgery so it could be several more months before she's on top form again.

**owlcity2013**: I'm a wild driver ;)

**emorley**: Aww, thanks.

**MagicalNinjaUnicorn**: Ha, great review. I'll tell you now that his name is Kyle since you were blanking, and no, he's not involved. (Vic could totally take him ;) And I don't mind fangirl attacks one bit, keep 'em coming if you want :D

**DFTBA everyone!**

**P.S.** Oh, and I loved reading all of your hypothesis about where this story's going ;)


	91. Did Colton Knott Just Help Me?

**A/N: Sorry that this update is a few days late, I bought the newest Sigma Force novel by James Rollins and I _had_ to finish it before doing anything else.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else that is trademarked with it :)**

* * *

**Did Colton Knott Just Help Me?**

_Dear Vic,_

_I know that you're still trying to investigate the kidnappings as well as you can, given your limited time and resources, but I'm telling you that it's not something you need to worry about right now. You have enough on your plate worrying about your schoolwork and the upcoming Quidditch final match against Slytherin this weekend. You don't need to be spending your limited time trying to figure out who could be involved in your kidnapping. That's what the Department of MLE and the Auror Department are supposed to do._

_There, I've written you the accustomed words of wisdom and warning about trying to get into this investigation. Someone in this relationship needs to sound mature and responsible, so I guess this time it's going to have to be me. That being said, I don't really expect you to listen to my lovely words of wisdom. You're going to want to place yourself into this investigation anyway, so nothing I can say is going to stop you from your research. However, I hope that that is all you're doing right now. Research._

_And I hope that if you do stumble across something that both MLE and the Auror Departments have missed, that you will quickly contact either me, Kingsley, Harry, Ron, or even Auror McKenny or Agents Carver or Alesci. Although, I do understand that you aren't a big fan of Agent Alesci, or Agent Carver for that matter. But still, you need to contact someone the minute you find something. I know that Agents Carver and Alesci think that you're just getting in the way, but I trust your instincts and if you think that you've found a clue, then you probably have. So please, the minute you find something you contact one of us . . ._

Victoire sighed heavily. She'd read that part of the letter several times over since she'd gotten it yesterday, but the words still brought a bittersweet smile to her face. Teddy's words proved that he knew her very well; that she'd been spending almost all of her free time since the Third task that had occurred a little over a week ago, in the library researching what she could to find more clues about who had kidnapped her.

She'd centralized on the clue that she'd discovered in the tunnel, about whoever was involved in her kidnapping having access to a dementor. She didn't know why that point of interest seemed so important to her, she just had a feeling that it was a thread that needed to be pulled, and followed.

And that gut feeling was the reason why she, Ally, Sandra, and Kyle were all stuck in the library on that very warm and sunny Sunday afternoon in mid-May, searching through almost every book in the library that even mentioned the word dementor.

Beside her Ally sighed despondently, her book closing with a sharp _snap_. It seemed that her trail had led to a dead end. She stood up and gestured to the maze of shelving, silently signalling to her friends that she was going to put the book back and try to find another one. Before she left Kyle pushed a piece of parchment paper down the table to her, for her to bring with her. It was filled with a very large list of books that were in the library that mentioned dementors. The four of them had been able to get through about half of the books on the list since they started on it exactly a week ago. Most of the books listed the basics about dementors and how to produce a patronous to defend against them, but they still had to check every single one in case something else was written in them.

A few minutes after Ally left to find another book on the non-crossed out list, Sandra snapped her book shut and stood up.

"If I have to read the written out incantation for the patronous charm one more time I think I'm going to go crazy," She whispered exhaustedly.

Victoire gave her best friend a sympathetic look. Kyle and Sandra had taken on the brunt of the research work, seeing as both Victoire and Ally had intermittedly left during the past week to go to Quidditch practices for their semi-final game against Hufflepuff that had happened the previous day. They ended up beating them, and Slytherin had won their game against Ravenclaw the day before their game, so the Gryffindor Quidditch team was scheduled to play Slytherin for the House Cup the coming Saturday. Because of this, Victoire had another week of practice to schedule and she and Ally were going to have to spend more time at that, leaving Kyle and Sandra to do more of the research again. Which was why they were spending their Sunday in the library. Victoire and Ally wanted to try to pull their own weight `before they had to spend most of their next week in Quidditch practice.

"Well then maybe you should pick one of the books with an essay about dementors on it and see if there's anything new in those?" Victoire suggested.

Sandra nodded her head absentmindedly before her eyes brightened, "I think I have an idea!"

Before either Victoire or Kyle could ask, Sandra grabbed the book she had closed and walked away from their table. When she was out of sight, Victoire and Kyle shared a confused look.

They went back to scanning through their respect textbooks, and once Victoire had figured that she'd run into another dead end with her choice of book, she heard a voice address her.

"Weasley!"

Victoire almost jumped at the tone of voice, she spun around in her chair and frowned when she saw Colton Knott standing behind her with his arms crossed against his chest.

Kyle stood up suddenly from his seat across the table from Victoire, "I'm going to go find Sandy or Ally."

He didn't give Victoire the chance to respond before leaving her alone with Colton and escaping into the stacks.

Victoire stood up so that she could be closer in height to Colton. There wasn't anything she could do about the fact that he still had four inches on her, but at least he wouldn't have the major height advantage of her being seated while they had their conversation, or more likely argument.

"Yes Knott?" Victoire asked mimicking his stance.

"I just spent an hour of my day being interviewed by two of the most obtuse agents from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. And all of their questions, pertained to you. Would you like to explain to me why?" Colton asked evenly.

Victoire's expression was one of confusion until she remembered her own interview with the MLE agents last week. She remembered telling them about her run-in with Chris during the Yule Ball. How Colton and Kyle had taken him to the Hospital Wing, and how Kyle had then told her to go out into the courtyard to find Teddy.

"What did they ask you?" Victoire asked.

She remembered what Kyle had told her about when two of the MLE agents had cornered him a few days ago on Friday during lunch to ask him questions about the incident at the Yule Ball, but she figured that they'd stop with him because Colton would know even less.

"They asked me about my involvement in your Yule Ball incident with Christopher Mullin," Colton told her still not giving anything away as far as facial expressions went.

Victoire eyed him carefully despite his expressionless face, "And what did you tell them?"

"I told them that when I walked into the hall Mullin seemed to be under the influence of a locked jelly-legs jinx, and Kyle was busy trying to comfort you."

"Did you tell them who cast the jinx?" Victoire asked.

Colton waited a minute before speaking, "No. I don't know who cast the jinx. I have my suspicions, but they're just that, suspicions."

Victoire gave Colton a considering look before asking, "What else did they ask you about? There has to be more."

Colton smirked, "They asked me if I remembered Kyle telling you to go out into the courtyard while we took Mullin to the Hospital Wing, and why he told you to go out there."

"And you said . . . ?"

"I told them that Kyle told you to go out into the courtyard to get some fresh air and to see Lupin," Colton told her with an eyebrow raised.

Victoire's face paled, she knew that there had to be more to the story than that. There had to be something that Colton wanted to gloat about, "What else did they ask you?"

"They asked me why I thought that you'd go see Lupin, I told them that it was probably because you were dating him and that you needed to talk to him about what had just happened with Mullin."

Victoire's mouth popped open, "Wha- But . . . I mean- how'd you know that . . .?"

Colton took pity on her and stopped her floundering, "I didn't know it at the time, but I told you that night when we did our patrol together that I had a few suspicions. I just decided to voice one when the MLE agents were questioning me. Although they seemed surprised that I knew of your involvement with Lupin. I guess they were just embarrassed that they hadn't discovered it themselves, and that they wouldn't have known about it if you hadn't come out and admitted it. They're essentially just stereotypical law enforcement agents. They like to believe that they're so intelligent and that they can figure things out in a snap, but a lot of the time they can't."

Victoire ran a hand through the back or her ponytail idly. She really didn't know how to reply. Colton just told her that he told MLE that he knew about her and Teddy's relationship, yet that he hadn't said anything about it before she had. And he had told her that he had backed her story up to the MLE agents, effectively clearing Teddy's name from the investigation.

Victoire didn't have to worry about coming up with something to say to Colton however, because before she had the chance she was interrupted by her name being yelled.

"VICTOIRE!"

Victoire turned away from Colton and ran in the direction of the yell. She recognized the sound of Colton running after her, but she didn't have much time to question why before she ended up in front of a rather confusing scene.

In front of her were: a shocked looking Gloria Dustin with her shiny prefect badge fixed onto her blouse, an abashed looking Ally who was holding her rapidly swelling right hand in her left, and an aghast looking Carson Delany who was doubled over in what Victoire assumed was pain because he was holding his bleeding and most likely broken nose.

"What's going on here?" Victoire asked in general even though she walked right over to Ally's side to inspect her swelling hand.

"I'm not entirely sure, I walked around the bookcase just in time to see Alexandra punch Mr. Delaney in the face," Gloria told her.

Victoire's eyebrows rose as she glanced from Delaney's face –his nose was still bleeding but not heavily- to Ally's, "Well then why did Alexandra punch Delany in the face?"

Delaney looked down at his trainers and Victoire's mind screamed the word 'guilty' to explain his behaviour. He mumbled something out that no one could understand.

"What was that?" Colton asked deciding to get into the middle of the situation.

Ally's face turned red, but Victoire couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment or exasperation, "Delaney came up to me and he started to discuss our last Quidditch practice. I wasn't really paying attention because I wanted to find the book I was looking for and get back to our table. I only really clued in when he moved closer to me. He started to . . . hit on me and I tried to convince him to leave me alone when he tried to . . . well force his attentions on me-"

Ally wasn't able to go any farther because she was too distracted by the scorching glare Victoire had started to give Delaney.

"Well, Ally you know that punching Delaney was wrong, but he was trying to force himself on you so-" Victoire was having a hard time. She didn't know how she should go about disciplining these two. Well, she knew how she wanted to discipline them, she wanted to fix Ally's hand and then high-five her, but only after she either saddled Delaney with a week's worth of detentions, or kicked him off the Quidditch team.

"Oh no Victoire, you are not going to let these two get off so easily. I agree that Alexandra was the victim here but that only means that something needs to be done with Mr. Delaney. I don't think I'd accept anything less than having him kicked off the Gryffindor Quidditch team. What do you think Miss Dustin?" Colton asked.

Gloria did a poor job at hiding her smile. She was feeling disappointed because Ravenclaw had lost their semi-final Quidditch game to Slytherin, and therefore was out of the running for the House Cup. Even though Ravenclaw was beat out by Slytherin, Gloria felt no qualms about agreeing to something that would screw up Gryffindor's team just a week before the House cup finals.

"I agree Mr. Knott. If this is the way Mr. Delaney would choose to behave to a fellow team member and classmate, I don't think he deserves to continue playing for said team."

Victoire's mouth opened incredulously but Colton seemed to be on a roll with his demands, "Very well then. Miss Dustin and I will take Mr. Delaney to the Hospital Wing to have Madam Pomfrey look at his face and nose. While we do that, I suggest Victoire, that not only do you look after your cousin's hand, but that you make sure to meet with Professor Longbottom and tell him about the change in your Quidditch team now. Because if you don't, make no mistake, I will."

Victoire wasn't able to respond before Colton walked away with Delaney and Gloria Dustin. When they were out of sight Victoire turned to Ally and gently put pressure on her swollen hand. Nothing seemed to be broken, but Victoire cast a bone-healing spell before she cast one to take away the swelling just in case.

She worked in silence until Ally spoke up, "I'm so sorry Vic."

"There's nothing you need to apologize for. Delaney deserved what he got."

"But if we hadn't gotten into a fight you wouldn't be down a keeper less than a week until the Quidditch House Cup game," Ally insisted.

Victoire waved her off, "Seriously Ally, Delaney wasn't that good and he was a pain in the arse. We're probably better off without him. I just need to find another keeper."

Ally didn't look convinced but she knew better than to argue with her cousin. She just nodded when Victoire spoke, thanked her for healing her hand, and followed her as she walked back to the table they'd been at, to tell Sandra and Kyle what had just happened.

* * *

"Victoire, is it true that Delaney got kicked off the Quidditch team?" Caroline Hilbert asked as she scooted down the Gryffindor table to where the seventh-year and her friends were sitting at supper that night.

Victoire looked up from her bowl full of stew and nodded. She swallowed her mouthful as Roger Michaels, James, and Freddie popped up on the other side of the table.

"So we hear that the pillock got not only banished from our team but that my dear sister also ruined his pretty face with a punch right to the nose!" Freddie said excitedly holding his hand up for a high-five from Ally.

While she was proud of the punch she landed, Ally felt bad about making their team one player-less, so she didn't respond to her younger brother's action.

James however, was not one to leave his best friend hanging and gave Freddie the high-five he desired while asking Victoire, "So any idea who we can bring in for five days of practice and have play with us this Saturday for the House Cup?"

"No," Victoire sighed as she spun her spoon around in her half-filled bowl, "Do any of you have ideas?"

Her teammates took her question into consideration but none of them seemed to be able to come up with any ideas.

"At this point I'd just take someone who knew how to play the position of keeper," Victoire grumbled.

"Vic! We heard that Delaney got kicked off the team!"

Victoire turned around and frowned at Louis and Cecilia who had come up behind her, "Yes, but now we need a new keeper for Saturday and –wait. How did you hear about this? It happened only three hours ago."

Cecilia frowned while Louis rubbed a hand through his blonde hair, "Well, Gloria Dustin kinda came up to us earlier and told us about the incident-"

"Really, all she did was want gloat about how the team's down a player and then not so subtly flirt with Louis," Cecilia griped.

Victoire shot Cecilia a sympathetic look before saying, "Do you two know of anyone that could play keeper for Saturday?"

They both shook their head while Kyle asked, "What exactly are you looking for in a Keeper anyway Vic? Do you want someone who's big and can block? Someone smaller but is fast on a broom?"

"Either would be good right now, I'm not picky. What I need is someone who's good with their hands-" Victoire started.

"Someone who's at the very least a competent flyer," Ally added.

"And for the love of Merlin, how about this time we pick someone who won't fall in love with Ally?" James asked.

Ally's face turned red while everyone else laughed. Victoire giggled a little as she looked at everyone around her; all of a sudden, she stopped.

"Or maybe we should have someone who loves Ally."

Everyone stopped laughing to give Victoire a look that said that they think she lost her mind.

"Um, I hate to break it to you Vic, but Xavier's not allowed to play since he's now affiliated with a profession Quidditch team," Freddie told her.

"I wasn't talking about Xavier. I'm talking about someone who's a good flyer, has good hand-eye coordination, knows how to play the position of keeper, knows most of our Quidditch plays, and can work well with the rest of the players on the team," Victoire said.

"And who is this amazing Quidditch god?" Roger asked sarcastically.

Victoire didn't answer; she just turned her head until she was staring at Cecilia.

It didn't take the third-year long to understand what Victoire meant. Her face turned red and she started to sputter, "Vic I've only played once this year and I played chaser . . ."

"But you know how to play keeper. And I'd bet Oliver's made you play that position before too, even if you preferred the position of chaser," Victoire said cutting to the chase.

Cecilia pinched the bridge of her nose, "Yes, well Dad likes his kids to be able to play multiple positions, but I'm really not a keeper-"

"But you're a fast and talented flyer. You played chaser so you can handle the quaffle and you know how they think and what they look for in weaknesses when they go to score. You've played with everyone on the team before except for me but I play seeker for Godric's sakes and you'll barely interact with me. You know our chaser's plays so you'll understand them if they try a certain formation. Your last name's Wood so that'll at least intimidate the other team for at least the first half of the game. And most importantly, you won't be some newbie waltzing in and screwing up our team dynamic. You won't spend practices flirting with Ally, which in turn will stop James and Freddie from goofing off and trying to physically injure you during practice or even the game!" Victoire reasoned.

Ally nodded her head frantically from her seat across the table from Victoire, "I agree, you're a great all-around athlete and flyer Cecilia, we need you and quick. Please, please, please? It's only one game!"

"It's for the House Cup!" Cecilia replied almost hysterically.

"C'mon where's that Wood or even Bell drive? You know the one that makes all of you guys Quidditch crazy and totally competitive?" Freddie asked.

"It mutated in my genes and hasn't turned on," Cecilia replied mockingly.

Oddly enough, Louis proved to be the voice of reason, "Cecilia, if you play against Slytherin and help Gryffindor win the House Cup, you'll have bragging rights against Gloria Dustin. You'll have a House Cup under your belt with only two games, while she had no House Cup in the three years she's played with Ravenclaw."

Cecilia nodded considering Louis' words, "You make a good point."

"Really?" Caroline asked, "That's what makes you consider playing?"

"I guess she does have some of that Bell-Wood competitive spirit after all," James grinned.

Victoire looked at Cecilia, "I believe that you can play keeper and that you'll be fantastic. I don't have the time to find someone brand new and break them into the team. Please say you'll play Cecilia?"

"Fine," she huffed crossing her arms against her chest as the team around her began to high-five and hug each other excitedly, "But if my dad tries to make me go to a keeper's clinic over the holidays this summer I'm going to blame all of you."

"Deal," Victoire said smiling brightly, "Now all of you should go get something to eat. We're going to have a team practice at seven-thirty tonight."

Her teammates nodded, and all of them, except for Ally, left to find seats further down the table. Once they were all gone, Victoire looked at Sandra, "What are the chances our House is going to consider this a form of nepotism?"

"Before the game? Very likely. After you've won the Cup? Not at all," Sandra replied.

"So all we have to do is win then?" Victoire asked sarcastically.

"Well we were already planning on winning so that shouldn't be too much of a stretch," Ally replied grinning.

Her friends went back to their food while Victoire reached into her robes to pull out the last letter she'd gotten from Teddy. She unfolded it and sighed quietly as she read over his writing. When all was said and done last week, luckily, MLE was no longer investigating Teddy –or even Kurt- in conjunction with her kidnappings. But because they had to admit to having a relationship, Teddy was no longer allowed to stay in the Castle, or even work there. Kingsley and Harry had to reassign him to a desk job at the ministry. They also had him investigating her kidnappings, but they had to keep it on the down low, because even though MLE knew that Kingsley was going to investigate it, they still had to try not to step on their toes.

"Did you get a new letter from Teddy?" Ally asked as she cut into her chicken.

Teddy had only been out of the Castle for a week but Victoire had already written and received several letters from him. She had a feeling that her boyfriend's new penchant for letter writing had little to do with the fact that he missed her so much only being apart by a week, and had a lot more to do with the fact that is was one of the only ways that he could check in on her, now that he wasn't in the same building.

"No," Victoire answered her cousin.

"Oh don't sound so depressed. His last letter said that he'll be here this weekend for the House Cup game," Kyle told her.

Victoire smiled as she scanned the paper in front of her for the statement that Kyle had just referred to. It fell quickly after.

"Oh, what are you upset about now? The fact that Xavier slept over at your boyfriend's apartment before you did?" Kyle asked with a smirk.

Victoire rolled her eyes. With both Xavier and Teddy pretty much being banished from Hogwarts; they had ended up spending a lot of –what little free time they had- together. Teddy had a flat rather close to the Ministry so he stayed there unless he was going to visit Andromeda. Xavier had ended up crashing at Teddy's flat a few times the past week because it was closer to the Puddlemere training centre than his parents' home was. Xavier also started to spend more of his time with Teddy because his mother's due date was coming closer and she made it difficult for him to spend a long length of time in the house.

Kyle was specifically teasing her because Teddy had mentioned that Xavier had slept on his couch a couple of weeks ago when he was too tired to go home, and had an early practice the next morning.

"No, but are you jealous that Xavier's starting a new bromance with someone else?" Victoire questioned him archly.

Kyle grimaced, "No! I can start a new bromance too . . ."

"With whom? Austin Pennington?" Ally asked with a grin.

"No, there are lots of people . . . um . . . I could start a bromance with Colton, wouldn't Xavier just love to be replaced by him."

Sandra glared at her boyfriend, "No you will not."

Kyle held his hands up hastily, "Just kidding Babe. I wouldn't do that, especially not since he just forced Victoire to kick her keeper off the team just a week until the House Cup game."

Victoire looked down at the piece of bread she was tearing up into little pieces, "He wasn't actually that bad today. And if there wasn't a part of me that kinda wanted to kick Delaney off the team before, well there definitely was after he tried to pull what he did with Ally. I wanted to let Delaney go, Colton just made the decision and told Delaney, making him the bad guy instead of making me do it."

An eyebrow rose up Kyle's forehead, "So . . . what you're saying is that Colton Knott actually helped you today?"

Victoire bit her lip, "Yeah, I guess he did."

* * *

**A/N:** So, we learnt a bit about what the repercussions about Teddy and Victoire's relationship were, They're searching for any clues or information to help out the investigation, Victoire got rid of Carson Delaney as Keeper (Or more like Colton did) and got Cecilia as a the new Keeper, and Kyle's starting to get jealous that Xavier and Teddy are spending their extra time out in the real world together.

**Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed and thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and/or reviewed!**

**Next Chapter:** We're going to hear how Victoire and her friends' research is going, and Victoire has a little confrontation with someone who's name starts with a 'C'.

A big, big thanks to (P.S. I love everyone's theories about what's going to happen, if you'd like, keep 'em coming :):

**WinniedaPooh-800, america-singer-maxon-shreave, owlcity2013, , Oddliver, MuggleCreator, eighteen inches, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, brilliant incandescence, loveislife94, The Cornish Pixies, alicenotinwonderland, Infinity Lily, Poofy Fluff, MaddieMonkey, TurquoiseTeddy, xSuperNovax, rockon88, **and** Brook-Lucas-Fan-23!**

** :** No, they didn't have a lot of proof or really reason to hold him under suspicion, so Victoire's interview helped clear him of the charges.

**MagicalNinjaUnicorn:** Thanks, I think that's what you were getting at anyway . . . ;)

**Infinity Lily:** Aww, 'Tanks.

**TurquoiseTeddy:** I'm glad that you liked it enough to read it so fast, but since you're new I'll explain to you that I write my chapters pretty much as I go. Sometimes I'll have two or three saved up for when I go a few weeks without writing, but sometimes it's a struggle to update once a week (As from my last odd updates you can see). I've been working full time in the summer, and in the fall I'm a full-time University student, so I don't have a lot of time to write and usually I just update when I update, I'm sorry that I won't be able to finish it very soon to make it complete, but I hope that you enjoyed what you read enough to stick around with it.

**rockon88:** Thanks for the long review, quality and quantity all rolled into one ;)

**Brook-Lucas-Fan-23:** Aw thanks, and welcome to my world :)

**Thanks again for reading, review if you'd like, and DFTBA!**


	92. Research

**A/N: Oh my gosh I'm so sorry that I was MIA there for awhile. A week before we had to leave to take my brother back to Nova Scotia for university, my step-grandmother passed away and we had to do the wake, funeral, pack for the trip and still attend work that week. And then when we finally got down to Nova Scotia, our hotel's wifi was down, so literally this is the first chance I've had to update.**

_Anyway, I hope that you like this chapter. I actually really enjoyed writing it, and it still makes me feel good abut it when I re-read it, so I hope that you all like it!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own HP.**

* * *

**Research**

The week before the final game for the Quidditch House Cup was always hectic. It was just something Victoire expected. However, this year that week was almost doubly frantic because Victoire had to train a new keeper, research for her own clues for the ongoing investigation, and she had to find time to study for her N.E.W.T.s, which were less than a month away.

Strangely enough, training a brand new keeper seemed to be the easiest task she had to deal with. Her and her friends –most specifically Sandra and Kyle, for which she had to remember to get them something extra nice as a graduation present-, were still hitting dead ends with all of the dementor books. But until they exhausted the list, they still had to try. And her studying for N.E.W.T.s, well she just kept telling herself that once she won the Quidditch Cup she'd have more time to devote to that.

It was in the spirit of winning the Quidditch Cup that Victoire found herself, and the rest of her team, out on the pitch at eight o'clock at night, practicing through the rain, three days before the Quidditch game.

Cecilia had been doing rather well and was very open to instruction from Victoire. From anyone else, well that was a rather shaky topic. The rest of the Woods had found out not two hours after the decision was made, that Cecilia was going to be playing keeper for Gryffindor, and they had been very liberal in their advice about how to go about it. Katie wrote directly to her daughter words of encouragement on playing in general, and for the most part her letters were harmless. Xavier, whose letter's and notes were full of advice and guidance on how to play the position, were sent directly to Victoire, so that Victoire could decide to relay the advice on her own terms or not. The system worked well because Cecilia only directly received the encouraging notes, and Xavier left the directing to go through Victoire, to hopefully keep his good relationship with his sister intact. Oliver however, was only too excited that his daughter was going to be playing his favourite position, and wrote her several letters with instructions on how to properly play. He didn't mean to be demanding, but his excitement started to outweigh his good judgement, and Katie had to intercept some of his more heavily worded letters before the owl was sent off. Once or twice, she hadn't been able to get rid of the note before it was sent, however, on those occasions Louis was able to _distract_ Cecilia enough and retrieve the letter before she opened it and ended up cracking under the imagined pressure.

The rain was coming down rather hard on her team, but Victoire couldn't let them leave until they got through all of the plays and exercises she wanted to practice.

"Nice shot James, Caroline. Roger, lower your shoulder a little bit and the quaffle will go higher next time. Freddie that was a good play off Ally, just remember to make eye contact with her every time before sending it her way, because even though she's facing you doesn't mean she's exactly expecting it. Cecilia that was a great save. Just remember to loosen up a little when you go to stretch for the ball, it'll add at least two inches to your arm span and help you get the quaffle under better control," Victoire directed her team. She was giving them attention, but she was also looking for the snitch, which she hadn't seen much of during the practice.

Her teammates nodded at her words and tried out her advice on the next set of exercises.

"How was that Vic?" Cecilia asked when she saved a particularly tricky shot that Caroline had sent at the far left hoop.

Victoire couldn't reply because down on the other side of the pitch she spotted the snitch. She lowered onto her broom and shot forward, keeping her eye glued to the golden ball. It took off when she was an arm's length away from it, and she ended up travelling across the pitch before she closed her fingers around it. She pocketed the ball and flew over to her team who were finishing the last of their drills.

"Good work, we'll just lower to the ground and do our cool down stretches," Victoire told them, ignoring the customary groan from James and Freddie. They didn't think that cool-down stretches mattered in the grand scheme of things, but Victoire knew that if she didn't force them to do them, that they'd be complaining even more when they ended up pulling a muscle.

Everyone landed on the wet and muddy ground and began stretching. The boys doing more arm movements than legs, which caused Victoire to announce that everyone was to follow her lead as she showed them (Specifically James and Freddie) the proper way to stretch out their hamstrings. She called it a day after hearing both James and Freddie telling Cecilia that her practice shorts did nice things to her derrière.

Ally stayed behind to help her clean up while they shooed everyone else away. They packed all of the equipment away in their changing rooms and both decided to forgo having showers and to just do it when they got back to their dorm rooms. They did both cast some drying charms on their clothes though, so not to leave a trail of water from the grounds all the way up to Gryffindor Tower.

Since the Department of Magical Law Enforcement took over the investigation into Victoire's kidnappings, Agent Carver had originally wanted to put a stop to the aurors who followed Victoire around and replace them with MLE agents. She quickly realized that that wasn't going to work because she didn't have enough agents to have them both babysit Victoire and investigate, so she amended her plan and had to recreate schedules in which both MLE agents and aurors would work together to stalk Victoire. So following Victoire and Ally that night was one auror and one MLE agent. Most days the two worked together by pretty much ignoring the other, but that night whomever had been picked seemed to have some bad history between them, because every few minutes they'd start to argue as they followed ten feet behind Victoire and Ally.

Ally wanted to say something to them, but Victoire stopped her. Their bickering was the most entertaining thing she'd heard yet that day. They left the agent and the auror at the portrait of the Fat Lady and walked into the Common Room. The clock on the wall told them that it was around nine-thirty, so the Common Room was still rather full. Victoire spotted Sandra and Kyle over by a table near the window. Kyle was writing with a quill on a long piece of parchment paper, and Sandra had her nose stuck in an ancient looking textbook.

Victoire and Ally walked over to them and sat in seats across from them.

"Working on your a History of Magic essays?" Victoire asked her friends briskly.

Since Professor Cooke (And Jilly) were still the subject of the kidnapping investigations, he wasn't allowed to teach until the Department of Magical Law Enforcement decided either way if he was involved or not. Because of this, McGonagall needed a new person to teach all levels of A History of Magic and quick. The Weasleys and Potters had collectively complained when she picked someone, but McGonagall wouldn't listen and gave the woman the job.

Which is how Victoire's Aunt Hermione ended up teaching a History of Magic at Hogwarts. She said that she'd only be there to fill in until Professor Cooke's name was cleared, but Victoire knew that at the pace the MLE agents were moving, that Hermione would most likely be filling in until the end of the year.

James, Freddie, and Dom hadn't taken the news very well. James and Freddie because they liked to misbehave during almost every class and having Hermione there would put a damper on that. And Dom because the only reason why she liked a History of Magic was because she had the opportunity to stare at Professor Cooke for two hours every other day. Rose and Al were worried that they'd be teased about favouritism, but McGonagall had said that she'd have Flitwick mark their essays and tests if the need arose.

Victoire for her part didn't think that her year could get any worse so the introduction of Hermione as her teacher didn't really bother her. If anything, she ended up having to answer fewer questions than she would with Professor Cooke because Hermione was more worried about singling her out than he had been.

Kyle nodded 'yes' at her previous question while Sandra shook her head 'no'.

"Well then what are you doing?" Ally asked interestedly as she leaned forward to read the title of the book Sandra was reading.

"Research," Sandra answered distractedly. She didn't take her eyes off of the page she was reading.

Victoire copied Ally's positioning and read the title of the text; _Purebloods of the 18__th__, 19__th__, and 20__th__ Century_.

"Well obviously you're not doing research on dementors, even though I know some purebloods are like soul-sucking demons. So what are you doing? Reading up on what you're going to marry into?" Victoire joked.

Kyle shot Victoire a glare from across the table; whether it was because of the jab against purebloods or the joke about marriage to him, she wasn't sure.

"Funny," Sandra replied dryly as she flipped a page, "But I am actually doing research on dementors. And I've found something interesting."

"A list of purebloods that had been sent to Azkaban, suffered the dementor's kiss, and showed a remarkable improvement from their regular attitude and disposition as a result?" Victoire asked ignoring Kyle's scowl and sticking her tongue out at him.

"Vic, you're technically a pureblood Honey," Ally reminded her.

"I know, that one was just too good to let up."

Sandra rolled her eyes, "No. Just listen. This book has a mini-chapter on the Holmwood family."

Victoire and Ally looked at Kyle, as if they expected him to recognize every pureblood family name. He shook his head, and the three of them looked back at Sandra, expecting her to elaborate.

"I cross referenced the family with _Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy_, when I first found them because it wasn't a name that I recognized. The book-"

"Lists all of the pureblood families that have died out in the male line," Victoire, Kyle, and Ally finished for her.

"Exactly. It wasn't on there. Yet when I continued my research with the family the name dropped off the radar and I can't find them anywhere after 1986 . . ."

"But why are you researching this family?" Ally asked trying to bring Sandra back on track.

"Oh, well I know that we were looking up everything we could about dementors, but then I thought about when they were discovered."

"We already learned that in Defence Against the Dark Arts. The first official record of dementors was in the fifteen hundreds, but there were tales about creatures like them for centuries before that," Victoire said.

"Yes, but then that made me wonder. When were dementors introduced to Azkaban as a security system, and more importantly, who's idea was it in the first place?" Sandra said.

Victoire, Ally, and Kyle all shrugged, they didn't know the answer.

"That's where I started. I researched Azkaban, and while the books didn't go into much detail in the founding of it –although there were pages and pages about the punishments there and how awful of a place it is- I did find a name. Dementors were added to the security measures until 1803. The wizard in charge of Azkaban's security during that time was a Y. Holmwood.

"I researched his name and found him in a book with an incomplete list of purebloods –there is a startlingly large number of books published dedicated to purebloods by the by. That book didn't give me much, but it listed a different book that I could find a Y. Holmwood in. The 'Y' stood for Yorrick and it explained his petition to the council of keepers of Azkaban to enlist dementors as a security measure, and punishment for those who would endure their kiss. Apparently the council was full of horrid wizards because they loved the idea so much that they even gave Yorrick Holmwood a high position on the council, which he retained until he died eight years after introducing dementors to Azkaban," Sandra explained.

"So what else does that book say about Yorrick Holmwood?" Victoire asked nodding to the text in Sandra's hands.

"Nothing much. He wasn't of much importance unless you care about all of the women he slept with and all of the illegitimate children he had as a result. Most of which were female actually . . ."

"Which is why his last name died out?" Ally asked trying to piece together the important points in Sandra's narrative.

"What? Oh, no. He had legitimate children too, five sons and two daughters with his first and third wives."

"Lovely, but what does this have to do with anything?" Kyle asked.

"Well, I hope I'm not the only one who's curious as to how some fifty-year old pureblood showed up at Azkaban one day with a dementor in tow with his soul in one piece," Sandra said.

Victoire gasped, "You think he had a spell to control it."

"He had to have something," Sandra agreed, "The patronous charm was already rather widely in use by then, but they only ward off dementors, they don't control them."

"Is there any record of Yorrick Holmwood patenting a spell to control dementors?" Ally asked.

"Not really. According to history books on Azkaban, he gave the council a spell that would control them, but the kicker is that after he died, they got a little out of control. The spell that Holmwood gave them worked, but they were never under the disciplined control that they were under when he was still alive."

"So do you reckon that he had two spells? The one he used that made him look amazing in front of the Azkaban council, and the one that he gave them that worked, but just not as well?" Kyle asked.

"It's what it sounds like. I don't think that it would be too far of a stretch to believe that Holmwood would keep the better spell to himself. Especially if it acted as some sort of security against getting throw off the council at a later date," Sandra said.

"But Yorrick Holmwood died only eight years after and the books said that the dementors were never in that kind of control again . . . did the books ever say if any of his children ever served on the Azkaban council?" Ally asked.

"None of them did, but I agree with where you're going. If Yorrick Holmwood did have a spell that would be better used against dementors, he wouldn't die without telling someone. I bet he told at least one of his sons so that they could carry it down the line in case it could be used to help the family at a later date. Purebloods are notorious for looking out for only themselves and their family. This would be something that he would have shared with his sons," Sandra reasoned.

"So you've been searching his children then? Find anything of importance as you followed the tree?" Victoire asked Sandra excitedly.

"Not really, just what seems to be normal for century's old pureblood families. Marriages, deaths, high-ranking members of society, deceit, murder, an accusation of rape or two against some of the more criminal members. Their family members leak into many of the older pureblood families which names I recognize. The Crouch family, distantly the Lestrange, the Knotts actually but again distantly, oh and they even connected into the Black family a few times," Sandra said nodding in Victoire's direction.

Victoire scoffed, "Name a pureblood family that hasn't, they're all interconnected."

"Precisely, so I made my focus on the male line, I figured that they'd continue to be misogynistic. So while they married off a few daughters and nieces, they had a pretty central male line. It seemed that since Yorrick every generation had at least three male children, all the way until I lose track of them in 1986," Sandra said.

"So during that time there were only female children?" Kyle asked.

Sandra shook her head, "No, and that's the confusing part. At that time, the last name Holmwood had trickled down until there were four brothers: Graeme, Kent, Isaac, and Braxton. Their ages in 1986 ranged from eighteen to twenty-six, but then they seemed to have fallen off the pureblood wizarding radar. I can't find them in any book previous to 1986."

"Not even in a compilation book on marriage announcements?" Kyle asked surprised.

The three girls turned to look at Kyle in confusion.

His face turned red as he explained, "Eighteen to twenty-six is prime time for a male pureblood to get married, or be married off via an arranged marriage. If anything you should have been able to find them in a marriage announcement."

Sandra shook her head while Ally said, "Maybe they just didn't get married."

Kyle snorted, "Four purebloods that are the last with their name? Unless they all died young –which you would have found records for, they would have been married off at least once before they turned thirty. The fact that they're gone without a trace is interesting."

Victoire looked at Kyle, "Do you think if you mentioned the Holmwood name to your parents that they'd be able to tell you anything?"

"If they knew anything they'd tell me. They could also ask their friends too if they recognize the name, I'll write to them later," Kyle promised.

Victoire thanked Sandra for bringing this information to their attention and started to rub her temples. She felt like she had a jumble of puzzle pieces, but that she didn't have enough information to make them fit. If the kidnappers had been telling the truth –and she couldn't think of why they wouldn't be, since they didn't know she was listening- then they somehow had access and control over a dementor. This meant that someone involved either had to have experience with dementors like having worked at Azkaban –which the Department of MLE did look into after Teddy brought it to their attention via Kingsley, but that they didn't have any good leads with. Or, that the kidnappers had some way to control the dementor like a spell. Which sounds most likely, and would probably have come down through the Holmwood line like Sandra found out. The fact that the Holmwoods disappeared though, brought Victoire's investigation to a dead end.

She made a mental note to mention the name to Teddy. At the most, he might be able to research the name in the aurors and MLE combined database to see if they had any more recent records on them, at the least he could always mention the name to Andromeda and see if she recognized it.

"Someone looks physically and mentally exhausted, maybe a letter from their auror boyfriend would be a good pick-me-up?" Kyle asked as he waved an envelope in front of Victoire's face.

Victoire jolted a little as she came out of her reverie.

"When did that come in?" she asked as she reached for it.

Kyle pulled his hand back, still waving the letter, but out of her reach, "While you were at practice. I recognized his owl and took it from the poor bird."

"Give it here!" Victoire complained standing up to reach across the table.

"I think not," Kyle replied evilly as he jumped up and ran away from their table.

Victoire sprinted after him, running around two armchairs and narrowly missing a rather burly second year that was practicing what looked to be some sort of tap dancing routine. Kyle took the stairs up to his dormitory two at a time, and Victoire's calves –already sore from practice earlier- groaned in protest as she followed behind him. She caught up to him at the landing near the top of the stairs and she didn't hesitate as she jumped onto his back.

Kyle stumbled a little but was able to keep the letter in front of him and out of Victoire's reach. She wrapped her legs around Kyle's waist from behind and pushed herself up with one hand on his shoulder as the other tried to reach for her letter.

He had started laughing as he staggered into his dormitory with Victoire on his back. When they came around to his bed, he tried to topple her off him and onto it.

Victoire, not giving up so easily, ended up bringing Kyle do with her, and tried to wrestle the letter away from him on his bed.

When she ended up sitting on his stomach, Kyle gave up and let her rip the letter out of his hand.

"Ha!" Victoire cried triumphantly as she held the letter above her head.

Kyle cackled evilly. With his hands free, he had the perfect opportunity to tickle Victoire's sides mercilessly.

Victoire was about to call 'Uncle' when a voice interrupted them.

"Kyle? Victoire?"

Victoire's blonde head whipped to the direction of the door and she felt her face drain of blood.

Standing in the doorway way Chris Mullin.

They still had several classes together, and they were in the same House, but Victoire, Sandra, Kyle, Ally, and even Xavier when he was there had been avoiding or ignoring him. Not that Chris had tried overly hard to contact any of them. Well, not since he'd tried to 'apologize' to Victoire on New Year's Eve that is. He had been so low on her list of priorities, that Victoire had actually forgotten that he and Kyle still shared a dorm room and therefore sleeping space. Kyle had never really mentioned any interactions with Chris, so nobody really asked or spoke about him.

Kyle's hands went to Victoire's hips to lift her off of him. When she was out of his way he stood up in front of her and glared at Chris, "What do you want?"

Chris looked down at his feet and shuffled them awkwardly, "I was wondering if I could talk to Victoire actually since she's here . . ."

"Okay, talk," Kyle said crossing his arms against his chest and moving a little so that his body blocked Chris' view of Victoire.

Chris sighed, "I meant privately."

"Oh, my bad, well in that case Hell no."

"Please?"

"No. You actually think I'm going to leave you alone with her after what you tried to pull at the Yule Ball? She already tried to give you a chance to explain on New Year's Eve –which is one more than I really think you deserved- but you blew that too. So no, you can't talk to her alone. Let's go Vic," Kyle said. The last part was still in a firm voice but his facial expression when he turned to look at her was protective.

Victoire stood up and looked at Chris. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"I'll talk with him."

"What?" Kyle asked rounding on her. Past him, Victoire could see the shocked look on Chris' face and her resolve hardened. He didn't have the same cocky persona that he'd had at the Yule Ball or on New Year's Eve. He seemed much more sincere this time around.

"I'll be fine Kyle. If I'm not back downstairs in fifteen minutes, you have my permission to come back up and do whatever you feel is needed. I can handle myself. I have my wand this time," Victoire told him. The last part a whisper so that Chris didn't hear.

Kyle crossed his arms, "Counter-offer. You have ten minutes, and I'll be waiting on the other side of the door."

Victoire kissed his cheek, "Deal."

Kyle gave Chris a steely glare the entire time he was leaving the room. Once the door was closed behind him, Victoire sat back down on the edge of his bed.

Chris moved until he was standing a few feet in front of her.

"What did you want to talk about?" Victoire asked as she gently laid her letter from Teddy down on her lap.

Chris watched her movement and coughed self-consciously, "Is that from Lupin?"

Victoire's head snapped up and she narrowed her eyes at Chris, "Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry," Chris replied quickly, "That's not how I wanted to do this . . ."

"Do what?" Victoire asked.

Chris sighed, "Are you really dating Lupin?"

Victoire blinked, "I don't think that's any of your business, but yes I am. And how in Merlin's pants did you hear about it?"

"I was with Belle Wembley in the library yesterday. When we walked in she saw Austin Pennington and a few other seventh-years and we went and sat with them. When we got there, Pennington asked us if we'd heard the latest Castle gossip. I thought that he was going to say something more about Professor Cooke's arrest, so I just sat there and listened while I skimmed through one of my essays. But then . . . he started to talk about you and Lupin . . ." Chris trailed off.

Victoire frowned, "What did he say about us?"

"He said that Lupin had been expelled from the Castle because MLE found out that he was _involved_ with a student . . . with _you_. He said that if it weren't for the fact that Harry Potter was his godfather that he'd have been kicked out of the Auror Department too," he told her.

She glared at him, "What!"

Chris flinched at the anger in her voice, "Yeah he was going to say more but then Knott came from around a bookshelf. He'd heard our conversation and decided that he wanted to join in."

Victoire sighed and put a hand up to her forehead, "And what did Knott have to say about it?"

Chris frowned in confusion, "He . . . it was just different. He didn't actually say much about Lupin being kicked out of the Castle, all he really did was laugh at how stupid and dense Pennington and I were. He said that you'd been seeing Lupin since the summer, and had been with him the entire school year and that Austin and I were blockheads for not noticing that you were so obviously hung up on some other bloke."

Victoire blinked, "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Is that all he said?"

"Pretty much, yeah. He might have said some other things about us not realizing what was right under our noses and so obvious but that was the gist of it."

Victoire looked down at the letter in her hands, but she didn't really see it.

_Did Colton just save mine and Teddy's reputation again by letting everyone know that our relationship was built on more than an auror taking advantage of a student?_

"Victoire . . .?"

Victoire looked back at Chris, "Yes?"

"Is what Knott said true? Have you been seeing Lupin since the summer?"

"Yes."

"And you were still seeing him when you asked me to go to the Yule Ball?"

"Yes."

"The only reason why you asked me was because you couldn't ask him, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

Chris sighed and started to pace around the room. Victoire knew that she shouldn't, but part of her felt bad about Chris finally finding out that she'd only asked him because she couldn't ask the bloke she really wanted. It was a very small part, and after she remembered how he'd forced himself on her, it disappeared into almost nothing.

"Anything else you want to discuss? You have four minutes left," Victoire said.

"Just . . . there was never actually a chance between us, was there?" Chris asked sadly.

"No there wasn't. I'm sorry but I didn't think that I'd led you on like you believed."

Chris grimaced, "Is it too late to try to be friends again?"

Victoire wrapped her arms around her waist, "Yes. Despite what you think, you haven't actually apologized to me. And I don't think that you really want to. Tell me Chris, do you want to be friends again, or do you want to pretend to be friends while you try to 'win me back' in your mind?"

"I-wah-huh?" Chris floundered.

"Chris, please be honest with me, do you still even have the tiniest of feelings for me?" Victoire asked quietly.

Chris closed his eyes, "I mean I think you're dead sexy, but everyone with eyes does. And you're smart and athletic but again, that's obvious. You do have a good sense of humour, and I used to think that you were really nice . . ."

"Chris."

"Okay, maybe I still have feelings for you but-"

"But nothing. I can't do that Chris, and you shouldn't want to either. If you want to hang out with everyone else that's their decision, and I'm not saying that I'm not going to ever talk to you again, but I think it's best if we don't try to seek each other out," Victoire told him.

"You mean if I don't try to seek you out," Chris corrected bitterly.

"See!" Victoire snapped, "That right there is why we can't be friends. There are too many emotions running high to think that it's a good idea."

Chris opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it when he couldn't think of anything else to say.

Victoire nodded her head at him before turning away. She walked to the door and opened it. She gave Kyle who was still standing on the other side of it a poignant smile. He tilted his head as he considered her and opened his arms wide. She didn't hesitate to step into them. He squeezed her tightly.

Victoire wasn't one to compare her friends' hugs, but with both Teddy and Xavier out of the Castle, the feel of a bloke's strong arms around her was just what she needed at that moment.

Kyle smiled at her when she moved away, "C'mon, you have a letter from a certain metamorphmagus to read. And knowing how needy the two of you are, he'll probably be expecting a letter in reply."

Victoire elbowed Kyle in the stomach but smiled. He knew exactly what she needed.

* * *

**A/N:** So, if you remember from last chapter, the 'C' in this chapter was Chris! Pats on the back to whoever guessed him!

**Next Chapter:** We get to read about the final match for the Quidditch House Cup!

Thanks to eveeyone who's followed, favourited, read, and reviewed! Oh and thanks to eveyrone on twitter following **TryandTriAgain**, I know I suck at it, but hopefully when I'm able to update more often it'll get better!

**An especially BIG thanks to:**

**nifflerstorm17008, eighteen inches, A Frozen Shadow, MuggleCreator, Oddliver, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, owlcity2013, Forever Siriusly Sirius, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, brilliant incandescence, changewing, MaddieMonkey, loveislife94, xsuperx, rockon88, maxie210, TurquoiseTeddy, Fantasyluver98, VeelaBitches, and RoLouG.**

**nifflerstorm17008**: If you are still on your vacation I hope that you're having fun. If you vacation is finished, I hope that you did have fun ;)

**eighteen inches**: I'm glad that your thought process is similar to mine :)

**MagicalNinjaUnicorn**: 'DFTBA' = Don't Forget To Be Awesome. For more info search John and Hank Green on Google, Youtube, Wikipedia, anywhere really. You won't be disappointed.

**xsuperx**: I love people's predictions on what's going to happen, if you have anymore please keep them coming.

**rockon88**: I give you one point for guessing an interesting conversation. But you don't get a point for guessing Cooke instead of Chris, sorry but you were half right ;)

**maxie210**: The next chapter comes out right . . . now. And as for how long it is until the end . . . well I haven't finished writing it yet (And I only have two chapters past this one finished epp!) but we are winding down a bit finding out more clues and finishing up some loose ends.

**VeelaBitches**: Ha, thanks for the hint. If you read the A/N at the top you know why it took so long to update, but I hope that it's worth the wait.

**Guest**: Um, it's kinda hard to answer reviews when there is no way to PM or even a name to single out at the end here, but I'll try to answer one I got. Someone asked me if I'll be continuing with this story even though I'm a full-time university student. I more in to my new apartment for university in a week, but I hope to try to update during the school year whenever I can like I tried last year. You'll just have to be patient with me I guess.

**RoLouG**: You've been reading my story for a while, so I'll ask you, do you think I'll reveal why these people want to kidnap Vic, or am I just going to leave it and let all of you bang your heads against a wall? ;)

**Thanks for reading, please leave me a review if you'd like, and DFTBA!**


	93. Quidditch House Cup

**A/N:** Guess what everybody? I'm uploading this next chapter now that I am moved into my new apartment, and ready for my second term of university to start this week! Personally though, I'm wondering just where my summer went . . .

Anyway, enjoy this next chapter while you can, because you're all probably going to hate me at the end :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of these characters.

**Warning**: Get your red and gold face-paint on and let's read about some Quidditch . . .

* * *

**Quidditch House Cup**

"We're kinda in a hurry here Ted. The game will be starting soon . . ." Xavier called out to Teddy from where he was in the living room.

Teddy rolled his eyes as he pulled his shirt on. He put his wand in the pocket of his jeans along with the Muggle keys to his flat. He gave his bedroom one last look to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything before leaving it for the living room.

When he walked into the living room, he saw Xavier letting his owl, Iris, back inside via the window above his kitchen sink.

Teddy smiled to himself. He'd just sent Victoire a short note of encouragement. He told her not to go flying off the broom handle.

Iris flew into the flat and straight into the room where her cage was kept, the one Teddy used as a makeshift office.

Xavier turned around when the owl flew past him. He took a minute to examine what Teddy was wearing before smirking, "I thought Vic stole that shirt."

Teddy looked down at his red Gryffindor practice shirt. It had his last name written along the back, with the large 'C' standing for captain on his left breast, and the date of the last year he had played for Gryffindor on his right sleeve. Xavier was wearing a similar jersey, with his last name written on it, along with the last year he had played, before Christmas. Xavier's jersey even had an 'A' stitched onto the left breast. It was Victoire's idea from when they got new practice shirts last year. The 'A' stood for assistant captain, because Victoire wanted to give credit where credit was due.

"She did steal it. I had to ask for it back so that I could wear it today," Teddy told him as he gave him a matching smirk.

Xavier rolled his eyes and asked, "Are we ready to leave now?"

"Yes. And we're not going to be late for the game. We'll be getting there just as soon as their practice round is over," Teddy told him as he gestured for him to leave.

"And that's what makes us late. I want to see as much of Ally as I possibly can," Xavier complained.

It was Teddy's turn to roll his eyes. He locked his flat with his Muggle keys to keep up appearances, before taking out his wand and casting his security wards.

"If you wanted to go earlier, you could have gone with your parents," Teddy told him as they walked down the hallway to the staircase. From there they would walk down the three flights of stairs into the street, travel the short distance into the alleyway, and apparate to Hogsmeade.

Xavier shuddered, "Yeah no thanks. Mum still has a week left until her due date and she's starting to nest. There is a reason why I crashed on your couch three nights this week."

"Maybe I should clear out my office room and get a bed for it. If you're sleeping over this much before the baby comes I can't imagine how often you'll be here when it's born," Teddy teased.

Xavier rolled his eyes, "I'll be able to sleep better when the baby's here. I know how to do soundproofing spells on my room. It's the fact that right now Mum's almost gone round the bend that makes it hard for me to stay at home. Dad says that she was the same way just before Cecilia and I were born. Said she'll go back to normal once this baby's out. Really don't know why he keeps knocking her up if she keeps acting this weird when she's in that condition."

Teddy snorted just as they turned the corner into the alleyway.

"See you in Hogsmeade," Teddy said before turning in a circle and disapparating.

* * *

Once the two men arrived in Hogsmeade, they travelled to Hogwarts and to the Quidditch pitch. They discussed how not very far the investigation into Victoire's kidnappings had come as they walked. Teddy was just telling Xavier that he'd sent in a requisition to be signed by Kingsley to search all Auror Department and Magical Law Enforcement records to find someone with the last name Holmwood –both were well acquainted by then with their friends' suspicions- when they reached the Quidditch bleachers. They bypassed the specific house bleachers to get to the visitors section. Already sitting down there were a few of the players families, including Bill, Fleur, Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, George, and Angelina. Missing from the stands were Katie and Oliver Wood.

Teddy gave Xavier a specific look when they noticed this and Xavier playfully pushed him with his shoulder.

"Oh there you guys are . . . Xavier did you come with your parents?" Ginny asked as she gave Teddy and Xavier a hug.

"No, I stopped by Ted's first. I really thought they'd be here by now," Xavier told her as he and Teddy got seated.

"Well Katie is nine months pregnant. You have to give her at least an extra half hour because she has to waddle everywhere. Not to mention that they have use floo to travel since apparating is not safe for the unborn baby once she hit five months," Angelina reminded them.

Her reminder was a useful one, for Katie and Oliver showed up no more than ten minutes later. Xavier hadn't been exaggerating when he spoke of Katie's odd behaviour. She was recently on a kick where she loved almost everyone. She gave each Weasley, and Potter a big hug, even Teddy, and she practically strangled Xavier when she went to hug him.

No need to worry about everyone getting the same warm reception though, because when she caught sight of the Knotts entering the box to go sit with the other Slytheirn parents she pulled herself away from the warm hug she had surprised Fleur with to give the two purebloods a heated glare. As more proof to her rapidly changing emotions, the minute they were out of sight she went back to her previously bubbly self.

"So isn't this game going to be so exciting? I really don't know how Victoire convinced Cee-Cee to play keeper but I'm so glad she did!" Katie said enthusiastically.

Everyone else just nodded at her while Oliver tried to get her seated. She had gotten to the part of her pregnancy where even sitting down with her large stomach was awkward, and she had the urge to stay on her feet.

Angelina joked that she was probably in labour and that she just wasn't admitting it because she wanted to see Cecilia play, but the joke quickly died at the wide-eyed look Oliver gave her that told her not to joke about such things.

The Quidditch match started right on time. The commentator Jacob Niles announced each player as they took the field. Teddy and Xavier cheered loudly for each Gryffindor player that was announced. Xavier cheered extra loudly for Ally, and gave a sharp whistle when Victoire was announced last. The Slytherins were announced in kind, and then the captains of both teams were told to meet at the middle of the pitch with Madam Hooch to shake hands.

Teddy noticed Victoire give Colton Knott an odd look as they shook hands, but it lasted for such an insignificant amount of time that he wasn't entirely sure of what he saw.

A minute later Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the players were off.

"And this final game for the Quidditch House Cup starts with Slytherin getting the quaffle. Slytherin chaser Owen Slattery with the quaffle shooting down the pitch towards Gryffindor's end!" Jacob Niles announced into the magic microphone from his place in the commentator's stand.

Teddy and Xavier shared a look. They were antsy to see how Cecilia would handle her first opportunity to save a goal.

They'd have to wait a little longer because Freddie chose that moment to shoot a nice bludger at Slattery and caused him to drop the quaffle. Caroline picked it up and changed the direction of the game.

"And Caroline Hilbert of Gryffindor has the quaffle! Hodges comes up close beside Hilbert aND HILBERT DROPS THE QUAFFLE –OH WAIT! HILBERT DIDN'T DROP THE QUAFFLE, SHE PASSED BELOW HER TO POTTER WHO CAME SHOOTING BY JUST IN TIME TO CATCH IT!"

"James Potter now has the quaffle and is flying down the pitch. He passes Pucey, dodges a nicely aimed bludger by Towner, and is now face to face with the Slytherin keeper Symons. OI! POTTER FAKES THE SHOT AND PASSES TO MICHAELS. ROGER MICHAELS AIMS AND SHOOTS THE QUAFFLE INTO THE FAR LEFT HOOP. SYMONS MISSES THE SAVE AND IT GOES THROUGH! GRYFFINDOR SCORES! IT'S NOW 10-0 GRYFFINDOR!"

Half of the stadium cheered. From behind him and Xavier, Teddy could hear Ginny proudly bragging about James' nice pass. George snarked that it is probably the only time they'll ever see James share the quaffle and Ginny punched his shoulder in response.

The Slytherins had possession of the quaffle next, and despite the beautifully aimed bludger that Ally sent to Pucey, Slattery was able to snatch the ball back up and make a beeline to Gryffindor's hoops.

Beside Teddy, Xavier became suddenly still. This was their first chance to see how Cecilia would play.

"AND OWEN SLATTERY IS IN FRONT OF THE GRYFFINDOR HOOPS. HE SHOOTS AND HE –IS DENIED BY GRYFFINDOR KEEPER CECILIA WOOD! WOOD SAVES THE SHOT AND MOVES THE BALL ALONG TO MICHAELS."

The cheers for the goal being saved were never the loudest. But because it was Cecilia's first save, the Gryffindor fans went wild.

"Yes! Now that is how a Wood plays!" Oliver said excitedly.

Katie slapped his arm, "She's still a Wood if she lets a goal through."

Her husband started to backtrack, "That's not what I meant . . . I just meant that she played very well and that she obviously has talent . . ."

Cecilia did obviously have talent, because when the Slytherins got the quaffle back before Gryffindor could score, and sent it back down to the hoops, she completed another wonderful save, this time just by the tips of her fingers.

"AND WOOD MAKES ANOTHER SAVE! Well, well it seems like Gryffindor's new keeper is proving her worth early in the game today," Niles commented.

After Cecilia's save, James took the quaffle and shot down to the Slytherin side of the pitch. He passed to Caroline, only to have to pass it back right before he reached the middle hoop. Slytherin keeper Symons was directly in front of the hoop, but Ally and Freddie were able to send both bludgers at her. She dodged Freddie's bludger, but didn't see Ally's coming at her. The bludger broke some of the tail of Symons' broom, moving her off course enough for James' shot to go through the hoop.

"The score's now 20-0 Gryffindor!" Niles yelled.

Teddy turned around to high-five Harry.

"That was a fantastic shot," Katie commented, her eyes still quickly following the gameplay.

"I think Victoire may have spotted the snitch," Hermione said tilting her head to the side as she watched the pitch.

Teddy's head whipped back to the direction of the pitch and he squinted his eyes until he spotted Victoire. She was zooming down the pitch on her Firebolt, just below the level that the rest of the players were playing at. Directly across the pitch from her, Colton Knott seemed to be doing the same thing. When the two seekers ended up roughly fifteen metres away from each other Teddy finally noticed a bright glint of gold that he recognized as the snitch.

He was confused as to why the snitch was hovering in one spot as both seekers got closer, only to understand as it hastily shot up in the air. The snitch was out of the way but Victoire and Knott were still on their speedy paths towards each other.

Teddy griped a handful of hair from his head as he watched them fly. There didn't look to be time for either of them to veer away before they'd end up crashing. Just before the moment Teddy had anticipated a crash, Victoire swerved to the left. The two seekers brushed each other as they streaked by, and Victoire's hasty turn caused her to bob on her broom. She looked close to becoming unseated and Teddy watched her worriedly while everyone else focused on one of the Slytherin chaser's who was speeding down the pitch with his newly acquired quaffle.

Teddy held his breath until it looked like she was settled back on her broom. The minute she was, she zoomed down to the pitch so that she could have a better view of what her team was doing.

He looked back at the others and saw that the Slytherin chaser was just about to shoot at the far right net. Cecilia was flying towards the hoop and it looked like she was going to get there in time to save it.

"AND BYRON HODGES IS RACING TOWARDS THE HOOP, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE WOOD IS GOING TO GET THERE IN TIME –NO! A BLUDGER SMACKS INTO THE TAIL END OF WOOD'S BROOM; CURTSEY OF DAVIS, AND SENDS HER SPINNING JUST OFF COURSE ALLOWING HODGES TO SLIP THE QUAFFLE THROUGH THE HOOP!" Niles announced over the cheering from the Slytherin supporters.

"And the score is now 20-10 for Gryffindor."

Teddy looked beside him to Xavier; he was watching his little sister closely.

"She's going to be very disappointed with herself," he said worriedly.

Teddy looked back to the pitch and saw Victoire looking worriedly at Cecilia before her expression changed and she went back to looking for the snitch.

"Isn't that a Wood trait?" Teddy asked.

Xavier swatted at his arm half-heartedly before their eyes were drawn to the Slytherin end of the pitch where Caroline was attempting to score.

Caroline did score, and after that, the rest of the game passed quickly.

Neither Victoire nor Colton had gotten close yet to catching the snitch again, but both sides had amped up their scoring plays. Cecilia had been playing very well and her save percentage would have been rather good if someone were to calculate it, but sadly the Slytherin keeper was also on her toes. Neither keeper allowed many goals to go in, but sadly, about an hour and a half into the game the score was tied at 100-100.

The players seemed to be able to match each other goal for goal, so the game would most likely come down to which seeker could catch the snitch first.

Victoire and Knott were still circling the pitch, giving each other a wide berth when they'd go to pass each other. Teddy had started to look for the snitch himself about twenty minutes ago. However, his position whenever he played Quidditch was chaser, so he never really trained to find the snitch. Behind him, he could hear Harry looking for it, but by the sounds of things, he wasn't having much more luck spotting it.

The snitch became visible near the ground at the middle of the pitch. Knott spotted it first and started an angled descent on his broom. Victoire saw it herself soon after and went into her own sharp dive.

"And both Victoire Weasley and Colton Knott are going for the snitch. THEY'RE FLYING DOWN TOWARDS IT AND –AND TOWNER AIMS ON BLUDGER AT WEASLEY WHILE ALLY WEASLEY AIMS THE OTHER BLUDGER AT KNOTT. BOTH KNOTT AND WEASLEY DODGE THE BLUDGERS AND GET CLOSER TO THE SNITCH. THEY ARE NOW FLYING SIDE BY SIDE AND A FOOT AWAY FROM THE SNITCH. THEY BOTH REACH OUT AND IT LOOKS LIKE KNOTT'S GOING TO GRAB IT FIRST-"

"BUT WAIT! WEASLEY SHOOTS AHEAD A BIT ON HER BROOM AND CLOSES HER HAND AROUND THE SNITCH. VICTOIRE WEASLEY HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS WITH 250-100! GRYFFINDOR HAS JUST WON THE HOUSE CUP!" Niles announced loudly seeming to have gotten caught up in the excitement of the game.

The Gryffindor supporters in the stadium became deafening with their cheers. Everyone had jumped to their feet and Xavier put his hand up for a high-five. Teddy absent-mindedly gave him one as he watched Victoire. She had to grab the snitch rather closely to the ground and wanted to make sure that she landed safely.

When her feet touched the ground, she had to wait exactly five seconds for the rest of the team to join her in a group hug. When they let go of each other Ally and Victoire were still embracing each other in a tight hug. Freddie and James each took a turn hugging Cecilia, and when they finished she moved to give Caroline a hug, but was pulled into Victoire and Ally's hug before she could blink. They only let her go when Madam Hooch came by with the Quidditch House Cup.

Victoire accepted it on behalf of the rest of her team and they started another group hug.

Members of Gryffindor house had started to trickle out of the stands and onto the field to celebrate with their housemates; so Teddy and Xavier slowly began to make their way towards them, the adults following close behind. As they got closer to the team, the crowd around them started to thin out. Teddy assumed that most of Gryffindor house were leaving to prepare for the celebratory party that would be taking place very soon in the Common room.

By the time they got there, the crowd had whittled down to family members and close friends. The first team member Teddy saw was Cecilia, but Xavier forgave going to see his sister at that moment because Louis, Baxter, and Danielle Reed closely surrounded her. Next, Teddy saw Freddie and James being hugged and kissed on the cheeks by Victoire and Ally respectively. Teddy and Xavier walked up to the four, and Freddie and James quickly extricated themselves when they saw them coming.

"You guys can have them!" James said before he and Freddie hurried away to where there parents were standing just a few metres away.

Ally flung herself into Xavier's arms, whereas Victoire stood her ground. She looked at Teddy with an eyebrow raised on her forehead and her arms crossed.

Teddy copied her stance.

She stayed still for another minute before a large smile broke across her face and she ran towards him. She jumped into his arms, and Teddy spun her around in a circle before setting her down on her feet. He tightened his arms around her waist and grinned at her.

"Do I get a kiss too, or were those only for Freddie and James?" Teddy teased.

Victoire reached up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, "Like that?"

Teddy locked his eyes onto her ocean blue ones, "Not what I had in mind."

"Show me then," Victoire said suddenly demandingly.

Teddy gave her one last smirk before leaning down and capturing her mouth in a heated kiss. Once it started, he never wanted it to end. Too bad that he was still –fleetingly- aware that her parents, aunts, and uncles were just metres away, probably watching them snog. He broke the kiss hesitantly, but Victoire wasn't as upset with his action as he expected. He could also tell by the look she shot over his shoulder that she had noticed that their family was rather close.

The two of them turned around so that Victoire could see her family members, but Teddy left his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. They needn't have worried about what their family would think of their physical display though, because Ally and Xavier were still attached by their mouths and everyone was paying more attention to their PDA than to Victoire and Teddy's.

"Can I pour a bucket of cold water on them?"

"No."

"How about whatever's left in my cup of soda pop?"

"No."

"How about just a squirt of lukewarm water from my wand?"

"For the last time George, no!" Angelina said with a cross expression as she tried to keep the laughter out of her voice.

Victoire smiled brightly as her parents, aunts, and uncles gave her their congratulations, which included an awkward side hug from around Katie's large stomach.

When Ally and Xavier finally broke away for air (Or at least that's how George said it happened) their parents congratulated her also. Cecilia and Louis wandered by around that time and all three of the older Woods ambushed her into a group hug.

"You were fantastic Cee-Cee," Xavier told her as he affectionately ruffled her hair.

Her face turned red and she started to say something but her parents' tag-team of praise interrupted her.

"My baby girl you were so brilliant, you're such an all-around amazing Quidditch player!" Katie cried as she hugged her daughter a little too tightly around the shoulders.

"Cecilia those saves you made were amazing, the double eight loop you did was perfectly executed and your starfish and stick was-" Oliver was saying excitedly only to be interrupted by Katie.

"Ollie-"

"Just a moment Dear. As I was saying Cee-Cee-"

Katie placed her hand on her husband's arm, "Oliver-"

"Just let me finish this sentence please Sweetheart-"

"Oliver Ruairdh Wood!"

Oliver turned his head to look at his wife, "Yes Kates?"

"I think my water just broke."

* * *

Duhn, duhn, duhn!

**A/N:** Okay, before you ask, yes I had to stop it there, the next chapter will be out in a week we will be able to 'see' the baby, and the waiting for the new little bundle of joy will be all over.

Oh, and just above if any of you are curious Oliver's middle name as Katie yells, is _Ruaridh_, which is the Gaelic way to spell the name _Rory_. There are other ways to spell it too, but I like this one because a kid I went to high school with named 'Rory' was legally named 'Ruaridh' and I thought it'd be a fun Gaelic middle name to throw in there for Oliver ;)

**Next Week**: We get to meet Baby _ Wood. If you'd like you can guess in your review what gender the baby will be and I can do a quick count and write it in my author's note at the beginning of the next chapter! Totally up to the reviewers though :)

Speaking of, I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed! (Keep the reviews coming if you'd like too :)

**And a Big thanks to:**

**ntlpurpolia, eighteen inches, Sweet-Matty, VeelaBitches, MuggleCreator, GabrielaTJ, brilliant incandescence, owlcity2013, Oddliver, A Frozen Shadow, Chocolate-Horse, sushimaster18, Infinity Lily, Michaelarules2013, MiraclesHappen94, changewing, Forever Siriusly Sirius, zvc56, Guest(1), zippyrae, Encypher, TurquoiseTeddy, and, xSuperNovax.**

**eighteen inches**: I'm glad that you were okay with bringing Chris back into the equation for a little while at least. He's pretty much done, I just wanted to make sure that everyone felt like it was closed.

**MuggleCreator**: No problem, he's not that important anymore anyway ;)

**GabrielaTJ**: Thanks :)

**Oddliver**: Thanks, I love being able to put my own little twist on the magical world that HP resides in.

**A Frozen Shadow**: I hope that's a good thing . . . ;)

**Infinity Lily**: I'm glad you liked Sandra's research I really enyojed writing that chapter, and I'm glad that it seems believable.

**Michaelarules2013**: Ha, thanks a lot, and I don't plan on stopping permanently anytime soon.

**changewing**: Thanks :)

**Forever Siriusly Sirius**: Thanks for the awesome review and I'm glad that you enjoy the Holmwood and two-spell-thing. I always wondered how dementors came about to be controlled in Azkaban, so this is my take on it.

**Guest(1)**: The other contestants are fine, the aurors made sure that they were okay and got them out of the tunnels when Vic disappeared. AS for the tournament, it will have an ending and a winner we just have to wait and see who it will be.

**TurquoiseTeddy**: DFTBA = Don't Forget To Be Awesome. You can google it's history.

**Thanks for reading, please leave a review, and DFTBA!**


	94. Delivery!

**A/N:** Hi everyone! I'm updating early because . . . well because I feel like it :)

So, survey from the last chapter says that the majority of people are guessing/want the baby to be a girl. I guess you'll just have to read on and see what it is :)

**Warning:** Okay, so I just thought that I would remind everyone here that I HAVE NEVER GIVEN BIRTH nor SAW ONE HAPPENING IN REAL LIFE. So, I still wrote the scene as best as I could, but I don't think it's something that a person can write about and get perfect unless they've had more experience with the process, or done a LOT of research, compared to my very little. So, keep that in mind as you read the chapter, that I'm not an expert so it probably won't be an amazing and perfect description.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own many of these characters, but I will say, NEW BABY WOOD IS MINE! Got it? Okay :)

* * *

**Last Chapter Reminder:**

_Katie placed her hand on her husband's arm, "Oliver-"_

_"Just let me finish this sentence please Sweetheart-"_

_"Oliver Ruairdh Wood!"_

_Oliver turned his head to look at his wife, "Yes Kates?"_

_"I think my water just broke."_

* * *

**Delivery!**

The part of the field where the Woods, Weasleys, and Potters stood was silent as everyone registered what Katie had just said.

"Have the contractions started yet?" Angelina asked as the words registered with her; her voice quickly going into 'Healer' mode.

"Yes."

"Are you sure that they aren't Braxton hicks?" Oliver asked anxiously.

Katie gave him a chilling glare and snapped at her husband, "My bloody water just broke Oliver! They're not bloody Braxton hicks. I have birthed two children before you know!"

"How far apart are the contractions?" Victoire asked knowing that it was information Angelina would need to know.

"They're okay now but they're going to get closer soon," Katie huffed out as her breathing started to speed up as she tried to focus on the pain and distance of her contractions.

"I thought contractions could last for a long time before active labour starts?" Xavier said. Nobody questioned Xavier's new-found knowledge of the birthing process, but Victoire idly realized that he must have read the book she'd given him about _What to Expect When Your Witch is Expecting_.

"Xavier I was in labour for four hours with you. With Cecilia, it was barely three. This baby is going to be coming soon and unless we move right this minute it's going to be born on the Quidditch pitch!" Katie tried –and failed- to calmly tell him.

Oliver, who had started to transfer some of Katie's weight to himself so that she'd be able to move easier, suddenly stopped and asked excitedly, "Really?"

His wife gave him a scorching look, "No not really. I've told you for each child that we've had that I'm not giving birth to them on a Quidditch pitch!"

"Dad wanted you to give birth to us on a Quidditch pitch?" Cecilia asked.

"Have you all forgotten that I'm about to push a miniature human out of my body?!" Katie yelled.

"Do you think we'll have enough time to take you to St. Mungo's?" Angelina asked her.

Katie shook her head, "I don't want to chance flooing."

"Then what are we going to do?" Xavier asked worriedly as he stood on the side of his mother opposite his father.

"Hospital Wing?" Victoire asked, "Madam Pomfrey and Aunt Angelina can assist Katie during the birth."

"That seems like our only option. If we wait here any longer the baby will be born on the pitch," Angelina said worriedly.

"I still don't see what would be so bad about that," Oliver mumbled as he and Xavier started to help Katie move forward.

Katie was too distracted counting the time between her contractions to slap her husband, as she would have liked to. In normal Weasley and Potter fashion, everyone followed behind the Woods as they slowly made their way to the Castle.

"Is it smart to have Mum walk there?" Cecilia asked walking beside her brother as she dragged an apprehensive Louis by the hand with her.

"It's fine, for a lot of women exercise can actually help induce labour even more," Ginny commented from the large group just behind the Woods.

"If I was any deeper in labour the baby's head would already be crowning!" Katie exclaimed.

Several of the kids muttered 'ew' while Angelina snickered, "If I see your body starting to push we'll just have Oliver and Xavier levitate you in."

She turned to Victoire and Teddy, "I need you two to go ahead and inform Madam Pomfrey of what's going on, see if you can help her get the room ready too. We're going to have to sanitize everything, and maybe even create a separate room in the wing depending on how many sick students are there."

Victoire and Teddy nodded before jogging away to the Castle. As they travelled farther away from the slow moving procession, Victoire was rather impressed with the volume Katie's voice was reaching as a particularly strong contraction hit her.

* * *

"Is there something wrong Miss Weasley, Mr. Lupin?" Madam Pomfrey asked more than a little surprised as they slid into the Hospital wing.

"Katie Wood's water broke when we were on the Quidditch pitch and the contractions are coming on fast," Victoire told her.

Madam Pomfrey's eyes widened slightly, "Are they on their way up here?"

"Everyone is," Teddy chimed in.

Madam Pomfrey nodded and turned around to finish giving the boy sitting on the bed beside her a potion, "When you're done swallowing this I want you to go back to your dormitory and rest."

Then to Victoire and Teddy, "I hope that Angelina is included in that 'everyone'."

"She is."

"Very well then. I'll need to discharge some of my patients and sanitize a special spot and instruments for Katie. Mr. Lupin if you could come with me, I'll need you to follow my instructions on how to get the room ready for Katie. Miss Weasley, I have four patients in the wing. There are two breaks, one common cold, and one case of a charm gone wrong; could you fix those for me while I get ready for the birth?" Madam Pomfrey asked already walking into the room where she kept most of the potions.

Victoire's eyes widened in disbelief, "Me?"

"Yes please Miss Weasley, consider it practice for your Healer training next year, consider it volunteering, whatever you consider please do it quickly. I doubt Katie would like such a large audience as she gives birth."

Victoire nodded before moving to the closest bed. The bed-hangings were drawn around it, and Victoire wasn't sure how to make herself known so that she didn't startle the patient. Then she figured that they were in the Hospital Wing and that they should be aware that someone would be able to walk in.

Victoire pulled the hangings back as she began to speak, "Hi so what do we have-"

She stopped dead when she saw Colton Knott and Anastasia Greengrass sitting on top of the bed.

"What are you doing here Weasley? Where's Madam Pomfrey?" Colton asked strongly.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Madam Pomfrey's a little busy at the moment, so she asked me to see to her patients."

"Does she want them to die?"

Victoire huffed, "What's the illness here anyway? Has Anastasia become physically sick from spending so much time with you?"

Anastasia ignored Victoire and Colton's shots at each other and looked out into the room past them. Her eyebrows started to narrow as she saw Teddy and Madam Pomfrey moving around quickly and casting disinfectant spell after disinfectant spell.

"What's going on? What are they getting the wing ready for?" Anastasia asked.

Victoire bit her lip, not sure if the Woods wanted her to divulge all of their private lives, "Nothing really."

Colton scoffed, "No, really, what's going on?"

She figured that it would be easier to tell them than to try to sidestep the question again, "Katie Wood's water broke and her labour's acting so progressively that they don't have time to take her to St. Mungo's. We're trying to clear the Hospital Wing and get it ready so she can give birth here."

Anastasia's face softened, "The poor woman. I can't even imagine how bad I'd feel if I went into labour at Hogwarts of all places."

Victoire and Colton gave her matching looks of incredulity, but neither commented on Anastasia's statement.

"So, what are your symptoms?" Victoire asked trying to sound professional again.

"Vomiting since early this morning, and a slight fever," Anastasia told her.

Victoire squashed the urge to make a sarcastic comment on what type of virus Colton must have given her, but she abstained because he seemed to be sincerely playing the part of the concerned boyfriend with an ill girlfriend.

"So you think it's a virus?"

"Is that what you think it is?" Anastasia asked her.

"Most likely, but I'd like to do a few magical tests before I decide what potion to give you if you wouldn't mind."

"No problem."

Four flashes of different coloured light later and Victoire was finished with her assessments. She waved her wand and wordlessly summoned a potion bottle from Madam Pomfrey's store.

"This will help you feel better. One dose should get rid of the virus, but you should still take it easy the rest of the day. Make sure to get lots of sleep too to regain your energy," Victoire told Anastasia as she handed her the potion and a glass of water that she conjured up.

"What about a Pepper-Up potion?" Colton asked.

"That would help her get her energy up, but then she would crash even harder when it wore off. It's only usually recommended if the patient isn't able to get the rest that they need by natural means before doing some sort of strenuous activity or something else that they wouldn't be able to miss. It's only Saturday so she should be able to rest up for tomorrow and be good to go and potion free by Monday," Victoire told her.

Colton nodded and seemed to believe her without a problem.

Victoire gave Anastasia and Colton additional instructions to drink extra fluids and to conserve her energy until she felt one-hundred percent better. When she promised to do as told, Victoire discharged them and watched them leave the hospital wing before moving to the next occupied bed. She mended the two broken bones that ended up being a broken wrist and shin, and only lightly scolded the two second-years for being so stupid as to jump off the moving staircases as a bet. And the spell she had to reverse was a particularly nasty _furnunculus_ curse that a fifth-year girl cast on her boyfriend when he decided to break-up with her. Victoire was also able to deal out a week's worth of detentions to the girl, since she had had a bit of a change in heart and had come to visit her ex-boyfriend in the hospital wing.

Once the wing was cleared of all other students, Victoire moved to the portion of the room that Teddy and Madam Pomfrey were getting ready for Katie. She noticed that the hospital bed in the corner of the room had been enlarged and that more padding had been added to the matress. She also noticed two bedside tables that weren't there before, and that they were covered in different potion bottles and other medical equipment.

Victoire watched Teddy finish the last disinfectant spell and looked at Madam Pomfrey, "Have you ever helped deliver a baby before?"

Madam Pomfrey gave Victoire a considering glance overtop of her glasses, "Looking for some gossip are you Miss Weasley?"

"No," Victoire answered quickly, ". . . But do you have some?"

Madam Pomfrey shook her head and was about to say something else when the doors of the Hospital Wing burst open and roughly twenty-five people surged into the room. Katie was in front with Xavier and Oliver on either of her sides, with Cecilia beside her father. Close behind them were the Weasleys and the Potters.

"Halt!" Madam Pomfrey called to quiet down the mob of people, "Oliver, Xavier, help Katie onto the bed in the corner please. Angelina I have an extra pair of sterilized robes near my room if you want to change into them. And if your last name is not Wood, then Katie probably doesn't want you in here for her labour. I know that I won't be able to convince you all to go much farther than the hallway outside the Hospital Wing, so please feel free to make your camp there, we'll let you know when the baby's born."

"Katie," Madam Pomfrey asked turning to the pregnant woman who was now situated in the enlarged bed, "Who would you like to stay? Less is probably more in this case."

Katie had a death grip already on Oliver's hand so it was assumed that he would be staying, "I'd like Xavier to stay."

Xavier gave his mother a wide-eyed look, "Pardon?"

Katie gave her son a sweet look, "If this birth is going to be like yours and Cee-Cee's was, I'm going to need another person's hand to squeeze when your father wimps out."

Oliver opened his mouth to comment back, but then wisely decided not to when he saw that his wife was in the middle of another contraction.

"Are you sure?" Xavier asked again.

Katie nodded but had her teeth gritted to get through the pain of her latest contraction.

"Do you want to stay Cecilia?" Oliver asked his daughter.

Cecilia was looking at her mother wide-eyed, her hair still adorably disheveled from the Quidditch game she'd just played, "Umm, no thanks. I'll just wait in the hall with everyone else." She gave her mother a kiss on the cheek before leaving the room just behind Louis, Freddie, and James.

"Alright, good luck Katie," Ally said a little at a loss for words as she began to make her way out of the wing. Teddy and Victoire followed her, but before they reached the door, Angelina called Victoire's name.

"Yes?" Victoire asked turning around to see her.

"We'll need you to stay."

"What?" Victoire asked suspiciously.

"Madam Pomfrey and I will need your help with Katie's labour and delivery," Angelina told her as she looked over the bottles of potions Madam Pomfrey had placed on the table beside Katie's bed.

"I really don't think you'll need my help," Victoire said trying to inch in the direction of the door where Ally and Teddy were standing, waiting to see if she was going to leave with them.

"On the contrary Victoire, you'd be a big help," Madam Pomfrey told her sincerely.

"But I'm not a Healer or even a Medi-witch," she argued.

"Do you know how to perform a disinfecting spell?" Madam Pomfrey asked her.

"Yes, but what does that-"

"Do you know how to perform a pain-killing charm?" Angelina asked her with a smirk; she already knew the answer.

"Yes but-"

"Can you read the titles on the potion bottles?"

"Ye-"

"Can you hand either of us something when we ask you too?"

"Y-"

"Then you should go scrub up in the sink in the opposite corner of the room," Madam Pomfrey told her turning her back to her and asking Katie how far apart she felt that her contractions were.

Victoire looked down at the Quidditch uniform she was still in and then incredulously at her aunt, "I don't think I should wear this and help you-"

"Do you have a shirt under that?" Angelina asked cutting her off.

"A tank-top, yeah-"

"Then just take the jersey off and wear that," Angelina said with a shrug.

Victoire figured that she'd questioned her aunt enough for one day and decided just to do what she said. She pulled her Gryffindor Quidditch jersey over her head and tossed it to Teddy just before he and Ally left the room. She walked over to the sink, washed her hands and forearms, and then walked over to Katie's bed where everyone who was left in the room was converged around.

Xavier looked up as she came over and sighed loudly, "Really Vic, did you have to wear that?"

Victoire glanced down at her autographed _Puddlemere United_ tank top and grinned, "But it's worth so much more now that you're actually on the team."

"Vic-" Xavier's complaint was cut-off when his mother squeezed his hand as another contraction hit her. The pressure knocked the breath out of him and he decided to keep his mouth shut about Victoire's choice of clothing for the moment.

"How far apart are they now?" Angelina asked Katie anxiously.

"Six minutes apart at about sixty seconds each," Katie huffed out.

"Where's the pain centred?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Abdomen and lower back."

"How bad does the pain feel?" Angelina asked.

"Can I have a pain-killer?" Katie asked back.

"Bad enough apparently," Victoire muttered.

"I just need to see how dilated you are. If you're too far along I don't want to risk it," Angelina told her beginning her examination.

Xavier looked awkwardly at the wall beside him while Angelina finished up her examination.

"Well?" Oliver asked as he surreptitiously switched the hand that his wife was holding with his other one.

"Do you feel the need to push?" Angelina asked Katie.

"Not yet, but it will probably come soon."

Angelina nodded, "You can have some now then." Then she turned to Victoire, "Can you get the blue pain-killing potion from the table over there?"

Victoire nodded and walked over to it. As soon as she picked up the bottle, Angelina asked her if she could take the measuring goblet next to it and measure 20 mL into it. Victoire poured the light yellow liquid in; stooping down to make sure that she stopped pouring when the top level of liquid hit the bottom of the meniscus at the 20 mL mark. When she was finished, she handed it to Angelina. Then was asked by Madam Pomfrey to conjure up a glass of water. She did as she was told before stepping back a bit and waiting for further instruction.

After the pain medication kicked in, Katie dropped both Oliver and Xavier's hands, and her breathing began to ease. Oliver and Xavier both furtively shook their hands out and held them carefully to their chests as the circulation in them came back. Oliver went back to holding his wife's hand when the feeling came back to his, while Xavier stood almost awkwardly at his mother's side.

Katie's labour went smoother with the pain-killing drugs, and before she knew it, Angelina was telling her to push. Xavier's eyes went wide as he watched his mother go through the labour from the head of her bed, but they calmed down when the first cry of the baby was heard in the room. Everything seemed to happen in super-speed after that. Angelina helped instruct Oliver in how to cut the umbilical cord even though she really didn't need too, and took the baby a little ways away to a table that was set up to clean it and weigh and measure it. She beckoned that Victoire come with her and help, much to Victoire's relief as Madam Pomfrey was presently coaching Katie through the afterbirth. Victoire hastily helped Angelina clean the baby up and smiled when they were done.

Once Angelina was done her final task –wrapping the newborn up in a white knitted blanket- she moved back to Katie's bedside and gently laid the baby in its mother's arms. Katie smiled at the newest addition to her family before looking up at Oliver beside her. He had crouched down a little so that he could run a hand along the baby's sparsely haired head. Oliver sensed her gaze and looked at her. He smiled brightly and kissed her quickly before turning his gaze back at his newest child. Katie looked to her other side and smiled up at Xavier.

"You can come closer," she said, noticing that he was a good few feet away from them.

Xavier looked at the delicate bundle in his mother's arms nervously but moved closer at her insistence. His smile became more genuine as he took in the tiny baby nestled in his mother's arms.

"Just the cutest thing," Xavier said quietly.

"Do you want to hold the baby?" Katie asked him.

Xavier looked back up at his parent's faces with a worried expression. He'd never held a newborn baby before, and he didn't want to hold it before his father had even had a chance to.

"Dad hasn't held the baby yet."

Katie laughed lightly, "Your Dad can catch a quaffle speeding towards the goal net at a speed of one-hundred and fifty kilometers per hour, but he's always hesitant to hold a baby. It took him an hour or two after both yours, and Cecilia's birth to feel comfortable enough to hold you without fearing that he'd drop you."

"Are you sure I should hold it?" Xavier asked, his eyes searching both of his parents' faces. He only received reassuring smiles from both.

"Yes."

So, Xavier made a functioning, yet awkward cradle out of his arms, and Katie placed his new sibling carefully into it, instructing him to be careful of the head. The baby opened its eyes briefly, as it was transferred to Xavier's arms, and Xavier held his breath waiting to see if it would start to cry. The baby closed its eyes again without a sound and seemed to snuggle deeper into Xavier's arms, causing its older brother to grin massively.

Victoire smiled at the sweet family tableau before speaking, "Do you want me to go get Cecilia?"

Katie smiled and nodded, "Yes, but you might as well let everyone else in too. The Hospital Wing's empty and the sooner we get all of the introductions over with, the sooner we can take baby Wood home."

Victoire shot both Angelina and Madam Pomfrey a look to make sure that they were okay with Katie's request before going to the doors of the Hospital Wing and opening them. Everyone was still in the corridor, some of them sitting down on the floor, some of them leaning against the wall, and even a few pacing a small length of the floor. Victoire spoke to one of the latter first.

"The baby's here," she told Cecilia gently.

Cecilia's pacing came to an abrupt stop –which seemed to please Louis for she had been dragging him along behind her by the hand- as she heard Victoire's words.

"What gender is it?" Cecilia asked timidly.

Victoire smiled brightly and held her hand out to her, "Come and see."

Cecilia looked worriedly before taking Victoire's hand and loosening her grip on Louis'. The two girls walked through the Hospital Wing doors, but not before Victoire looked behind her and nodded at Ally, telling her that everyone was allowed in to see Katie. Ally nodded back, and Victoire could hear her cousin quietly telling everybody else that if they wanted to see the new baby they would need to first complete a sanitizing charm that was up to her very high standards.

Victoire walked with Cecilia over to Katie's bed and slowly released her hand. Cecilia's face broke out into a large smile as she looked at the little baby almost hidden in her brother's arms.

"So, do I have a brother or a sister?" Cecilia asked impatiently.

Victoire could hear everyone that was trickling in slowly behind her quiet down, all of them curious to hear the answer.

Katie smiled and looked up at Oliver and squeezed his hand.

"You Cee-Cee, have a new little brother," Oliver told his daughter.

"Aww," Cecilia cooed giving her baby brother a tender look from over Xavier's arm.

"Yes, I totally won the bet!" Freddie exclaimed happily, as he held his hand up to George in a gesture that said 'give-me-my-money-now'.

Ally sighed embarrassedly, "You guys will bet on anything, won't you?"

"Yup, and speaking of bets, Vic when the Minister finally decides what he wants to do about this whole Tri-Wizard Tournament business, could you make it so that you could win please? Then I'll be three for three with bets this year," Freddie told her.

Victoire rolled her eyes and would have responded with something not so nice if it weren't for the fact that Katie literally just gave birth a few moments ago.

"Okay, okay, enough stalling. What are we naming the little nugget?" George asked.

"Did you just call the baby a nugget?" Dom asked her uncle.

Angelina rolled her eyes and looked at Katie and Oliver, "Do you guys have a name picked out already?"

"Sort of," Katie said watching her eldest son holding her newest one.

Xavier noticed that he was being watched and motioned to give his mother back the baby but she shook her head. She wanted to watch him holding him for a little longer.

"By sort of, she told me that we're not using the name I want, but that the kids should be able to veto the name she likes," Oliver said.

Katie rolled her eyes, "Ollie, we're not naming our son Mabon."

"It's not so bad," Louis commented.

Xavier snorted, "Mabon literally means son in Welsh."

Everyone but George gave Oliver a hard stare when they heard that.

"Oh my Godric you have to use that name!" George said excitedly.

"No, we are not naming our son, 'son'," Katie said resolutely.

"But it's the perfect name, if I could have gotten away with naming Ally and Freddie 'girl' and 'boy' I so would have," George told her.

"Yes, well both Oliver and you have smart enough wives not to let that happen," Angelina commented dryly.

"I don't like the sound of Mabon Wood anyway," Cecilia voiced.

"Which is why we came up with a different name for a boy," Katie said giving Oliver a significant look.

Oliver nodded, "Cecilia, Xavier, do you think the name Brogan fits your new little brother?"

Both Xavier and Cecilia took their father's question seriously, as they gazed at their new sibling. They shared a look before Xavier answered for the both of them.

"I think that would be a perfect name."

"What is his middle name going to be?" Victoire asked interestedly.

"George?"

"No!" Oliver shouted while Katie started to laugh. She stopped a few minutes later with a hand on her stomach. The pain-killing potion was slowly receding and she could still feel some of the effects from the afterbirth.

"Anyway," Oliver said his face slowly going back to his normal pasty colour, "We were thinking Kirkland."

"So Brogan Kirkland Wood?" Cecilia asked looking at her little brother.

"Yes."

Xavier smiled at the little baby in his arms, "I think he likes it." The baby had opened its eyes during the naming process and was looking at what it could with a curious expression.

"He does look like a Brogan," Ally said coming over to Xavier's side so that she could look at the newest addition to the Wood family.

Xavier smiled at her and dipped his arms down a little so that Ally would be able to see the baby better. She hesitantly reached out with a hand towards the baby, the tender look in Xavier's eyes told her that she could continue with her course, and stroked Brogan's forehead gently with one of her fingertips.

A few seconds later, Xavier asked Cecilia if she wanted to hold their baby brother. She gave him a wide-eyed look because she was rather frightened at the prospect of holding something so delicate, but at both of her parents and her big brother's insistence she relented and Xavier placed Brogan in her arms.

After only a few moments, she was rocking the baby slightly in her arms like a pro. Louis stood near her and took a look over her shoulder at Brogan.

"You know you and Xavier will probably be calling him Bro for short, right?" Louis asked with a bit of a smile.

Cecilia, Xavier, and Oliver laughed with Katie just sighed. She must have already thought of that nickname.

"Does anyone else want to hold the baby for a little while?" Cecilia asked knowing that there were several people in the room who were all trying to get a look at the baby.

"How about Victoire? She had to help through the birth after all," Xavier suggested.

Victoire smiled almost timidly, "May I?"

Oliver and Katie nodded enthusiastically and Victoire gently took baby Brogan out of Cecilia's arms.

Victoire held the baby comfortably in her arms and smiled down at the little bundle in her arms, "Hey Baby Boy, welcome to our crazy world. You're so lucky to have the family you do. Your parents are amazing, if not a little batty from time to time when the word Quidditch is mentioned, but they already have two children and haven't seemed to screw them up yet, so I think you'll be just fine. Now, I know that your big brother isn't always the brightest patronous, but he has a good heart and will be a very good role model for you. As for your big sister, she's the coolest, and I'm totally jealous that you get to have her for a sister."

She could hear Dom scoff from behind her but she ignored it. She did however; look over her shoulder to see Teddy coming closer to her so that he could see the baby too. She gave him a big smile when she saw the sweet look he had on his face as he looked at Brogan. He touched the baby's hand and it opened so that it could grab his pointer finger.

Teddy wiggled his finger a bit before smiling, "Little guy has a good grip."

"Chas-" Katie started to yell before being cut off.

"Keeper! I called it!" Oliver said excitedly as he grinned evilly at his wife.

"No, no no," Katie said crossing her arms over her chest, "A good grip means that he'll be able to throw the quaffle like a proper chaser."

"Pfft. Having a good grip is important for a keeper because they have to be able to catch the quaffle all the time. Besides, as Xavier has already proven, and as Cecilia has proven today, our kids make fantastic keepers," Oliver defended.

Xavier and Cecilia rolled their eyes while Victoire looked seriously at the baby in her arms, "Oh don't listen to your parents Brogan. They just want you to be the best that you can be at whatever you do . . . they'll be perfectly fine when you tell them that you want to play the position of seeker."

Katie and Oliver stopped their argument to laugh at Victoire's words.

Brogan started to fuss a little in Victoire's arms so she handed him gently back over to his parents.

"Have you decided who you want to name as Brogan's godparents yet?" Xavier asked his parents.

Katie and Oliver shared a look before looking back at their eldest son.

"Xavier, we were really hoping that you would accept the offer to be your brother's godfather," Oliver told him.

Xavier froze.

"Me?"

"Yes, I know that siblings aren't always used, but you're old enough and we really think that you'd be a great fit," his mother told him gently.

Xavier nodded his head woodenly. Victoire figured that it was more from the shock of being given such an important role, as opposed to dislike of the offer. She decided to try to make Xavier more excited about the offer he was given.

"That's really exciting Xavier, you'll be a great godfather to Brogan," Victoire told him sincerely.

Xavier gave Victoire a smile in response.

* * *

Once everyone who wanted to, had the chance to hold baby Brogan, everyone but the Woods and Angelina left the Hospital Wing. Angelina and Madam Pomfrey wanted Katie to stay in the wing for a few more hours just to make sure that she mended properly, but when they were to leave, Xavier was to leave with them.

A series of well-wishes and even air kisses to the Woods (mostly from George), and all of the visitors slowly left the Hospital Wing. Victoire's parents, aunts, and uncles left a few at a time from the room, so the last few out of the door were Victoire, Ally, Teddy, and Kyle and Sandra who had stopped by a little after Brogan's birth, not wanting to crowd the family too much.

"When are you leaving?" Victoire asked Teddy hesitantly as they left the wing.

He was holding Victoire's hand, so he gave it a gentle squeeze, "I'll need to go soon. I have to do some stuff for work tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's Sunday," Victoire reminded him.

"I asked Kingsley to give me double the work when I first got back to the Ministry," he explained.

"Why would you do something crazy like that?"

"Because I was afraid that if I had too much free time I'd spend too much time thinking about you and missing you even more," Teddy told her placing a hand at her waist and pulling her closer to him.

"That's sweet, but you also make me want to smack you," Victoire said wrapping her arms around his neck.

Teddy smirked before closing the distance between their mouths.

Before they could go much farther however, a loud throat clearing interrupted them. Victoire and Teddy barely separated, but she was still able to send their interrupter a rude hand gesture.

Kyle ignored the action, "It might do you well to remember that you're in a corridor in the middle of Hogwarts right now."

"It might do you well to remember that Teddy is no longer stationed at Hogwarts, and therefore I can snog him any time I want now," Victoire commented back.

"And it might do you well to remember that just because Teddy left the Castle, doesn't mean that you still don't have aurors and MLE agents following your every move," Kyle rebutted.

"And it might do the both of you well to remember that we only have about a month a bit of school left and that it would be a shame for you two to kill each other when we were all so close to graduating together," Sandra said dryly.

"I think if we hurry we can still make a bit of the celebration party that's going on in the common room right now," Ally said not so subtly changing the subject.

Victoire pouted and turned back to look at Teddy, "I don't want you to go yet."

"Sorry Sweetheart, I'll owl you later, okay?" Teddy asked her.

She nodded her head but her frown increased. He noticed, grabbed her around the waist, and pulled her close to him. She smiled at bit before closing the distance between their mouths with a rather chaste kiss.

"Okay," She told him still rather sadly, when they parted.

Teddy kissed her on the forehead one last time before saying goodbye to everyone else, and leaving the corridor. Victoire's friends waited with her until he turned the corner and was out of sight.

She sighed longingly before throwing one arm over Ally's shoulder and her other over Sandra's, "C'mon, let's get to the Common Room. I'm gonna need some alcohol to make me forget how much I'm going to miss him."

* * *

**A/N:** It's a **BOY!** Okay, I hope that those of you that were hoping for a girl aren't to disappointed, but when I came up with the idea of the baby, right away I knew I wanted it to be a boy. Dunno why, just felt like that's what it should be. Plus, this way Xavier gets to be a big role model for him (Not that a girl can't look up to a male role model, I'm just saying . . .).

**1.)** Okay, according to my internet research on names and their meanings (Again, I said _internet,_ this could be completely wrong), Mabon is actually Welsh for son.

**2.)** Brogan is an Irish name in origin, "_Derived from Gaelic bróg "shoe" combined with a diminutive suffix_".

**3.)** First off, I picked the name because I thought it sounded cool.

**4.)** Second, when I researched it, I liked the fact that part of his name comes from a diminutive suffix, such as 'little' and that Cecilia and Xavier would probably call him Bro for short. Voila, 'Little Bro'.

(I thought it was cute, you're free to disagree but I'm not going to change it either way ;)

**5.)** Brogan's middle name is Kirkland. Kirkland was a Scottish name derived from people who lived on land adjacent to a church (Called a Kirk long ago), and that's how it's popularity as a last name began.

**6.)** In reality, I'm using Kirkland as his middle name, because it's actually my brother's first name, and he keeps bugging me and asking which character in this story is supposed to be him. So I figured if I put his name in as a middle name, he'd stop asking. (And no, there was no 'reason' why my parents picked that name for him, they just liked it for a first name.)

**7.)** That, and I think Brogan Kirkland Wood had a nice ring to it. (Again, you're free to disagree, but I'm probably not going to change it.)

**8.)** Please review and tell me what you thought of it! Even if you don't like the name and/or gender, I don't mind :D

**Next Chapter:** Teddy goes on a lunch date, does a bit of investigating at work, and has a very interesting chat with Andromeda.

**So, thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed, it means so much to me :)**

And a **BIG** thanks to:

**Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, MuggleCreator, A Frozen Shadow, barefoot and buckwild, sushimaster18, owlcity2013, Oddliver, Forever Siriusly Sirius, brilliant incandescence, changewing, clessard, MaddieMonkey, MagicalNinjaUnicorn, TurquoiseTeddy, ilovemusic'forever, nifflerstorm17008, MiraclesHappen94, **and** Infinity Lily!**

**barefoot and buckwild**: Good instincts, indeed, Oliver will be very frantic for the next few months.

**owlcity2013**: Two words. Ha, ha. (Technically four there)

**Oddliver**: Ah, that would have been good. But Oliver is also (understandably) scared of his wife.

**Forever Siriusly Sirius**: Spring, lucky you, it's technically still summer her but it's getting rather cold. Yeah, I'm glad you picked up on my lame attempt at foreshadowing ;) And yes, Teddy/Xavier (Bros), Teddy/Vic, and Ally/Xavier are adorable.

**brilliant incandescence**: Sowwy, no daughter. But Xavier will still have lots of time to be adorable older brother to Brogan, and we're at perfect timing for him to be protective older brother for Cecilia. And thanks, but yeah, angst will start up in the next chapter. And from a surprising source at that.

**changewing**: If I could find the time there'd be one-shots and mini multi-chapter fics about almost everyone and anyone's POV in this story. I'll keep in mind that Ally's POV is something that others would like to read about, and if I ever get the time I'll see what I can do. And I'm glad you liked more Teddy, 'cause next chapter is even **more** Teddy. Like all Teddy. :)

**MaddieMonkey**: I swear I had the gender picked before your review, but I'm glad that you like Baby Wood as a boy. And yeah, Rory can also be spelt a coule other ways in the Gaelic sense, but they're all just different derivatives of each other. (Like how there's a few different ways to spell the name Kathryn.)

**MagicalNinjaUnicorn**: I know this is from 92, but I thought I'd put the answer here along with 93's. Personally, I love the Green brothers the same amount. They're both awesome vloggers, amazingly artistic, and have developed so many cool projects all revolving around web video (From VidCon, to Lizzie Bennett Diaries, to CrashCourse, helping MentalFloss, Scishow, to DFTBA records) seriously, they're so amazing, and just intelligent and funny, and all around really nice, good people. Yes, I've read TFiOS, but I haven't had a chance to read any of his others yet. Thanks s lot :) And I like some of the names you gave, Trenton especially, but I knew a kid with that name and he grew up to be . . . not the best. So I'm a little biased by it now, but hey, happens all the time.

**TurquoiseTeddy**: Sorry, no girl. But it is a cute little bouncing baby boy :)

**ilovemusic'forever**: Yuppers, Irish first name, Scottish middle :) On the topic od Gaelic names though, the boy I know whose name is Rory (My brother's best friend from High school) has other Gaelic names. One's Margaret, but I'm not sure how they spell it because she's younger and she never told me (But it is officially a Gaelic spelling), and then there's a Maili (girl).

**nifflerstorm17008**: Sorry, it's a boy :)

**MiraclesHappen94**: Wanna meet someone older like that? Almost every middle aged person I know it like that. Not as prank-y, but definitely as 'witty' and sharp, and, sometimes, funny. How'd you like the name choice?

**Infinity Lily**: Thanks, I'm glad my writing can elicit such a reaction. How'd you like the name? And I'm glad you liked Teddy POV because we get to see more in the next chapter :)

**Thanks again everyone, don't forget to review, and DFTBA!**


	95. Sleuthing

**A/N:** Hey guys! Here's the next chapter, I really enjoyed writing this one, so I hope that you like it :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything here that looks like JKR's :)

* * *

**Sleuthing**

"Isn't he just the cutest little baby?" Teddy heard a familiar voice coo as he stepped into the restaurant.

He shook his head at the hostess who had started to move out from behind the podium she was standing at, when he walked in.

"I know who I'm looking for," he told her nodding his head in the direction he'd heard the voice come from.

Teddy noted that the hostess looked a little disappointed –at what he didn't know- but he continued on his way into the seating area of the restaurant. They had agreed yesterday to meet at the restaurant for lunch at one o'clock. Teddy had tried to suggest a place that would be less populated –not that the small place they were at was very busy on a Tuesday afternoon- but his 'date' said that where they'd originally decided would be fine.

As Teddy rounded a corner, he could see his companion sitting at a table with a ball cap pulled low over his eyes, surrounded by a group of three fifty-something year old witches cooing at a photo held in his hand. Teddy rolled his eyes at the display, if Xavier wore the hat so that he wouldn't be recognized, he wasn't doing a good job of hiding his identity by showing off pictures of what Teddy assumed was his baby brother.

As Teddy approached the table he could hear the conversation better.

"He has your eyes, and looks just like you."

"Aw, look at the little fingers and toes playing with the miniature quaffle!"

"He's definitely going to be a handsome young man when he grows up."

"Then he can't look just like Xavier if he's going to be handsome," Teddy commented as he sat down in the chair opposite Xavier's at their table for two.

Xavier rolled his eyes, but set the photos down and said goodbye to the witches who had been appreciating his photos. When he glanced back at Teddy, he slid the photos across the tabletop for him to see.

"Brogan's first pictures?" Teddy asked as he picked up the wizarding photos.

"Yes," Xavier said radiating with so much pride, that if Teddy hadn't known, he would have thought that the baby was actually his and not his little brother.

Teddy smiled back as he looked at the photos. There was one photo of Brogan with a little blue and white blanket wrapped around him, lying in one hand that was obviously Katie's, and one hand that would have been Oliver's, both of their wedding rings shinning from the flash of the camera. The second photo was of Brogan lying on a blue and yellow blanket that said _Puddlemere_ _United_ on it, with a toy broom sitting in the corner, and he had his hand on a little scarlet quaffle that sat beside him. The last picture was one of Xavier holding his little brother, Xavier in his new _Puddlemere United_ jersey, and Brogan in a _Puddlemere United_ onesie.

"I hope that Brogan will start to look a bit more like your Mum too, so that he won't be mistaken too much for your child," Teddy said handing the photos back.

"Yeah, although after Mum and Dad do their latest interview with _Witch Weekly_ and every other magazine, everyone will know what Brogan looks like and who's kid he is," Xavier said putting his photos away.

"Let's hope that those older ladies don't go spilling information to some of the more racy gossip rags," Teddy said with a deadpanned look.

Xavier chuckled, "I highly doubt it. I don't even think they recognized me."

"Yes because a muggle ball cap is such a perfect disguise."

"One, no knocking my disguises, not everyone can be a metamorphmagus. And two, did you just channel Victoire there? 'Cause that was rather snarky."

"Sometimes I wish I could channel Vic," Teddy said looking at the menu on the table in front of him.

"Yeah, because she's such a people person."

"Don't knock it, you'll need her to have the kind of attitude that she does to protect Ally from the over enthusiastic fangirls that you're going to have soon," Teddy warned.

Xavier shivered at the thought but nodded, "Good point."

The waiter chose that moment to come over and ask them for their orders. They ordered their drinks and their meals before giving him the menus back.

"So if you love being around Brogan so much, why did you ask me if I wanted to meet up today for lunch?" Teddy asked Xavier as he idly played with his napkin.

"As much as I love my new little brother, it seems like everybody my parents have ever had contact with has been stopping by the last couple of days to greet the newest Wood," Xavier told him.

"And it's getting tiring?"

"Yes, not to mention that Mum feeds him around this time and then puts him down for a nap, and that's all just a little awkward –the feeding, not the nap," Xavier explained.

Teddy grimaced, "Yeah, can we just sidestep that entire conversation, please."

"Try living with it."

"How about you find a new place to live then?" Teddy asked as if it was the most obvious thing.

The waiter dropped off their drinks before promising that their food would be out shortly.

Xavier took a sip of his before speaking, "Every player on the team has the option to live in an apartment in the _Puddlemere United_ tower. Most of the single players choose too, while the ones that are married or have a family will just keep an apartment to sleep in, in case of a late night. I'll take up an apartment there at the end of the summer when Cecilia goes back to Hogwarts, leaving Mum and Dad home alone with Brogan."

"Well then you should enjoy your time with your family while you can get it," Teddy said.

"Yup," Xavier agreed.

Their waiter was back with their meals and told them to enjoy.

"Any other reason why you wanted to meet up today?" Teddy asked as he took a bite of his food.

"I figured that since Nancy Drew and her sidekicks were busy spending all their free time researching that we might as well work together and try to bounce ideas off each other," Xavier told him.

Teddy shook his head, "What is it with all of you pushy Gryffindors? Can't you just let the aurors and MLE do the jobs they're paid to do?"

Xavier raised an eyebrow at Teddy.

He sighed, "Alright Joe, what do you know?"

Xavier frowned, "Oh, no, no, no. I'm the one who decided to liken Victoire to Nancy Drew, so you can be Joe Hardy, I'll be Frank."

"Frank Hardy's the oldest one," Teddy said dismissively, "Now what do you know about the investigation?"

"That neither MLE nor the Auror Department have gotten anywhere and that Flannery won't decide what he wants done about the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament until the person who keeps messing with it is caught," Xavier recited.

"That's all I know too," Teddy told him.

Xavier gave him an incredulous look.

"Listen, MLE won't let me anywhere near this case -unless it's to tell them something the already know- because of my connection to Victoire. They don't think that I'm a subject anymore, but they're still not going to give me all of their notes. The only reason why Kingsley is even still allowed to know what's going on is because he's Kingsley freaking Shacklebolt and no one says 'no' to him."

"So what have you found out then?" Xavier asked not missing a beat.

Teddy sighed and reflexively looked around their table to make sure that there were no people listening in on their conversation. The closest table was the one that held the three older women, and they were still not in hearing distance.

"The only thing that I can do is check the names Victoire gave me that she thinks might be connected. But I haven't had a chance to check yet because I feel like my every move is being watched in the office since I've come back," Teddy said.

Xavier nodded, "What was the name again? Hollywood?"

Teddy snorted, "No, Holmwood. I'm sure that if there was anything on him, I'd be able to find it; I just need to get into the room with the files. Have you learned anything new?"

"I asked my parents about the name, but they've been –understandably- distracted. Mum didn't recognize it, but she was only a half-blood anyway. Dad said that he might have heard it before, but even though he's a pureblood, he never really cared about knowing 'who's who'. He said I could ask my grandparents, but they said that they were going to stop by and visit very soon once the baby was born, so we're expecting them soon and I'm just going to wait to ask them when they get here. Kyle said that he asked his parents, but that they didn't recognize it and that they were going to ask their parents though," Xavier told him.

"So we've hit a dead end until we find out more information about them?" Teddy asked.

"Yeah, did you ask Andromeda about the name?"

Teddy shook his head, "No, I haven't spoken face-to-face with her in a while. We've done a few letters but I've been meaning to visit her."

"You should do that then," Xavier said finishing his last bite of food.

Teddy set down his fork since his plate was empty, and rolled his eyes at Xavier, "Great idea there Xav."

* * *

Teddy and Xavier paid their bills, and then went their separate ways after leaving the restaurant. One went to his afternoon Quidditch practice, while the other went back to the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. As Teddy walked back into the Auror Department, he noticed that it was oddly empty. Or, emptier than it had been earlier in the day, meaning that all of the first-year-aurors-in-training weren't in the room.

Teddy was close to the desk that belonged to Harry when Auror Genesis Burton found him, "Ah, there you are Lupin. Could you file these for me in the records room?"

Teddy took the pile of case files, "Sure, where'd everyone else go?"

She grinned evilly, "Surprise training drill for the first-years. Kingsley was surprised that we still had such a large amount of them after almost a year of training, so he instructed us to make it a bit harder and knock some out."

Teddy could remember the surprise training drills well from last year when he was in his first year of training for the department. The first two had knocked out half of the recruits by Christmas.

"Depending on how fast you file those you might be able to come down and get a shot at testing the first-years yourself," Auror Burton told him, her eyes sparkling with mischief.

"I'll keep that in mind as I file," Teddy told her as he took the key from her and walked toward the record room that the aurors shared with MLE. He looked over his shoulder before opening the door to see her walking over to the elevator and then stepping inside. He was going to be alone in the record room now.

He opened the door quickly with the key before shutting it tightly. He left half of the folder he'd been given on the small table in the room before going forward to the closest filing cabinet. He decided that he'd file half, and then look for Victoire's suspects before filing the second half in case someone walked in halfway through and asked him what he was doing there.

Twenty files placed alphabetically into the right cabinet and Teddy started to look for Victoire's suspect. He decided to start in the cabinet-labelled 1800-1900 and went to the 'H's to see if he could find Yorrick Holmwood. Luckily, there was a file labelled Holmwood, Yorrick Atticus, nestled right between Hollywood, Madeleine Cherie, and Homes, Nestor Albert. Yorrick Holmwood's file mostly talked about his time on the Azkaban grand council and one or two misdemeanours that he was charged with but never persecuted on. Listed under family though, was a long list of names in a gold coloured ink. Teddy had seen the files in this room once or twice, so he knew that the gold ink was charmed to add the names of a person's family as their descendants grew. If he had looked at a file named Oliver Wood, it would have a brand new name magically added onto it that would say _Brogan Kirkland Wood_, right underneath Cecilia's name, without someone having to come into the room to change it.

Teddy decided to start at the last names magicked onto the list because Victoire and Sandra had been interested on where the family went. The last ones that were written were Graeme, Kent, Isaac, and Braxton Holmwood. He knew from Victoire's letter that those were the names of the last descendants of Yorrick Holmwood that Sandra could find in her research. He went to the filing cabinets labelled 1900-2000, knowing that Sandra said that she couldn't find anything after 1986. He found Braxton Holmwood first, date of birth being 1960. There was no date of death listed so Teddy assumed that he was still alive, and therefore currently fifty-eight years old. What he found odd was the fact that he couldn't find anything on the man after 1986, just like Sandra said, no mention of marriage or children, or even grandchildren listed. Not only that, but the man's record listed no run-ins with the law, nor a mention of any job that the man had ever held. All that was listed was that he had attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1971 to 1978, and that he was in Slytherin house.

Teddy left the file on top of the filing cabinet in case he wanted to look at it later, and looked for the three other brother's names. Neither Isaac, Kent, nor Graeme Holmwood were listed as dead either, so Teddy had to assume that all four brothers were still alive. One thing that Teddy did find interesting was that all three brothers had as spotless records as the first. The oddest thing though, had to be the fact that only the eldest brother –Braxton- went to Hogwarts. The second eldest, Isaac, was listed as attending Durmstrang during his seven years of schooling, the third child –Kent- attended Beauxbatons during his schooling years, and the youngest -Graeme- was listed as going to a wizarding school in North America that Teddy recognized the name of but couldn't remember exactly where it was.

He wasn't sure why all four of the children attended separate schools, but it was something to file away in the back of his mind and come back to later. Since Teddy couldn't find anything with the last of the line, he figured that he should work backwards from there. He found the father's name listed in the sons' files and dug around to find the name Linden Holmwood.

When Teddy found Linden Holmwood's file the man was listed as being born in 1940, and dying in 2016 at the age of 76. There were a few misdemeanors mentioned in the file starting when he was fourteen, but they were all brushed over with little notes by a MLE agent. The notes said that all of the charges were properly settled out of wizarding court. As Teddy noticed a few accounts of petty robbery or possession of restricted items, he guessed that the fact that they were settled out of wizarding court was probably because the Holmwood family paid a large amount of coin to make it that way. However, there was one charge that Teddy found as odd, the file read as follows:

_Name of perpetrator: Linden Francis Holmwood_

_Date of crime: June 1972_

_Charge(s): (DELETED) Attempt of murder with a restricted dark hex. _

_(EDIT) Attempt of bodily harm with a regulated charm._

_Accessory(ies): E. Holmwood (File number 6886426 CGJ)_

_Victim(s): T. Tonks (File number 3067669 KAD)_

_Lead investigator: J. Parks –MLE Agent_

_Sentence: N/A_

_Notes: This case was handled out of the wizarding courts and since the subject was not the direct perpetrator of the charm. The victim did not press charges. All other fines were paid for in the correct amounts and on time to the appropriate bureaus._

Teddy's body went cold and he automatically went searching for E. Holmwood's file, hoping that it would contain more information on the case since Linden Holmwood's file said scarcely anything of actual importance about it.

He found an Eldon Holmwood file number 6886426 CGJ and quickly pulled it out. He was about to open it up and read it when he heard the doorknob start to creak. Teddy made a hasty decision and stuffed the file in his robes, hoping that nobody would be looking for the exact file he was holding until he would be able to return it to the right spot. When it was secure, he waved his wand and all of the files sitting on the table in the room but one went soaring into the filing cabinet that opened and closed on its own. Only one file remained left to be put away and it flew into Teddy's hands so that it looked like he was just finishing up as the door to the room opened fully and allowed someone inside.

Auror Burton walked in and smiled when she saw Teddy just finishing putting the last file away.

"What took you so long Lupin? We've weeded out at least thirteen recruits by now."

Teddy laughed easily, "Oh this filing cabinet was a mess, letters H-K to be specific."

Auror Burton's nose scrunched up, Teddy knew that there was nothing she hated more than a messed up filing system, "Ugh, I think Lassoder was in here last, he came by a few hours ago to get a file for McKenny, he never puts things back where he found them."

Teddy didn't reply, but childishly enjoyed the fact that his fake explanation would probably get Lassoder a lecture on tidiness the next time he was around Auror Burton.

"Well if there isn't anything else for me to do I'll just leave. I have some paperwork at my flat that I could probably get finished if I left right now," Teddy said walking out of the room.

Auror Burton nodded, "Alright, see you tomorrow Lupin."

* * *

Teddy ran into his flat and barely had the time to shut the door behind him before he slid into a chair at the table in his kitchen and pulled the file he'd taken from work out from under his robes. He opened up Eldon Holmwood's file and read:

_Name of perpetrator: Eldon Edgar Holmwood_

_Date of crime: June 1972_

_Charge(s): (DELETED) Attempt of murder with a restricted dark hex. _

_(EDIT) Attempt of bodily harm with a regulated charm._

_Accessories: L. Holmwood (File number 6886734 CGJ)_

_Victim: T. Tonks (File number 3067669 KAD)_

_Lead investigator: J. Parks –MLE Agent_

_Sentence: N/A_

_Notes: This case was handled out of the wizarding courts. The subject was the direct perpetrator of the charm. The victim did not press charges, and all other fines were paid for in the correct amounts and on time to the appropriate bureaus._

"That's it!?" Teddy yelled to himself frustrated, "No explanation of the injuries. No motive or even the place it occurred. No witnesses and not one mention of an investigation by the Auror Department even though it was stated that a restricted hex was used."

He was very upset that the file was so bare of information. Not just because he now found out that it may have involved his grandfather, but because he had a feeling that this was something that could help him unravel the bigger puzzle of the Holmwood family.

Teddy sighed and placed his forehead on the shiny maple top of the table. If he wanted more answers than what was in the report, he knew he had to talk to someone who most likely had firsthand experience with the incident.

Incidentally, he was also going to take Xavier's advice from during lunch. He was going to go visit his grandmother Andromeda.

* * *

Teddy knocked on the door to Andromeda's house. Normally he wouldn't be so formal, but his sudden nerves over what he was might bring up during his conversation with her was causing him to act abnormal. Less than a minute after his knock, Andromeda answered the door with a bright smile. She gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek as she whisked him into her house, and before he knew it, Teddy was sitting on a couch in her living room with a mug of tea in his hands a plate full of cookies on the coffee table directly in front of him.

Andromeda sat down on the couch next to her grandson and smiled lovingly at him, "And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit? It hasn't been a month since your last visit yet, so I assume that there is a more direct purpose to your visit."

The subtle guilt she laid at the mention of his less than stellar visiting record as of late made his stomach bubble uneasily, but he had to push it aside if he wanted to get to the root of the problem.

"When you were younger, did you know a Linden or an Eldon Holmwood?" Teddy asked watching her face closely.

The shine left Andromeda's eyes leaving the brown cold, yet her facial expression slipped into a perfect poker face. Or, the 'Black-out' as Teddy had termed it when he was younger. It was cold, slightly haughty, yet it held every bit of your attention and didn't let out even the smallest bit of emotion. Teddy had never met any of the Black family members that were still alive besides Narcissa Malfoy, but he always thought that they'd probably all had the same facial expression in their arsenal.

"Why do you want to know?" She asked in an even voice.

Teddy knew from past experience that he and his grandmother could go very far in a line of questioning without either actually learning anything from the other, so he decided to cut to the chase by pulling out the file he'd brought with him and handing it to her.

"Because of that."

Andromeda opened it and took a minute to read its contents, its sparse accounts not taking very long to read or digest.

"Why were you looking into the Holmwood family?" Andromeda asked him, correctly guessing how Teddy had gotten the file.

He sighed, "I promise to explain later, but please. I need to know about this before we go any farther."

Andromeda sighed more in annoyance than in frustration, "Fine. Where do you want me to start?"

"What happened to Grandpa?"

"It happened right after we graduated. Your grandfather and I had been seeing each other in secret for the past two years. I didn't know what was in store for our relationship in the future, but my father actually pushed my hand. As you know, it was common for purebloods to be married at young ages, and through arranged marriages. I was already a bit like the odd one out even though I had been sorted into Slytherin, so my parents didn't want to take the chance on letting me pick my own future husband, they arranged one for me."

Teddy bit his lip, he'd heard Andromeda say some things before that made him assume as much, but he'd never really confirmed it. She didn't talk about anyone in the Black family besides Sirius, and she hardly ever referenced the time before her and his grandfather were married, or even before his mother was born.

"Marrying into the Black family was very valued; we had a large amount of money and a good name that went back for centuries. Several families were trying to align themselves with the Black family, so arranging a marriage for me was like a business arrangement. My father set it up almost as if they were selling me off to the highest bidder, whoever had the most money would get my hand in marriage. Linden Holmwood was already married and had a few kids, but his younger brother Eldon was around twenty-two and still single. The Holmwood family had taken a bad turn money wise the generation before them and they were pretty much running on their long lineage and good name alone. My father had considered Eldon Holmwood at one time, but quickly dismissed him when someone else with more money came along. I think it was about a month after my father had originally dismissed Eldon's suit that he came back to the house to have a private meeting with my father. In the end my father added him back to his list of potential suitors for me, and wouldn't explain much more than to tell my mother that he had recently entered a new business arrangement that would prove to be very lucrative in a few years' time."

"Is that all it took? What did Eldon Holmwood do anyway?" Teddy asked remembering that he couldn't find information about any jobs that any of the Holmwoods had actually held besides being on councils and boards of different organizations.

Andromeda shook her head sadly, "I don't know. I assumed that he was in some sort of family business, most purebloods were around that time, but I never really asked. My father never really spoke to me about my potential suitors and I preferred it that way. I was still secretly seeing your grandfather and it was easier to sneak around with him when I didn't know if my father had finally arranged my marriage or not."

"So if you didn't know much about Eldon Holmwood, how did he and his brother end up attacking Grandpa?" Teddy asked eyeing the folder in front of him.

"June of 1972 is the month that your grandfather proposed to me. My family still had no idea of my relationship with him –that I knew of- and my father was still trying to sell me off in the guise of a marriage. I knew that I wouldn't have much time, but I still couldn't tell your grandfather yes right away because I needed to think about it. It took me a week to come to terms with everything that I knew would happen if I said yes to Ted –my family disowning me, my sisters never speaking to me again, Bellatrix most likely trying to harm us. But at the end of a week I knew that everything I was losing was nothing compared to what I would be gaining," Andromeda told him, her eyes looking like she was a million miles away.

"The day before the attack I snuck away and told your father that I would accept his proposal. We discussed at length how we would go about it. I was all for just running away from my home and eloping with him, but Ted in his ever bright outlook was trying to convince me that it would be the proper thing to do to tell my parents together that we were engaged and going to be married. To give them the option to accept it or not be a part of my life. He always tried to see the best in people, so much that sometimes he saw more good than there actually was. We hadn't been able to agree on how my parents should find out, but I did convince him to leave the topic for a few days until we could discuss it again. I went home that night and I guess my parents could tell that something was different. I told them that everything was fine, but they still had their suspicions."

She swallowed hard and looked at up at Teddy, "They were confirmed the next day around noon. Narcissa had run into the dining room to announce to everyone there that Eldon Holmwood and his older brother Linden had been arrested by Magical Law Enforcement for almost killing a mudblood wizard with a restricted dark spell and that there was about to be an inquiry with the Auror Department. At first I thought that Narcissa was she was just telling our father this because she knew that as a potential suitor for me, it wouldn't do to have Eldon Holmwood arrested and possibly on his way to Azkaban. Later I realized that Narcissa must have somehow known or suspected that I was in a relationship with Ted and that she wanted to make sure that I heard about the incident as soon as possible. My father and mother left to go to the Ministry to see what the incident was about, and as soon as they left, I snuck away and apparated to St. Mungo's."

"One of the medi-witches working there was in Hufflepuff with Ted at school. She knew of our relationship and allowed me into his room to see him even though I wasn't legally his family. He was doing better after having been through a series of potions and spell treatments. Thankfully, he had been in a rather public place when attacked and had been taken to the hospital quickly. I barely got a few words out to him before the door to his room was opened and my father, uncle, and Bellatrix walked in. They were surprised to see me at first but they must have been more suspicious of my behaviour than I knew because they seemed to connect the dots of the situation rather quickly once they saw Ted and I together. The entire confrontation happened right there in the hospital room with your injured grandfather in the middle of it all."

Andromeda took a deep breath and took a minute to reflect on what she was going to say, "After all of the threats had finished, a MLE agent ran into the room. John Parks was the agent in charge of the case and he had been at the Ministry earlier in the day trying to figure out an arraignment for the Holmwood brothers. He had seen my father and uncle speaking to Eldon Holmwood, but then lost sight of them when he had to speak to another agent. When he looked back, the Holmwoods were still there but my father and uncle had left. Parks had heard the rumours about a possible arrangement between Eldon Holmwood and me; he knew that my father would do everything he could to make it happen. Parks had suspected that they had left the Ministry to come to the hospital so that they would be able to _convince _Ted to drop the charges against the Holmwoods. I guess they stopped to pick up Bellatrix on the way because no one can threaten like she can, and got to the hospital only to find me a worried and sobbing mess at Ted's bedside. They were no longer concerned about Ted pressing charges against the Holmwoods, their greatest concern was my relationship with a mudblood. With Agent Parks entrance Ted was finally able to voice his own opinion. He promised not to press charges against the Holmwoods if my family promised to leave us alone and not to come near us or our future family."

"To this day I still don't know why my father and uncle suddenly agreed. With me determined to be with Ted, the Holmwoods' reputation shouldn't have been a concern for them anymore. But it seemed like it was the most important thing because they promised not to interfere with us in the future, besides cutting me out of the family of course –not that that was much of a loss," Andromeda said a little snappily.

"And they kept to their promise?" Teddy asked puzzled.

"Agent Parks was there to officiate their promise before he left to let the Holmwood brothers go as per Ted's side of the deal, and write the report on the incident," his grandmother explained.

"Which is why the report says that there wasn't a sentence. But why were the charges dropped to something less serious?" Teddy asked re-reading the words that had a line drawn through them, compared to the actual charges.

"They had to do that to keep the Auror Department out of it. They would have taken over the investigation if the charges still mentioned the use of a dark curse. I didn't like the change, but it was the only way that your grandfather and I would have been able to be together."

"So instead of your father selling you to Eldon Holmwood for a business connection, he kinda sold you to grandpa so that he wouldn't press charges against the Holmwoods," Teddy commented.

Andromeda gave her grandson a surprised look, "I never thought of it like that, but yes I guess you could say that it happened that way. I was only ever a pawn in the chess game of life to my father though."

Teddy nodded sadly; this wasn't the first time that he'd wished that his grandmother had a more loving and happy upbringing.

"So," Andromeda said determined to switch gears, "Why are you researching the Holmwoods? Do they have something to do with an investigation that you have going on?"

Teddy looked around his grandmother's living room awkwardly, he wasn't sure if she would like why he was actually researching the Holmwoods, "No, it's not an investigation I'm on."

"So it's for one you aren't on," She asked arching a perfectly shaped eye-brown.

"Well it's not really an official investigation-"

"Theodore Remus Lupin will you just spit it out already," his grandmother told him firmly.

"I'm helping Victoire."

"Yes, that was already obvious, but why did she want you to investigate the Holmwoods?" Andromeda asked not missing a beat.

"Her and her friends have reason to believe that they could be some way connected to whoever's trying to mess up the Tri Wizard Tournament," Teddy told her.

"They have reason to believe the Holmwoods are connected?"

"They think the family needs to be researched. Sandra Collins has tracked the family down from the 1800s to 1986. There is no mention of them from 1986 and on and it's something they found suspicious so they asked me to see if I could find their files and see where they went," Teddy told her.

"And you couldn't find anything so you decided to work back up and found Linden and Eldon Holmwoods' files," Andromeda finished for him.

"Yeah. Do you know anything else about the family?" Teddy asked.

She sighed and rubbed her temples, "I don't think so. Your mother never mentioned any of Linden's children being at Hogwarts with her, although Linden's would have been a few years older than her. . ."

"Who did Eldon Holmwood marry after you married grandpa? He must have married someone if he was such a good prospect in your father's eyes," Teddy said.

"He went away to France shortly after the incident; his family wanted him to lay low for a while. He married some French pureblood there but I don't think they had any children. No, legitimate ones anyway. Linden already had a wife and a few kids so he stayed in England, but several years later I think he moved away to America . . ." Andromeda said.

Teddy nodded. Eldon Holmwood's lack of children would explain why Sandra said the last four people with the Holmwood name were Linden's four children.

"And you can't remember ever hearing anything else about them over the years?" Teddy asked.

Andromeda shook her head, "I tried my best to distance myself from all of the traditional purebloods after your mother was born; it was safer for all of us. They only way I would have ever heard news about them would be in the paper. They hadn't had any more run-ins with the law –that was made public anyway- and they hadn't been in the paper for any business news, so I don't know."

"Alright," Teddy told her. He had been given a lot of interesting information from his grandmother in the last half hour, but none of it seemed relevant to what he actually wanted to know. Which was, _how are the Holmwoods connected to the Tri- Wizard Tournament mess?_

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, I hoped that you guys liked this, I've always found Andromeda an interesting character, so I thought I'd try my hand at writing a bit about her. If you liked it, review, if you didn't, you still can if you'd like ;)

**Next Week:** We'll hear briefly from Xavier, Kyle, and Victoire and their own ideas and clues about the Holmwoods.

A big thanks to everyone who had followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed. Also, I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed Brogan's birth!

**A BIG, BIG thanks especially too:**

**A Frozen Shadow, Infinity Lily, Marianne16, MiraclesHappen94, GabrielaTJ, Break This Spell666, changewing, MuggleCreator, barefoot and buckwild, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, Chocolate-Horse, brilliant incandescence, ilovemusic'forever, MaddieMonkey, sushimaster18, Michaelarules2013, TurquoiseTeddy, clessard, zippyrae, hogwartsandhorses244, Em, Fantasyluver98**, and, **eyechange!**

**Infinity Lily:** I'm glad that you liked the name and the gender. Yeah, the Quidditch Pitch part with Oliver was just a sudden idea that I had to add in. I hope that you enjoyed Teddy's point of view.

**Marianne16:** Thanks. As for Xavier knowing about Delaney, they've kept it quiet from him so far, but I'm not sure if they'll be able to keep it a secret forever. *Hint, hint, wink, wink*

**MiraclesHappen94:** Thanks so much, I'm glad that you liked the name.

**Break This Spell666:** I haven't really decided that far yet as to who would be Brogan's godmother. Until it becomes a more important part of the story I might just leave it as unknown so far.

**changewing:** I'm glad that that scene ended up reading well, I was a little worried about it.

**Chocolate-Horse:** I'm not entirely sure how long this will be, but I am almost done writing the chapters ahead of time, so I'll know in a few weeks.

**MaddieMonkey:** Ha, ha, nice.

**Michaelarules2013:** Aww, T'anks. I'm glad you like my writing and my stories that much. I don't actually do that much research, I just like to research what I don't know, but I don't try to write too much out of the range of what I do know.

**TurquoiseTeddy:** I hope that you enjoyed the abundance if Teddy, and cute Xavier in their chapter. And thanks so much, :)

**clessard:** Aww, thanks. And yes, Bro Wood for the WIN!

**hogwartsandhorses244:** Updating again? Well right now. When the tournament will finish? I still need to read that part.

**Thanks again for reading everyone, I hope that you enjoyed, please review, and DFTBA!**


	96. Letters

**A/N:** Hi guys, you might have noticed that this chapter is going to be short. I apologize but I'll explain more down below.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter.

* * *

**Letters**

To: Ted R. Lupin

From: Xavier O. Wood

Hey, remember how I told you at lunch the other day that I'd ask my dad's parents about the Holmwood name when they came to visit the new baby? Well my grandfather said that he'd heard the name before, but only in reference to a construction company. My grandmother on the other hand, told him that he was a pillock and that the Holmwoods were involved in some sort of financial company, not construction.

So . . . they weren't the most helpful because that's all that they could come up with, but I figured that Kyle could at least test the name Holmwood with his parents and see if they know anything about them and a possible connection to a construction company.

I know that you don't think that what Andromeda told you is very important in the grand scheme of things, but I feel like there is something hidden in the information that she gave us. Something important but I'm as lost as you said you were as to what it could be.

Anyway, I'm sending similar information like this in one of my letter's to Ally so our Hogwarts friends will know about it sooner or later. By the by, it is incredibly annoying to try to solve a mystery when everyone is in a different place.

Oh, just got an owl from one of my coaches, so I'm off to strength training, I'll contact you later.

Bye.

* * *

**To: Ted R. Lupin**

**From: Kyle M. Line**

**I spoke to my parents about the Holmwood name and asked them if they knew anything about it. Mom hadn't heard of it and had no gossip about the family, but Dad said that he needed to check his files. He got back to me later and said that he found the name in a cancelled contract from several years ago when he was only ten years old and when his father was handling the company. There was a wizard-run construction company that was based in America that wanted to do a merger with my family's company. The construction company had some generic name, but one of the people on the contract was a Braxton Holmwood. The kicker is that the date of the offer for the merger was 1989. Three years after they had supposedly dropped off the map.**

** Moreover, before you ask, I checked the contract and spoke with my dad and he said that my grandfather refused to go through with the merger. He said that the company was wizard-run but a major portion of their profits from America came from contracts with muggles. Since this deal was suggested during Voldemort's first reign of terror, my grandfather was concerned that the merger would put more muggles in danger in Europe than there already was, just because they unknowingly worked with a wizard-run company.**

** Apparently, Braxton Holmwood didn't like the decision not to merge, but he respected my grandfather's decision, knowing that Voldemort was more dangerous to Europe at the moment than he had been in America. That was the last that the Holmwoods names have been mentioned in any of my father's notes or my parents' memories.**

** However, my father did say –after he'd spoken to my grandfather about it- that one of the Holmwoods' was in some sort of financial business. Braxton Holmwood had mentioned in earlier negotiations with my grandfather that his younger brother Isaac was head of a large investment company that could help finance new departments if they decided to go ahead with the merger and increase the size of both of their companies. Isaac Holmwood's company was also mentioned to have been based in America.**

** I haven't heard anything about any of the other brothers, but as of now, we know that both Braxton and Isaac Holmwood were in America as of 1989. But hey, technically we're three years closer to finding them than we were before.**

** Anyway, I have to go, ****_somebody's _****crazy part-Veela girlfriend insists that I help her study for our Defense Against the Dark Arts final that is coming up in about a month. (Between you and I, I think she just wants a chance to put me in a full body-bind curse.)**

** Good luck with your side of the research!**

* * *

_Dear Teddy,_

_ Is it the end of June yet? Seriously, I can't wait for it to be exams and then graduation. Right about now I'm _so _done with Hogwarts. And yeah, I know, I know, I know. _

_Enjoy your last month at Hogwarts because next year's Healer training is going to be so much harder._

_ Enjoy seeing your friends whenever you want because everything is so much more complicated in the real world, blah, blah, blah._

_It sounds mean but I don't care about my last month at Hogwarts. I just want to be done; exams over with, stupid Tri Wizard Tournament fixed and wrapped away into a tiny corner of my mind where I will spend a good majority of my summer repressing it. Everything's been downhill since the second task actually. Sure there were bright spots; Quidditch (minus Delaney of course), you (back when you were still allowed to work in the castle), and even Brogan's birth a few weeks ago was nice._

_ But seriously, I've had enough near death and kidnapping experiences, and enough dealing with big headed ministry personnel to last me a life time._

_ Not that I don't appreciate all the work everyone's putting in to solving this mystery or keeping me safe mind you, I just wish I didn't have to go through all of this. And I triply wish that stupid Auror Lassoder was out of the castle. Not necessarily with you at the ministry, because I know how much you don't like him, but somewhere far, far away. Like South America, or Antarctica, or hey, what about Mars?_

_ And before you go all crazy-protective-boyfriend on me (Or at least when I don't get to see it), I'm going to tell you right away that no, Lassoder hasn't been harassing me. My problem with him is more the fact that it seems like he's on every other guard schedule concerning me. I mean seriously, I think I spend two-thirds of my day being followed by him. Although I will tell you that sometimes, I catch him giving me odd looks. Not hostile or inappropriate or anything, just odd looks that sometimes verge on creepy. Or, maybe _he's_ just creepy; therefore all of the looks his face makes look creepy . . ._

_New topic before the thought of Lassoder makes me lose my appetite for dinner, I am writing this letter to you when I am actually supposed to be studying for a pop-quiz tomorrow for History of Magic. Yes, you read that right, a pop-quiz that she actually told us about a week in advance. As my family, I love Aunt Hermione. As a teacher, I tolerate her. Not that's she's a bad teacher, she just does things differently, and her thought process is a little faster than most. Now, I can keep up with her because I'm used to her trains of thoughts and love of stopping in the middle of what she's talking about and going off on a tangent, but I can tell that sometimes some of the other kids in the class have a difficult time following her. So yeah, she told us about this surprise pop-quiz that I don't even need to study about because half of it is about bills in the Ministry of Magic that have been passed in the last fifteen years. Ten years of which Kingsley was doing the passing, so I have most of the test covered._

_Also on the school front, Professor Sinistra (She teaches astronomy class in case you've forgotten Mr-I-don't-like-astronomy) has asked Kyle and I to help her administer her practical exam to her fifth years in a few days. And before you ask why their exam is so early I'll tell you that it's because Boötes and Circinus are only visible in June and that this week we'll have clear night skies so she wants them to get their practical exam done sooner than later. She only has a handful of seventh-year students taking astronomy at N.E.W.T. level, and out of those few, only one said that they'd be able to help her. She remembered that Kyle and I always did well with Astronomy and that we'd gotten Os on our O. W. L. for it, so she asked us if we'd help, and of course, we said yes. My only concern is that all fifth-years (including Dom and Lucy) will be taking their Astronomy practical at the same time with everyone else, but Professor Sinistra said that there would be enough students to deal with that I won't have to worry about them._

_ I'm abnormally excited about the whole set-up because it will be nice to contribute to something positive. With all of the stupid Tournament stuff going on I felt as if everything I touched there for a while ended up in a big mess. Having won the Quidditch Cup is just another issue I've been able to cross of my list. Hopefully soon I'll be able to cross off exams and or Tri-Wizard Tournament too._

_ Anyway, I'm sorry that this note has been all about me, but I miss being able to talk to you about even the littlest things and this is the only way I'll be able to for a time._

_ So, last topic, our Holmwood investigation. Sadly, it seems that everyone has come to an agreement that we can't go any farther with our research. We've exhausted all of our routes of information, and have found nothing more than what you, Xavier, and Kyle have been able to tell us. I really wish we knew more about these people and how they could be involved with the kidnappings but I can't. I don't know how owning a wizard-run muggle construction and investment company in America decades ago has anything to do with people trying to kidnap me now._

_ In your last letter you mentioned that you were going to try to search the Holmwoods in the American Ministry of Magic's records, but I know that requisitioning those will take a long time so don't worry about it. If they had anything anyway it would be copied into our Ministry of Magic's files, and there's nothing in those. I guess all we can do now is wait and see, and hope that MLE and the Auror Department will get a bigger break in the case than just blaming Professor Cooke and Auror Jilly Donaldson._

_ Andddddd now I'm rambling. Sorry about that, but just like a visit with you, I don't want this letter to end. I can't seem to get enough time with you, not that I ever have been able to. I just keep wanting more and more, what time we get together doesn't seem to be enough. I love you and miss you so much and I hope that we'll be able to see each other very soon._

_Love, your Victoire_

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, I'm sorry that that was so sort, but I needed to change the pace of the writing with a shorter chapter, because the next few ones are going to seem like they're flying by. Seriously, y'all will need to buckle up for the next chapter.

**Next** **Chapter:** Victoire offers to punch Delaney in the face, she and Kyle help out Professor Sinistra, someone may or may not have an important revelation, and stuff goes down that you will probably be angry with me for :)

A big thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed, and for those of you who read and review, please continue.

An especially big thanks to:

**clessard, eyechange, barefoot and buckwild, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, MuggleCreator, brilliant incandescence, Oddliver, changewing, JediMasterDraco, owlcity2013, fiendfyre13, Guest (1), Guest (2), Guest (3), **and **Forever Siriusly Sirius**.

**clessard:** Thanks, I'm glad that you liked the _Hardy Boys_ reference, I thought it'd be fun.

**barefoot and buckwild:** I'm glad you liked the _Hardy Boys_ and _Nancy Drew_ references. Nancy Drew was one of the first series of books I read in elementary school that when I was growing up from little-books-with-a-few-pictures to a real chapter book and book series that I could get lost in. If I were reading them for the first time in this age, I'd say that they'd be one of my favourite 'fandoms' ;)

**MuggleCreator:** There's no mention of it, but I'm sure he did return the file.

**brilliant incandescence:** I love hearing everyone's theories.

**JediMasterDraco:** Yes, well I love Andromeda as a character and even though I've read most of the fics about her and Ted, I liked how I portrayed it because it wasn't a description I'd seen before. *Shrugs* Although the one you mentioned sounds good too, but I don't think it would have fit into this story as nicely. ;)

**owlcity2013:** That sure sounds like a hypothesis alright. Now all we need to do is control the variables and test for the outcome.

**fiendfyre13:** Thanks, and welcome to **_my_ **wonderful wizarding world. As for more stories? I have the abundance of ideas, inclination, and slight insanity that one must have to write a sequel. However, what I do not have a lot of is time, so if I do decide a sequel everyone will have to be very patient with me :)

**Forever Siriusly Sirius:** Ally and Xavier's first baby? Well it seems that their ship is in healthy shape around here. And, keep the theories coming, I do so love to read them ;)

**Again, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, please leave a comment or review if you feel like it, and DFTBA!**


	97. Surprises Abound

**A/N:** Hey guys! Since my last update was so short, I figured I'd update earlier to make up for it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter.

**Warning:** Buckle up because this rides about to get bumpy.

* * *

**Surprises Abound**

"Vic."

"VIC."

"Victoire Weasley!"

"Quiet Mr. Line," Madame Pinch hissed loudly as she walked by their table.

Victoire and Sandra watched stoically as she walked by them, only to burst into a chorus of silent giggles as she left their view.

Across from Victoire, Kyle –who had been trying to get her attention for the last ten minutes- frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. Sandra reined her giggles in first and patted her boyfriend's hand comfortingly.

"We're listening now Honey, go ahead," she said biting her lip so she wouldn't smile.

Kyle pulled his hand away from hers and huffed, "What I was trying to do was ask Victoire if she was able to fix it so that she could get tonight off of patrol duty, so she could help with Professor Sinistra's practical exam for fifth-year Astronomy."

Victoire sighed, "Sorta. I told Professor Longbottom and he said that they'd need to find a replacement for me first, but at our Head boys and girls meeting, Knott –who I'm supposed to be patrolling with- said that he could handle it all himself, and that I'm usually more of a hindrance than assistance."

"So Knott said something insulting and snarky at you, that's not out of the normal or anything," Sandra said as she absentmindedly dipped her quill into her inkpot.

"No, but the fact that he let me off the hook for patrol duty so that I could do something else is odd," Victoire commented.

"Not so odd anymore," Kyle replied with a shrug, "He's been doing weird yet helpful things for you for the past few weeks."

"Yeah," Sandra agreed, "What's up with that?"

None of them could come up with a good explanation, not even Kyle, so they tabled that discussion, and instead they talked about the Astronomy exam that night.

"What time do you have to leave to help?" Sandra asked the two.

"We need to be there before everyone else to help set up, so a quarter to eleven," Victoire responded.

"Tonight's going to be a late night for you two," Sandra commented as she added another line to the question sheet she was doing.

"Yes," Victoire agreed, "Don't wait up."

The three seventh-years quietly went back to work until they noticed that Ally had snuck around a corner of a bookcase and joined them at their table.

"Whoa!" Victoire whisper-yelled. Ally had just slid quickly into a chair beside her. But, not before shooting a searching look all around her.

"What's the reason behind the surreptitious entry there? Are you hiding from somebody?"

"I'll give you three guesses," Ally responded listlessly.

"Oh, oh, me first!" Kyle cried excited, "Umm . . . Freddie and James?"

"No."

"Professor Linkwell?" Sandra asked.

"No?"

"Everyone from Slytherin house?"

"N- what?" Ally asked as everyone else gave Victoire an incredulous look.

The blonde shrugged, "A lot of problems in my life could be solved if people from the Slytherin house would just stay away from me."

"No," Ally replied finally answering her suggestion, "They're from Gryffindor."

"Dom?" Kyle asked.

"Pamela Mace?" was Sandra's suggestion.

"Chris?" Victoire asked turning a page from the book she'd been reading.

"No, no, and thank Merlin no. But this is an annoying male."

"Delaney!" Chris yelled.

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner," Ally said sarcastically.

Victoire placed a hand on her cousin's, "Is he still harassing you, because if you punching him didn't get the message across, I could do it."

"You've just gone a really long time between punching people, haven't you?" Kyle asked amused.

"Not the point," Victoire replied.

"No Vic, don't worry about it. He hasn't tried to go any farther or force himself on me since when I did punch him. But he's still trying to convince me to go out with him. It's almost as if it's a competition with him –and you know how competitive he can be- to get me to agree to his proposals," Ally said.

"Does he not understand that when you say 'No thanks, I'm already dating Xavier Wood and you're a total pillock', it means that you don't like him?" Victoire asked heatedly.

Ally looked down at her lap.

"What is it Ally?" Sandra asked her noticing the younger girl's expression.

Ally sighed, "It's just that . . . he doesn't think that me dating Xavier is the same thing as me having an actual boyfriend. He keeps saying that I'd be foolish to think that a professional Quidditch player would actually be in a monogamous relationship with a sixth-year at Hogwarts. And that I should wake up and realize that our relationship probably isn't exclusive in his mind, so that I shouldn't worry about it being exclusive in mine."

"That –that –that cockroach! How dare he talk about you and Xavier like that? Ally you don't believe him do you?" Victoire asked.

The brunette shook her head, "No . . . but Delaney won't take my word for it. I think the only person right now who could convince him to stop bugging me would be Xavier himself, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon."

Kyle spoke after a minute of silence, "The day's not that far away Ally, he has to come back for N. E. W. T.s right?"

"Not necessarily," Victoire said hating to burst everyone's bubble, "McGonagall told him when he left that if it was a matter of a scheduling conflict, that they could send examiners to him so that he could complete his N. E. W. T.s."

"Anyway," Ally said suddenly abundantly cheery, "Thanks to Delaney's persistence, I've been able to get a lot of practical practice with my hexes and curses. So this year's sixth-year Defense Against the Dark Arts exam should be a breeze."

* * *

Victoire looked down at her watch, and then back up at the staircase that led to the boys' dormitory. She started to tap her toe impatiently against the floor. Beside where she was standing, Sandra was sitting down in an armchair going over her Arithmancy notes for the exam in a few weeks. Victoire didn't say anything to her best mate about her boyfriend's punctuality. Kyle wasn't actually late. He still had two minutes until it was the time that he had agreed to meet Victoire at, so that they could walk together to the Astronomy tower and get there in time to help Professor Sinistra set up. However, the anxious feeling that had consumed Victoire since they finished dinner that night was making her very impatient. She felt as though something important was going to happen that night, but she couldn't figure out what, since all she had planned was to help administer an exam to fifth-years.

Kyle came bouncing down the stairs with a minute to spare, kissed Sandra on the forehead as they walked by her chair, and together they wished her a goodnight.

It didn't take the pair long to go from Gryffindor Tower to the Astronomy Tower; since they were on the same floor, all they had to do was travel across the Castle. The only part of the trip that was trying was the fact that Auror Lassoder seemed to be assigned –again- to follow Victoire for the night. As usual, he didn't say anything to her or Kyle, and he kept pace with them, but at least six feet behind, yet his mere presence seemed to make Victoire more apprehensive than she had been all night.

They got to the staircase that led to the Astronomy tower, and Kyle gestured for Victoire to go first. They climbed the stairs, Victoire noted that Lassoder followed them up, but when they entered the viewing portion of the tower, he stayed behind at the entrance since the room would have very little space for extra bodies with all of the fifth-years that were due to arrive soon.

Victoire and Kyle nodded at the seventh-year girl from Ravenclaw who was the lone student from Professor Sinistra's N. E. W. T. level class that said that she could show up, and then all three of them were introduced to the half a dozen Ministry appointed examiners. Victoire recognized several of them from when she'd written her O. W. L.s and was genuinely surprised that a few of them were still in such good health and working.

She had just extricated herself from a very old witch how had decided to go on and on about all of the family members of hers that she'd seen through their wizarding exams, when the first few fifth-years trickled in to get to their favourite telescopes first. Surprisingly, Dom was one of the first few to show up, but unsurprisingly, it was because she'd decided to come with Lucy, who was always perpetually early to everything. Still, Victoire was very glad to see that her little sister wasn't going to sleep through this practical, since she'd know a few people who had done that during her own O. W. L.s.

Once all of the students had arrived, star charts, questions, and answer sheets were handed out, and the examiners started to question the students here and there. Victoire and Kyle's jobs were to answer basic questions that the students asked about the star charts.

Almost an hour into the exam, Victoire noticed Gloria Dustin getting the go-ahead from one of the examiners to leave. Instead, she looked back into the telescope and seemed to be calibrating it so she could find something else in the night sky. Victoire glided up beside her to see what she was doing.

"You know that you can leave now Gloria? You finished, before everyone else too, but you're allowed to leave."

Gloria took a minute to look through the telescope before facing Victoire, "I know . . . I just find Astronomy so soothing. It's fun and so very interesting."

Normally Victoire would have just rolled her eyes, but she was more than slightly shocked to find that she and Gloria had something in common other than liking Quidditch, school, and Louis . . . for the most part.

"Yes it is interesting; when you get very good at it you can pick out constellations without the aid of a telescope. See there's Lupus," Victoire said pointing to a cluster of stars.

Gloria nodded, "Yup and there's Cancer, the crab. Did you know that Muggles used to call it the turtle though? But then it changed and they decided it looked more like a crab."

"Yeah, they do that a lot with the names, I guess it's because the stars can be interpreted into many different shapes."

"Yeah, but I don't know what was so wrong with a turtle. That's my patronus," Gloria sniffed a little indigently.

Victoire froze, something about Gloria's words were resonating with her.

_Cancer the crab . . . used to be a turtle but it changed . . . patronus is a turtle . . . changed . . . patronus . . ._

"Oh my Merlin that's it!" Victoire yelled excitedly, completely taking the fifth-year off guard.

"What's it?" Gloria asked confused.

"Proof! Thanks so much Gloria, you're a genius," Victoire told her as she quickly ruffled her hair and turned so that she could sprint out of the room.

Victoire left a very bewildered Gloria behind her as she took the steps down from the Astronomy tower two at a time. Once she'd gotten to the hall, she took off in a rush. Her goal was to get to the ground floors of the Castle where some of the Aurors and MLE still had offices.

She clued into the sound of heavy footsteps following her as she turned her third corner, but was reminded of the presence of her bodyguard when she heard Auror Lassoder yell out to her.

"Miss Weasley slow down and tell me what's going on!"

Victoire's gut instinct was to ignore him and keep running (Which wasn't that hard to do since she was still in great shape from Quidditch) but she decided to stop and let him catch up so that she could explain so that he wouldn't be complaining the rest of the way through the castle.

She couldn't stay completely still as she waited for him though, so she moved her weight from foot to foot as he came to a stop beside her. He reached out to lightly grab her arm, as if he was expecting her to run just as he'd caught up with her, but Victoire barely registered the movement. She was too busy trying to sort through the revelation she'd just had.

"What's wrong?" he asked watching her intently.

"That's just it!" She cried excitedly, "Nothing's wrong, I just came up with what could be enough proof to get Auror Donaldson and Professor Cooke off the hook for my kidnappings!"

"How so?" Lassoder asked. His face was expressionless.

"When I was in the tunnels whoever was trying to kidnap me told his henchmen that my patronus was an eagle so that they could look for it when they released their dementor but my patronus isn't an eagle!" Victoire told him, not bothering to take a breath until the end.

"It isn't?" Auror Lassoder asked now looking confused.

"No, it's not. It used to be but sometime between July and November it changed to match Teddy's!" Victoire explained to him, but more to herself as she heard her own thoughts as words for the first time.

"But wha-"

Victoire cut off Lassoder's question, "The first time I realized the change, was in November during the Manticore attack. I'd sent it to get help, and the people to respond to it first were Jilly and Professor Cooke."

"What does that have to-"

"That means that they knew that my patronus was a wolf, and that it had changed. If they were involved with the kidnappers, why wouldn't they give them all of the important information on me? They said that they thought that my patronus was an eagle, meaning they hadn't known that it changed, but both Jilly and Professor Cooke did."

"But what proof-"

"And there's a report written by Teddy and witnessed by Kingsley of both of them explaining the attack and saying that the wolf patronus was mine and that they recognized my voice from it! This is exactly what we need to clear them, well maybe not fully, but it throws more doubt into the situation that might-"

Victoire stopped talking and looked at her watch.

"Never mind! We don't have time to keep talking I have to get to an MLE agent as quick as possible."

Victoire hastily started forward and turned the corner of the corridor, only to be suddenly and unexpectedly blasted back into the wall closest to her.

* * *

"Lupin!"

Teddy jerked his head up off his tiny desk in alarm, only to scowl when he saw Ron standing there snickering.

"What was that about?" Teddy asked rubbing the back of his neck that had cracked when his head shot up so fast.

"Auror Department rules, when someone's asleep you're allowed to wake them up in whatever way you seem fit to do," Ron said happily, as he slid into the chair of his desk, which was next to Teddy.

"One, I wasn't asleep, I was concentrating on my reports. Two, it's one-bloody-thirty in the am. And three, Harry's asleep," Teddy, said nodding in the direction of his godfather, who was presently snoozing in his desk on the other side of him.

"Yes," Ron conceded, "But first, he's Harry Freaking Potter, and second, Lily's been having nightmares lately, and he said she's been crawling into bed with him and Ginny, and that she likes to kick in her sleep when she gets there."

"So children going through a phase counts as a good excuse to sleep during work?" Teddy asked, as an eyebrow rose on his forehead.

"Yup."

"Now, where would a tall blonde Quidditch obsessed pureblood waking you up in the middle of the night fall on this scale?" Teddy asked looking back at his reports.

"Why?" Ron asked, looking suddenly much more alert than he'd been earlier.

"Because bloody Xavier Wood's crashed at my apartment the last three nights because his stupid Quidditch practices have been running late and he doesn't want to chance going home and waking up his parents when they're finally re-adjusted to a newborn's sleeping schedule."

Ron chuckled, "I don't think overnight guests are a good excuse to sleep at work."

"Now you're just making it sound wrong," Teddy said, scowling as he finished reading the last line he'd written on the report in front of him.

"Something wrong with your report?" Ron asked him.

"Well there's nothing right about it."

"Why?"

"Well because I had to write a report about a batty old man who thinks his son's new baby girl is a vampire."

Ron snorted.

"It's not funny. He gave the baby a silver crucifix for a christening present, and then tried to convince the priest to douse her with 'extra-strength-holy-water'. And when none of that work he tried to claim that he'd been infected with a mutant vampire gene when the baby bit his finger," Teddy sighed as he scanned the report.

"To be fair, being bitten by the little buggers can hurt," Ron said.

"Yeah, but the little girl is two months old and has no teeth."

Ron nodded, "Yup that's an extra nutty peanut butter cup there. I for one don't miss those rookie days where you had to answer almost any call that claimed even the slightest to do with dark magic."

"This stuff is for first-year aurors in training. I'm almost done my second year, why do I have to do this?" Teddy complained more to himself than to Ron.

"Because you decided that you liked snogging Victoire on a regular basis?" Harry suggested as he slowly stretched his arms and neck.

Teddy's face –and most likely his hair- turned red but he tried for more bravado, "Morning Sleeping Beauty."

"Morning Prince Charming, but seriously, I know this whole situation sucks and that your time would be better spent working on the kidnapping investigation or even just guarding Vic, but the wankers over at MLE won't allow it."

"On the bright side, we haven't made any progress whatsoever on that case," Ron said cheerily from his desk.

"How is that on the bright side?" Teddy asked incredulously.

"It's good because the less progress MLE makes, the easier it will be to convince them to let us to do more to help," the deep voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt said walking over to where the three were sitting.

Teddy wasn't entirely sure how much of their conversation Kingsley had heard, but he dearly hoped that he hadn't heard Harry's comment about him snogging Victoire.

"Teddy, what are you still doing here?" Kingsley asked him.

"Finishing up my report on Mr. Graphney."

"Aw, you had to deal with that call? Poor bloke, he should really be institutionalized," Kingsley commented as he reached for Teddy's report.

Teddy shrugged.

"Good job writing it though, not a whit of sarcasm. Took Ron forever to learn how to write like that," Kingsley said shooting Ron a look.

Ron shrugged, "But really, how many old ladies are there out there that think that they have the ghost of Helga Hufflepuff living in their radiator vent?"

"According to our first year taking calls Ron, about a dozen," Harry said seriously.

"And they were all right nutters."

"Umm, Auror Shacklebolt there's two wizards here that you should speak too," a shy first-year-auror-in-training said as she walked over to the intimidating Head of the department.

"What department are they from?"

"The N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D.," the girl choked out.

"The what?"

"The North American Multi-Cultural Organized Crime Investigation Division, apparently based in America, Sir."

"And they want to talk to me?" Kingsley asked puzzled. Usually working with wizards in different countries was done through the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

"Well, not really . . ."

"Then what-"

"They said that they need to talk to Auror Lupin."

Kingsley, Harry, Ron, and the first-year auror all turned to stare at Teddy. Teddy shook his head to the former three; he had no idea why an American division of law enforcement that he'd never even heard of before would want to talk to him.

Kingsley looked at the girl, "Show them to my office and tell them that we'll be there right away."

She scurried away after he finished speaking, not even needing to be dismissed. Kingsley turned back to the other three men.

"All of you can come, but I'm going to do all the speaking," he shot Harry and Ron a specific looks, "And Teddy, don't talk unless I give you the signal."

Teddy nodded and followed Kingsley to his office, Harry and Ron trailing behind him.

Once they got in Kingsley went straight to stand behind his desk, and Harry, Ron, and Teddy took that as their cue to flank around him.

"Good morning gentlemen, is there a reason why this visit couldn't wait until the sun had risen?" Kingsley asked getting right down to business.

"Yes there is. We took an emergency portkey here, there is something very serious that we need to discuss with an Auror Lupin."

Kingsley moved his hand to rest on top of his desk and slightly moved the closest photo to him, one of him and Victoire of course. Teddy knew that that was the sign and spoke.

"I'm Auror Lupin."

"Good, now if we could clear out the rest of the office and talk to Auror Lupin and clear up this whole mess then we can be on our way-"

"Just a minute gentlemen. You haven't even told us your names or what you're purpose here is and you just expect me to leave you alone with one of my aurors?" Kingsley asked calmly.

"I'm Agent MacKenzie and this is Agent Brown. We're from the North American Multi-Cultural Organized Crime Investigation Division," the man –who was the only one to speak so far- told them.

"Yes, that's what you say, yet we've never heard of that division of the Wizarding Government before," Ron said, ignoring Kingsley's earlier comment about _not_ talking.

"You're European divisions don't have one because everything that's involved with organized crime in the Wizarding world seems to tie into the American families. We work globally and internationally, but are based out of America."

"But what does your division do?" Harry asked, also forgoing Kingsley's order.

"We investigate and try to take down some of the most prominent wizarding mafia families in the world. If there's a family out there, we have a file on them and a group of agents trying to take them down. As the years have gone by, wizarding mafia families have become more entwined with Muggle crime families. Our division has grown, but we've still kept our existence on the down low," the man explained, Teddy somehow not able to take his American accent seriously.

"Well then why are you here asking to speak with Auror Lupin?" Kingsley asked.

Teddy had studied a bit about organized crime in the wizarding world, like all aurors in training had too, but he didn't have any other information or insight on it.

"That's something that we would like to privately speak to Auror Lupin about," the man insisted.

"Well I'm head of this department and you're not going to kick me out of my own office," Kingsley countered.

The agents then turned to look at Harry and Ron.

"I'm the Auror that Lupin's supposed to be shadowing," Harry told them.

"They're going to end up telling me anyway," Ron explained with a shrug.

The agents shared a look at that excuse, but allowed them to stay. The second agent, Brown, turned to Teddy.

"A copy of a requisition suggested by you came across our desks. It had been flagged because of a key word. Why is an Auror in training asking about the Holmwood family?"

Teddy was surprised at the turn of the conversation, "Because I have reason to believe that the family may be connected to an on-going investigation, and it's important to go over every lead."

"What investigation?" Agent Brown asked.

"I'm sorry Agent, but that's classified Auror Department information," Kingsley interjected.

Agent MacKenzie glowered, "You don't understand. The Holmwood family is one of the biggest and ruthless underground organized crime families in both the wizarding and the muggle world. They're based in America but have ties all throughout the world including Europe. They are one the most dangerous organizations but they're so good at covering their tracks that it almost impossible to catch their direct leaders at something illegal. We need to be briefed on even the littlest lead you have connected to them that might connect back to the core of the family; the Holmwoods."

"Wha-" Teddy's question was cut off by Auror Burton running into the room.

"Burton what are you doing? We're in the middle of a meeting," Kingsley started crossly, but Auror Burton didn't let him finish.

"Just got a message from Hogwarts there's a problem, a big problem."

"Can't it wait-"

"It was to do with Victoire."

Kingsley thought that his knees were going to give out.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry, sorry, sorry, but I had to stop it there. Trust me. Please don't hate me.

Anyway, I have midterms coming up soon so my next few updates might not be on time, even though I'm going to try my best.

**However, depending on how many reviews I get (Also so I can know how many people have had the chance to read this chapter) I may update early. But only if I get some nice motivation to.**

Thanks again to everyone who had followed, favourited, read and reviewed!

**Next Chapter:** Well, I guess we will see what exactly happens to Victoire . . . *cue evil laughter*

An especially **BIG** thanks again to:

**Infinity Lily, carbo21, DreamingOnACloud, brilliant incandescence, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, changewing, Forever Siriusly Sirius,** and** barefoot and buckwild.**

**carbo21:** Aww, thanks I'm glad you stumbled upon it too.

**DreamingOnACloud**: Tell me now, are you mad?

**brilliant incandescence**: Yes, only a month left at Hogwarts, and don't worry, Jilly and Professor Cooke's ship hasn't sunk yet.

**changewing:** Yes, this is suspenseful!

**Forever Siriusly Sirius**: Kyle's family business is wizarding construction. And wow, what a nicely compiled list of facts. (That's all I'm gonna say for now). But don't worry, you'll hear about the Holmwood connection soon enough.

**Thanks again for reading, I hoped you liked it! Drop me a review if you wish, and DFTBA!**


	98. Attacked

**A/N:** So because of all of you lovely readers and reviewers, I decided to update early so, once I'd finished my first midterm.

Please enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter.

**Warning:** Buckle up and pay attention because a lot of stuff is about to happen :)

* * *

**Attacked**

A small part of Victoire was really annoyed that she kept being thrown into walls, but the majority was a mix of being surprised _and_ pissed off.

Standing in front of her, with his wand still in his grasp from when he shot the silent revulsion jinx that knocked her into the wall, was Auror Lassoder. He spoke calmly as he walked closer to her. Still thinking that she was disoriented.

"You just had to go get a stroke of genius, didn't you? Only you would connect Astronomy to a changing patronus," he sneered at her.

She really didn't know what was going on, but after the past year she'd had, she knew when she was being attacked. She whipped her wand out ready to shoot a spell at him, but he must have sensed it coming since he lunged at her and grabbed her left wrist, delaying her from shooting a spell. He slammed her back into the wall; her head cracking sharply against it this time, and forced the wand out of her hand. Lassoder wasted no time, the minute her wand hit the ground he slammed hit foot on top of it, cracking the rigid wood of the wand right in half.

"There, try to ruin it this time. You don't have a wand, I have you backed into a wall, and Lupin is nowhere even near the Castle, there's no way he's going to save you now," Lassoder smirked.

She scowled at him and tried to push him off her. It didn't work. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A thought of how to get out of the situation came to her, but she couldn't pull it off right that second, she needed some time.

"So I take it you're working with the kidnappers," Victoire asked airily.

Lassoder snorted, "Working with them? I'm in charge of them. I shouldn't have had to get too involved and blown my cover, but you just won't do things the easy way, will you?"

"You're obviously not that good of a leader then. I mean seriously, that's at least three failed kidnapping attempts to my knowledge, and I don't believe that the saying is 'fourth time's the charm' so I doubt this one will work."

"On the contrary Miss Weasley, no one's expecting you anywhere, and since you ran out without telling anyone where you were going, no one's going to know where to look for you. We'll be gone before they realize what happened in the morning," Lassoder boasted.

"Somebody's got a case of mistaken confidence," Victoire mumbled.

Lassoder didn't respond except pushing her body back tighter against the wall. He moved her wrists so that he was able to hold both of her hands in one, and moved his hand up to her face. Victoire expected a slap to the face, which she'd gotten on a few of the previous occasions, but he didn't hit her. Instead, he ran his thumb lightly along her bottom lip, as if almost contemplating something else.

Victoire though, didn't want any of him near her, so she settled for biting his thumb when he tried to place it harder against her lip.

He jumped back a little, but not enough for Victoire to knock him over and get out of his grip. It was enough to startle him though, he let out a string of swear words as he waved his injured hand, while still incapacitating her hands with the uninjured one. Victoire noted with interest that his hands were very large and rough looking, but her possibly concussed brain noticed a different revelation.

When she paid more attention, she realized that Lassoder was swearing quietly, yet verbosely in rapid French.

"Comment pouvez-vous parler le français?" she asked him quickly.

"Oh, what you think that you're so special? That you're the only one around her that knows more than one language," Lassoder asked her acidly in French.

Victoire's muddled brain was still trying to make connections between everything she was learning, but a sudden pain in her head kept distracting her.

"Listen, all you have to do is let me go . . ." Victoire tried to reason with him in the other language, if anything it was a distraction so that she wouldn't focus too much on the pain in her skull.

Lassoder threw his head back and laughed, "You're such a stupid girl. I go to all this trouble of kidnapping you, and you think that with a little bat of your eyelashes, that I'll just let you go."

Victoire closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She focused all of her energy on what she was about to do. She concentrated what was left of the magic she could feel in her, and shot it outwards. Mixed with her Veela powers it was enough to send Lassoder flying off of her and onto the ground.

Victoire quickly tried to scramble down the hall.

She'd only run a few metres when she felt something knock her legs out from under her, and cause her to drop flat to the ground. She turned onto her back just in time to see Lassoder hovering over her. She noticed belatedly that she could feel the pressure of his body on hers as he incapacitated her arms and straddled her legs. She had just enough sense left to figure out that he must have tackled her to the ground. Now she was not only physically incapacitated, but she also felt completely magically drained.

She gave in to weakness and yelled in pain at him with a mixture of French words that she couldn't remember the minute they'd left her mouth. He yelled back at her in French, but the pounding in her head made it impossible for her to translate what he was saying.

Luckily, he decided to switch back to English.

"Oh dear, now it looks like we're going to have to do things the hard way," he taunted as he pressed his body tighter into hers. He was so close that his nose was two inches away from Victoire's, and that was when she noticed his face.

It was different from before. His eyes were now a dark grey-blue and his skin was very pale, but what really stood out was the new shock of orange hair that covered his head. The same colour that was on the man from the tunnel that tried to kidnap her during the Third Task.

She turned her face away from his, not liking it so close, and on the floor a little away from her head and completely out of place in the empty corridor was a simple, full facial white mask. The mask caused a sharp pain to shoot through her head as she tried to drudge up a memory connect with it. She let the mask thing slide, feeling that she had other things to worry about.

Lassoder –if that was who he was, for Victoire was suddenly much more unsure about the whole situation- grabbed her chin roughly and jerked her head back so that he could see her face. His fingers were pinching the skin of her chin heavily, and he snarled down at her as he gave her a considering look that chilled her to the bone.

"You know, my main directive was always to bring you back unharmed. However, after all the trouble you've put me through, especially tonight, I think they'll understand when I bring you back bruised and _broken_," he said grabbing a handful of her blonde hair to force her to look at him.

"I've always wondered," he continued in a musing tone as he stared at her lips again, "What it was about you that made Lupin so protective. So willing to risk his life to save you, and then risk his job to protect you in every situation. All of that trouble just for a pretty face? I don't think so."

Victoire squirmed, even her scrambled mind could recognize that she wasn't going to like where this was going.

"So there obviously must be something else to you, something more than what meets the eye, maybe something that has to do with your Veela genes," he mused and he brought his lips just a hairsbreadth away from hers.

He could feel his lips move against hers as he whispered the next words against her lips, "And call it an experiment, but I'm _going_ to find out."

Once the words were out, he forced his mouth onto hers.

She had no energy left, but she still tried to push him off of her. Her senses were shutting down on her though. Her eyes closed without her permission, and before her hearing and other senses blacked out, she heard a male voice yell a spell, and the weight of Lassoder's body quickly flying off of her.

* * *

"I can't believe this happened."

"I can, bloody stupid MLE agents."

"Don't be too hard on them Sandra, they weren't the ones with a double-agent in their midst."

"And the Auror Department should have a better screening process; I mean who knows what other crimes he's been involved with."

"Can we just not think about that right now and try to focus on Victoire? Both Madam Pomfrey and my Mum said that she should have woken up by now."

"Ally, they said that there's nothing keeping her asleep. All of the sleeping portions of the spells and potions they put on her have worn off, but her body still needs it's time to heal. It could still be a long while."

"Xavier!"

"Oops. Sorry Teddy."

"She's going to wake up soon."

Silence.

"How do you know?"

"I can feel it."

More silence.

"Ted, can you come here for a minute?"

* * *

Teddy followed the voice instinctively out of the Hospital wing. He didn't go much farther than out the doors, but it was enough distance away from everyone else to please Kingsley.

"We can't wait any longer," he told the younger man without pause.

Teddy startled a bit, and Kingsley realized that for the moment, he had the younger man's full attention.

"Why not? She's not awake yet, she hasn't had a chance to make her statement."

"I know, but the bastard's only a few choice words away from lawyering up and then we definitely won't get anything out of him until Victoire wakes and is in well enough condition to make a statement," Kingsley said. The mention of his still unconscious goddaughter was enough to make him go silent for a minute.

Once, the minute was up he looked back to Teddy. The younger man wasn't paying attention to him; he was gazing at the Hospital Wing doors as if he could see right through them and at Victoire.

"Ted," Kingsley said gently, yet forcefully so that he'd pay more attention, "This case. I have to do a major overhaul of personnel assigned to it, and in light of this recent development, I'm only going to keep the people I know that I can trust without a doubt. Do you want to be in on it?"

Kingsley's question should have been an easy one to answer. Any auror, even those not in training would give their wand arm for the opportunity to work with such an elite team on such a high profile case. And Teddy knew exactly what his answer was going to be, he barely had to think about it.

"I need to stay with Victoire. Be there when she wakes up. Hold her when she goes through . . . well this mess that she'll have to go through," Teddy told Kingsley.

Kingsley nodded in complete understanding, "You know this means that you can't interrogate him later. In fact, you can't talk to him, or have any contact with him at all."

Teddy nodded; there was almost nothing he'd like more than to have a chance to tear into Lassoder in the interrogation room. Almost. The only thing he'd like more would be for Victoire to wake up. And that told him right away that he'd made the right decision.

"I'll see about getting you in to view the interrogation when Victoire wak –when Victoire's better though."

Teddy nodded his head in thanks before turning his back on Kingsley and walking back into the Hospital Wing.

* * *

Kingsley strode purposefully into the room attached to the interrogation room. Agent Carver and a few of her MLE agents were there looking through their side of the two-way mirror charmed wall. Also in the room, were Ron and Harry. Kingsley walked straight to them.

"Has he said anything?" He asked, his eyes taking in the orange-haired man sitting across from Auror McKenny in the interrogation room.

Harry shook his head, "No. Won't even tell us his real name."

"You don't think that Richard Lassoder's his real name?" Ron asked shifting his weight to another foot.

"We can't be too certain about anything right now. All we know is this man in Lassoder's auror robes and badge was attacking Victoire, and that Lassoder was the auror scheduled to follow her today. Everything else will have to wait until Victoire wakes up . . . or unless he tells us," Kingelsy said gesturing to the redheaded man.

Ron nodded and then paused before asking, "Ted didn't want to come and see the investigation?"

Kingsley shook his head, "He wanted to be there when Victoire woke up."

"How soon do you think that will be?" Harry asked shooting his wristwatch an alarmed glance. It had already been five hours since they'd first gotten to Hogwarts, after Auror Burton had told them that something serious had happened to Victoire.

"Not soon enough. According to Madam Pomfrey, she's completely magically drained. Should could wake anywhere between right now and four more hours at the least," Kingsley said.

"So . . . do we just wait then?" Ron asked his boss.

"No. We might not have time for that. I'm going to go in and see if I can get anything out of him now," Kingsley told them before turning away from them and leaving the room so that he could enter the interrogation room.

Once he opened the door, Auror McKenny gave him a look and a nod before leaving Kingsley alone with the suspect.

He didn't bother to sit down across from the man, if he needed to use intimidation against him, he would. He needed to find answers, and fast.

Luckily, the redheaded man spoke first.

"Ah, Auror Shacklebolt, a pleasure as always," the man said with a smirk.

Kingsley didn't want to play games, "Who are you?"

"Tut, tut, tut, don't recognize one of your aurors-in-training? That's not very good for the head of the department. Although, you do usually go through so many recruits that remembering all their names and _faces_ must be a challenge," the redhead said back.

Kingsley tried another line of questioning, "What did you want with Victoire?"

The man looked at his nails unconcernedly, "What would any male want with your darling goddaughter? I'll give you a hint; it has nothing to do with her _charming_ personality. In fact, I really wish that she had ended up passing out sooner, would have made my job _so_ much easier."

Kingsley's gritted his teeth remembering what a close call it had been. Who knew how long the two had been fighting before someone actually stumbled upon them? Well, two people did. One of them was unconscious lying in a bed in the Hospital Wing, while the other was sitting right across from him with a killer poker face.

"Although," the man said continuing a train of thought, "She did put up a rather good fight, to which I'm sure you are should be accredited with. She just needs to learn to keep a tighter hold on her wand. Not that she doesn't perform wandless magic beautifully; she's just young and doesn't realize how _draining_ that kind of magic can be."

Kingsley clenched his fists. He might not have known what had happened between the man and Victoire, but he did get a look at the scene of the incident when he got there. And almost as soon as they had arrived, Teddy had pointed out Victoire's abandoned wand on the ground, snapped clearly into two pieces. The man was obviously just trying to rile Kingsley up more and more with his half answers-half riddles about what had happened. And for Victoire's sake, he didn't want to give the man the satisfaction.

Therefore, Kingsley plastered a blank expression on his face and took a seat across from the redheaded man.

"Would you like to take the opportunity right now to call a lawyer? Because trust me, when Victoire wakes up, you're going to need one."

The man gave Kingsley a baleful glare, "That's _if_ she wakes up Auror Shacklebolt."

* * *

Back in the Hospital Wing, Teddy was sitting stoically by Victoire's bedside. He kept watching his girlfriend's prone form for any small movement, but he could only pick out one, the rise, and fall of her chest while she breathed.

"She's never this still. Not even when she sleeps," Sandra commented sadly from her chair near Victoire's bed.

Ally nodded in unhappy agreement while Teddy closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. They were right. If Victoire wasn't tossing or turning in bed, chances were she was awake. But this time, she definitely wasn't awake. This was worse, because it meant that she was out cold.

"Are we even sure we want her to wake up?" Kyle asked his tone suddenly bordering on humorous, "I mean, she's going to wake up, find out that her wand's broken and that she's not allowed to use any magic for at least a week while she heals, and then she's going to completely freak out."

Xavier attempted to laugh at Kyle's joke but it sounded very forced.

There was more silence between the five around Victoire's bed. For the first time that year, it seemed like they were following Madam Pomfrey's visitors rule. It wasn't hard to do though. Neither Madam Pomfrey nor Angelina were able to give them a good estimate of when she'd wake up, so her family and friends decided to take turns watching over her in groups. Ally, Kyle, and Sandra only had an hour left before they had to go to morning classes. The only reason they were allowed to be with Victoire for that moment was because the three of them had promised that if she hadn't woken up by then that they would attend all of their classes for the rest of the day, until she did wake. Likewise, Xavier had to leave in half an hour in order to make it to Quidditch practice.

Xavier, who was holding Ally's hand, squeezed it tightly while he looked at Victoire's still form, "C'mon Vic. Wake up already. I have to leave soon and if you don't wake then I'm going to have to go and run like a bazillion laps even though I've only gotten four hours of sleep."

But his plea fell on deaf ears.

The group sat there for a few more minutes before they heard the slow creak of the Hospital Wing doors opening. Teddy didn't even bother to look behind him and see who it was. He just called out to them, "She's not awake yet."

"Really?" The new comer asked in surprise as he cautiously walked closer to the bed, "It took her less time to recover when a bludger bashed her head in."

Sandra scowled at him as soon as the words left his mouth, "That's really not helping. If you're here to insult her you can just turn around and leave."

Kyle placed his hand on his girlfriend's arm warily, "Give him a bit of a break there Sandy, he just wants to know if she's okay."

Sandra folded her arms defiantly across her chest. Her best friend was almost comatose in the hospital wing, and she'd only gotten about four hours of sleep before she was awaken by Ally telling her that Victoire had been attacked again. She was _not_ in the best mood.

"Since when has he been concerned about Victoire's wellbeing?!"

"Listen Collins-"

"Ugh, would you all just please shut up!"

Everyone went silent. Teddy looked at the bed beside him in disbelief. He moved from his chair until he was sitting down on the edge of the bed. He looked down at the still girl lying on the bed that he swore had just yelled at them.

"Victoire . . .?"

Her eyelids were fluttering as if she was having a hard time opening them, but soon they did open. Teddy stared into her blue eyes. They looked scared and uncertain, but they were clear. He gave her a relieved smile in response to her open eyes, but she quickly shut them again. A minute later, he could hear her bones starting to crack and pop a little, and Teddy realized that she was trying to move into a sitting position. He gently aided her, and once she was partway vertical, she took a deep breath, and opened her eyes again. They did a quick scan of everyone around her, only to jump in surprise when they landed on the newest visitor to the wing. Her face slipped into a confused pout, and Teddy was about to open his mouth to answer to her confusion, when she decided to speak for the first time.

"Knott . . . what the hell are you doing here?"

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, well yes, it is a bit more of a cliff hanger, but not as bad as last weeks! (Or is it?) Again, as a reminder I have three midterms next week, so I may or may not update on time, but I will try my best.

Oh, and reviews might guilt me into updating on time/early. Anyway, please let me know what you think of the, turn in events.

**P.S.** Oh, Hands up (Review please) if you guessed that Lassoder seemed fishy?

**Next Week:** Victoire explains to everyone what she remembered happening, we find out why Colton Knott's visiting her in the Hospital Wing, and Victoire has a talk with Kingsley.

Thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed!

An especially **BIG** thanks to:

**The Regal Warrior, Cloudy Rabbit, Guest(1), Infinity Lily, purplebutterflies16, Oddliver, babyemeraldeyes, MaddieMonkey, barefoot and buckwild, thelovelymystery, Goonergirl, changewing, HarryPotterNut94, Encypher, TheFantabulousPotterHead, Guest(2), Forever Siriusly Sirius, sepoetry, MiraclesHappen94, brilliant incandescence, A Frozen Shadow, eyechange, Gemma, Guest(3), Last Ride Of The Valkyries, AnnabethWeasley22, RoLouG, BoOkWoOoOrM, As the Robin Flies, vampiremuggle, Brainiac, xSuperNovax, macheel, IloveSpunk, ntlpurpolia, elviracar128, MuggleCreator, 15, **and** TedandVic4ever**.

**The Regal Warrior:** Aw, thanks so much :)

**Infinity Lily**: Trust me, we are just starting to tie lose ends together.

**Oddliver**: Um, I hope that's a good thing?

**MaddieMonkey**: Do I need to send an ambulance to your residence? And yeah, there'll be a little Teddy/Vic cuteness in the next chap. Although, I think Teddy was just so sweet in this one.

**barefoot and buckwild**: Yes, you weren't supposed to trust him, and now you definitely shouldn't.

**changewing**: I am updating faster because I have some chapters written ahead and at my disposal. I like to keep a few chapters ahead, becasue I never really know when I'll feel like writing, or when I get a bit of a block.

**HarryPotterNut94**: Sorry, but *cue evil laugh*. And that was a fantastic comparison.

**Forever Siriusly Sirius**: I feel the need to wink at what you wrote, so imagined I did. Now, as for Kyle and Sandra I will try to add more of them in, but if that ends up not happening because of time constraints, it does give me ideas for a one-shot, or even more solidly placing my ideas for a sequel (Ignore me if you wish, I was kinda rambling there). Anyway, all of your ideas of what Xavier should do to Delaney are nothing less than I would expect from an Ally/Xavier shipper, so I will read the suggestions and take them into heavy consideration ;) And thanks, It's fun to write Harry and Ron occasionally, I don't know if I'd be able to do a whole story of them, but I can definitely write them in smaller pieces.

**brilliant incandescence**: I'm glad you mentioned their name, because that was the point of making such a large and comparatively awful acronym. It was fun.

**A Frozen Shadow**: Is it new? Or is it just a really well hidden organization kept from the public knowledge, which in turn makes them more dangerous? O.o

**As the Robin Flies**: And I loved your review. A lot.

** 15**: I will take anything I can get. Whether that be just a view, or a short review or a long one. Howevere, it is nice in a practical sense to get long reviews because then I know specifically what my readers like, and what they don't like. It also tells me if they undertsnad my plot, or if I'm the only one who thinks it makes sense, along with them making lovely demands to see certain characters that they like, so that I can write accordingly. But thank you for the lovely long review anyway :)

**Thanks again for reading, I hoped that you liked this chapter!**

**Please leave a review if you'd like, and DFTBA!**


	99. Piecing Things Together

**A/N:** Hey guys! Sorry for the late update but I had an assignment due, a quiz, and three midterms this week so I was very busy.

On that note I am all done my midterms (until after my reading week) and the only thing standing in between me and my Thanksgiving weekend and subsequent reading week is three classes tomorrow! So excited!

Also, thanks to everyone who waited so patiently, now, on with the show!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own HP.

* * *

**Piecing Things Together**

Once the words were out of her mouth, Victoire realized that that probably shouldn't have been the most pressing concern on her mind at the moment. But her mind still felt jumbled and she preferred to focus on what was in front of her than trying to think back to the last thing she remembered before she woke up.

Colton Knott, who was just as surprised at Victoire's outburst as everyone else, decided to give her a break and answer her question instead of trying to infuriate her like he usually would.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing . . . if you had woken up yet . . ."

"Why?" Victoire asked looking not just at him, but also to Teddy beside her.

Colton shot Teddy a look, not wanting to say too much, so Teddy answered Victoire's question, "Knott was the first one to find you after you'd gone unconscious."

Victoire's eyes widened. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she closed it just as quickly. She wasn't sure what to say.

Teddy saw her movement and reached gently for her hand, "Victoire . . . what's the last thing you remember?"

"Um . . ." She had to close her eyes to focus because the stare of six inquisitive sets of eyes was a little too much for her to handle at the moment. She tried to think back to before she'd passed out.

"Well . . . I remember –I don't know . . . the pressure of someone's body on me. But I can't remember . . ." She trailed off, not even sure how to finish her sentence.

Her friends (and Colton) were quiet for a minute before Victoire turned to look at Teddy.

"Something really bad happened didn't it?"

He nodded softly. She felt tears start to prick her eyes. Her head hurt and she felt completely exhausted, but they obviously needed her to tell them what she remembered.

"Maybe . . . maybe it will come back to me in a few hours?" Victoire said almost hesitantly as she watched Teddy's expression carefully.

His eyes darkened into hopelessness for a second before he forced a brighter expression onto his face when he noticed her scrutiny.

It made her want to cry even more. To know that he needed her help, but that she couldn't help him.

"I-I'm sorry-"

Teddy reached forward a little so that he could cup her face in his hands, "Please, please don't apologize. You did absolutely nothing wrong. All you were trying to do was help. None of this is your fault."

Victoire could tell by his eyes and his voice that his words were sincere, but she still couldn't shake the sudden feeling of guilt.

"Sorry," she said again, much more quietly.

He stared into her eyes, not forgetting their audience, but just really not caring, "It's okay, I'm just glad that you finally woke up."

"How long have I been out?" She asked in a whisper, as if she thought that saying it quieter would make the situation sound better.

"Five hours," he whispered back.

She swallowed thickly, "I've been out for longer."

"Yes," he agreed solemnly, "But this time we had no idea when you'd wake up."

Victoire felt her eyes start to leak. That uncertainty must have been killing them.

Teddy noticed the tears and gave a quick kiss to each of her eyelids. He realized that more were probably going to follow, so he tried to sidetrack her.

"I love you," he told her as a distraction, but very honestly nonetheless.

"I love you too," she told him back her eyes glancing at his lips without her permission.

He noticed the movement and lent forward to close the barely-there distance between their mouths. He felt her take a minute to respond, since her mind was no doubt still rather muddled, but what really confused him was that a few seconds after she started to kiss him back, she gasped suddenly and pulled away from him.

He opened his mouth to voice his confusion, but when he noticed the completely aghast and somewhat ashamed look on her face, he stopped himself.

She spoke quickly, tears starting to stream down her face, "Oh my God Teddy I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry!"

Teddy didn't know what she was talking about, but her tears were getting thicker and her breathing was getting heavier and she seemed in danger of passing out from over-hyperventilating. He reached for her and pulled her to him to calm her down, but the minute he had her in his arms she struggled to get out of them. Teddy dropped his arms since the last thing he wanted was for her to have a panic attack, but he didn't move away from his spot close to her on her bed.

"What's wrong Sweetheart?" he asked her gently. He noted in the back of his mind that everyone else in the room had been dead quiet since she'd woken up.

"I-I'm remembering. Flashes," she forced out in between her shallow breaths, "He-he-"

She started to cry harder and abandoned trying to talk completely. Teddy reached a hand out slowly to her this time, and when she didn't shake him off he slowly pulled her into his arms. Either she'd been over whatever made her flinch away from him before, or she was too upset to notice.

"Vic," he crooned into her ear, "You just need to take some slow deep breaths. It's all right. You don't need to push yourself into remembering."

She hiccoughed a bit before taking a few deep breaths. When she'd gotten her tears a bit more under control she spoke again.

"I-I can't remember everything. But I do remember –he kissed me!" She cried as she broke down into a few more tears

Teddy held her tightly and rubbed his hand softly up and down her back.

Victoire barely felt his comforting movements. All of a sudden her memory was coming back, but not in a lucid stream. In a bunch of disjointed flashes. She wasn't entirely sure which one came first either. She figured that the only way to find out though, was to discuss them.

She moved a little out of Teddy's embrace so she could look him in the face, "I-I'm remembering bits and pieces, but I'm not sure what happened when."

"Just try talking it out Vic, sooner or later it'll all fall into place," Kyle suddenly spoke up.

Victoire looked at him, "The last thing I positively remember was helping Professor Sinistra's fifth-year Astronomy class with their O. W. L.s."

Teddy nodded, "Yes, that's good. Start before that though."

She gave him an odd look.

"The more memories you're sure about as you recount them, the easier the rest will come," he explained.

Victoire just nodded and began, "Well, we had dinner and then went back to the Common Room to hang out until Kyle and I had to help. I can remember feeling . . . anxious that night. It started sometime after dinner but I'm not entirely sure why I felt that way. Anyway, close to the time when we were supposed to go, Kyle had to go back to his dorm because he wanted to change his shirt or something. He came back down, we said goodnight to Sandra, and then we left for the Astronomy Tower. Everything seemed normal if not for the fact that I kept getting an odd feeling."

"What do you mean by normal?" Teddy asked. He actually knew what she was trying to say, but he was hoping to push her into the right direction so she could remember the important parts.

"You know. Normal. Kyle and I spoke a bit on the way there, we ran into a ghost or two, and . . ." She trailed off.

Teddy knew that she was trying to remember what he'd been hoping she'd take notice of.

"Oh, we were being followed by an auror of course too. Or I guess_ I_ was being followed . . ."

"Which auror?" Teddy asked already knowing the answer.

"Lassoder," Victoire answered with a customary frown. A minute later, she closed her eyes and seemed to flinch in pain. They opened quickly.

"Oh my Merlin!"

Her outburst proved to Teddy that more of her memories were coming back, so he decided to continue questioning her.

"What did you do when you got to the Astronomy Tower?" he asked her.

She gave him an odd look because she was sure that he was going to ask her a more important question than that, but she answered him nonetheless, "Kyle and I got our instructions from Professor Sinistra, and then I ended up talking with one of the examiners."

"And then?"

"All of the fifth years came in and started their examination."

"What next?"

"I walked around and helped for a bit . . . and then an examiner let Gloria Dustin go because she was finished, but I remember watching her and she continued to look through her telescope. So I went over to her to make sure that she was okay."

Teddy nodded; this is all they had known up to, about what happened. Gloria had been the last to see Victoire before she ran off to go who knows where and, subsequently, was attacked by Lassoder.

"What happened when you were with Gloria?"

"We were talking and then I remember calling her a genius and running away from her and out of the tunnel. Lassoder had been following me and he made me stop so that I could tell him what I was doing. So, I hurriedly told him that –Oh my Godric! That's it!" Victoire exclaimed suddenly, startling everyone in the room.

"What's it?" Xavier asked, not able to curb his bewilderment at her words.

Victoire gave Teddy a very serious look, "I have to speak to Kingsley." She didn't even wait for an answer before she tried to get out of the hospital bed.

Teddy, having been sitting next to her, stopped her before she could go too far, "Whoa. Hold it there. You're still on bed rest. Just tell me what you need to tell Kingsley, and then I'll get him up here."

"I have proof that Professor Cooke and Jilly aren't involved with my kidnappings," everyone stared at her in surprise because that was definitely not, what they were expecting her to say, "I thought of it when I was talking to Gloria. I then left to tell someone quickly and I told Lassoder just so he'd stop annoying me and then he attacked me because-"

". . ."

"Oh my God. Lassoder attacked me," Victoire said her eyes wide as she tried to comprehend what she'd said. Her mouth had said it before the rest of her mind had come to that conclusion.

She turned to look at Teddy who had a perfect poker face on.

"Lassoder attacked me didn't he?"

"What we know of, yes. But you still need to try to remember what happened on your own so that your witness won't be considered compromised," Teddy explained quietly.

Victoire sighed, "I do remember now."

Then she quickly jumped into a narrative of what had happened between her and Lassoder. She was so far into her memories that she could remember the exact words he'd used. Whenever she repeated them, she could hear Teddy clench his teeth and his breathing increase with anger. A little ways into her narrative, she stopped suddenly and looked up to Teddy with a tortured gaze.

"What. Happened. To. My. Wand?" She asked speaking each word clearly to emphasize how important the question was to her.

Teddy slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out two thin, broken, and splintered pieces of wood. He handed them over gently to Victoire so that she could hold them.

Victoire received them and inspected the pieces carefully. It was snapped almost perfectly in half. Not very surprising since her wand had always been such a rigid make that it didn't bend well. She noted that the phoenix tail feather/ unicorn hair mix core was still somewhat intact, so she was careful not to touch those pieces directly.

She looked utterly despondent as she held the broken wand pieces, "I guess I won't be able to use this to do magic for a little while."

Xavier coughed awkwardly and Victoire shot him a confused glance while Teddy shot him an annoyed one.

"What's going on?" She asked, guessing rightly, that they were still keeping things form her.

"Victoire Sweetheart . . . you won't be able to do any magic for a bit of time at all," Teddy tried to break it to her gently.

"Why not? I can still do a few wandless charms can't I?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"No you can't," Teddy told her as he ran a hand through his hair, "You ended up completely draining yourself of all of your magic sometime last night."

It took a moment for the words to sink into Victoire's mind.

"Crap," she said burying her face in her hands, "I was just trying to get him off of me. It was when I told you that he had me pinned to the wall. I tried to use my Veela magic like I had that one time earlier in the year when I was training with you and Kingsley . . ."

Victoire went off to explain what happened in between Lassoder stepping on her wand to using all of her magic to blast him off of her, to him tripping her up and pressing her against the floor. She tried to repeat everything that happened up until she lost consciousness, including what he had said to her about Teddy even though she could hear him becoming angrier and angrier by the minute.

"And then he was giving me a look that I knew was no good and then all of a sudden his lips were on mine and I must have passed out and I'm so, so, _so_ sorry Teddy," she finished her recital as more tears began to appear in her eyes.

Teddy pulled her tight against him and kissed the top of her head, "Victoire, none of that is your fault. You tried to get him off you but you couldn't."

"But you're still angry about it," she observed.

"Yes, but again, not at you. I'm just so angry because he could have done so much worse to you if Colton hadn't jumped in when he did."

Victoire pulled away from Teddy just far enough so that she could give Colton a considering look, "What did you see anyway?"

Colton figured that it would be okay to explain to her his part in the situation since she'd seemed to gain back most of the memory she'd had, "I was doing patrol by myself since you were busy, when I heard yelling. I went in the direction of it of course, but then I stopped when I heard your voice. When I noticed that you were swearing in French I figured that you were probably just screaming at Pennington again, but then I heard a male voice yelling back to you in French and got worried. The only person who actually yells back at you in French is usually me, and since it obviously wasn't me you were yelling at, I felt like I should check it out."

"When I rounded the corner I saw some guy on top of you who obviously wasn't Lupin -or even Kyle-, so I just reacted and cast a spell to blast him off of you. A second later, when I realized that you were unconscious I stunned the man before he could get away and sent a patronus to MLE. While I was waiting for them to show up, I noticed your broken wand on the ground and tried to wake you up but none of the spells I knew worked. Once I'd tried all of the counter-charms to body-binding and stunning spells, I figured that you passed out for another reason, and then MLE and a few aurors showed up. They didn't start to completely freak out though until they realized that the bloke I had blasted off of you was wearing auror robes and a badge," Colton explained.

"You've already had to tell MLE this haven't you?" Victoire asked, noting that his recital seemed very thorough.

Colton shrugged, "It was the only way they've been able to hold the guy for so long. Nobody knew how long you'd be out so I had to make a statement."

"Thank you," Victoire told him sincerely.

"No problem," Colton replied, "If he'd succeeded in kidnapping you I wouldn't have had anybody to annoy the hell out of me for the rest of the month."

Victoire smiled softly at him, "I think we just bonded again."

Colton automatically frowned, "No we didn't."

"Yes we did."

"No. We didn't."

"Yes. We did."

"No."

"Yes."

"NO!"

"YE-"

Teddy cut off their squabbling, "Thank goodness you two _only_ have less than a month left together at Hogwarts."

Victoire turned her face so she could smile at Teddy. He smiled back, his previously boring brown hair subconsciously turning a bright blue. Her favourite blue.

"That's it!"

"You've said that a lot in the past half hour Vic," Kyle commented dryly.

Victoire ignored him and looked between Colton and Teddy, "What else did they find in the hall where I was attacked?"

Teddy frowned, "There was a white full facial mask. Odd thing. The entire nose and mouth portion were covered. No holes. Not sure how it got there but it was bagged and tagged anyway-"

"It was there because Lassoder was wearing it!" Victoire told him suddenly excited.

"What do you mean?" Teddy asked suspiciously.

"After I blasted Lassoder away from me and he got me on the floor I noticed that his face looked different. He no longer looked like Lassoder, but he looked like the bloke from the tunnel during the third task. When I looked beside me, the white mask was on the floor. He must have been wearing it to look different. It has to have some sort of appearance charm on it or something!"

"Victoire if you never actually saw it on him you can't be sure that it was his though-" Teddy began to explain but Victoire was too excited about her revelation to listen.

"But that wasn't the first time I saw it! I saw it in the tunnel, before they tried to kidnap me. It was in the room that the aurors raided and found the notes and Jilly's robes in. He must have taken it before he left to chase me down and that's why the aurors didn't find it when they came into the tunnels."

Teddy considered her words for a minute, "That's very plausible. We'll have to look farther into the masks magical abilities though, before we can classify it as a theory."

"I know," Victoire told him, "But it would make so much sense. He was wearing it in the second task in the cave because he knew that I was going to see him and he didn't want me to know what he really looked like. He must have even been wearing it when he tried to kidnap me during the Yule Ball too! Remember the guy who looked like Austin Pennington but his face rippled and he was yelling at me in French?"

Ally, Sandra, Kyle, Xavier, and even Colton exchanged a series of odd looks while Teddy just nodded along with what Victoire was talking about. He was the only one who really needed to understand her anyway.

"But enough about that," Victoire said suddenly cutting herself off, "We need to tell Kingsley this stuff A. S. A. P."

That comment prompted Sandra to speak to her best mate for the first time since she awoke, "But Victoire, you're completely magically drained. That takes a toll on your physical health too. You need to stay in bed and rest."

Victoire arched a blonde brow at Sandra, "I'm not going to rest until Lassoder goes down."

* * *

Surprisingly, Teddy agreed with Victoire's decision to tell Kingsley all the information they'd came up with right away –mostly because the sooner they got it over with, the sooner they could force Victoire back to bed. Sneaking her out and past Madam Pomfrey was rather easy since they hadn't actually alerted her yet to the fact that Victoire was conscious, but her friends were determined to come with her and Teddy when they went to speak to Kingsley. Colton just shot them all odd looks before muttering 'good luck' to them under his breath before he left the wing to go back to his dormitory.

As soon as they were out of the Hospital Wing Victoire broke into a run –momentarily startling everyone as they wondered where she had gotten the energy from- leaving them a few minutes behind as they ran to catch up with her. Teddy and Xavier got closest to her, both of them in good physical shape from auror training and Quidditch practice respectively. Ally also wasn't far behind, but Kyle and Sandra –neither of which was on the Quidditch team- were bringing up the rear. Victoire stopped in front of the door where the aurors and MLE were and waited for Teddy to at least catch up with her.

Once he was beside her, she opened the door and barged right in, her friends following her, as they got closer. Unexpectedly, it took a few minutes of them standing there before someone in the very busy room realized whom she was. After that, it only took a few minutes for Victoire to be whisked away into a separate room (one that Teddy swore didn't have a two-way mirror charm on its walls). Once there she argued with one of the MLE agents for a good five minutes before they agreed to get Auror Shacklebolt for her. Her concession though, was that everyone else had to leave the room and wait outside. She refused to allow Teddy to leave, but the rest of her friends left very easily, not wanting to be there to witness Kingsley's reaction when Victoire finally did tell him why Lassoder attacked her.

Kingsley swept into the room, with Auror McKenny following him, just as her friends were leaving. Kingsley ignored Teddy presence for the moment, his attention riveted on Victoire.

"What in the world are you doing out of bed?" He asked rather crossly at he examined her face for any signs of over-exertion.

"I need to tell you something!" Victoire said hurriedly, standing to emphasize her point.

Teddy grabbed her arm and pulled her back down into a chair before Kingsley could reply.

"I would have come up to the Hospital Wing to take your statement Victoire; you didn't need to come down here. You should still be resting."

"This isn't about Lassoder attacking me –although I guess it kinda is because the only reason he did that was because I came up with this and it would have taken his scapegoat away-" Victoire stopped rambling when she realized that Kingsley was shooting Teddy a look that clearly said 'Is-she-right-in-the-head-?'.

Victoire crossed her arms over her chest and took a deep breath, "Just listen please, it's very, very important."

And she went on to recite everything that had happened the night before to an increasingly shocked Kingsley, and Auror McKenny who was making sure that all of her words were getting written down by the quick notes quill.

At the end of her recital, she gave Kingsley a minute to absorb the information before she asked, "So what do we do from here?"

Kingsley blinked, "You're one-hundred percent certain that it was Lassoder who attacked you?"

"Yes, it was definitely him in the beginning, and the mask would account for the change in appearance."

"And you're certain that the man after the mask was the one who tried to kidnap you during the third task?"

"Yes, and not only that, but Lassoder and the man, both made references to the previous attempts at kidnapping me. Lassoder even said that he was in charge of the operation."

"And you think that it was the same person from the second task, and from the night of the Yule Ball?"

Victoire was nodding very vigorously at this point, "We've already established that all of those attempts were by the same group. We already know that there was a leak in the Auror Department, Lassoder is obviously that leak! And that whole thing with my patronus, that proves that Professor Cooke and Auror Donaldson weren't involved in it either! If they were Lassoder would have known that my patronus changed from an eagle to a wolf!"

Kingsley waited for her breathing to get back to normal before speaking again, "Yes, you have given us physical proof of Lassoder's involvement. But his involvement doesn't mean that Professor Cooke and Donaldson weren't involved either. They could have been working as a team."

"But I already told you why that wouldn't make sense! My patronus-"

Kingsley spoke louder so that she would listen to him, "Your patronus is circumstantial evidence Vic. It could be used in a case to explain why they aren't involved, but it's not enough for an acquittal."

"Circumstantial evidence was enough to get both Teddy and Kurt out of suspicion," Victoire argued back.

Her godfather sighed, "Yes, but that's only because the only evidence _against _them was circumstantial. One of the notes that was found, and not coded, points to Professor Cooke and Donaldson. The auror robes found _say_ Donaldson's name on them, and Professor Cooke has a good case against him of how he would have been able to move information about the tasks out of Hogwarts-"

"Because Professors' letters and movements were not being recorded by different departments," Victoire finished in a dull voice. She'd heard the argument many times over the past few weeks. Every time she tried to argue that Professor Cooke and Jilly wouldn't be involved with the kidnappers, she'd get the same lecture about the 'solid proof' they had to the contrary.

Kingsley eyed her firmly, "Yes. Now on an unrelated note, does Madam Pomfrey even know that you're awake?"

Victoire opened her mouth to explain, but she couldn't come up with a good enough one.

"No."

"Do your parents know?"

"Well Ally might have actually contacted them-"

"Victoire."

"Probably not," she finished in a low voice. Whenever Kingsley reprimanded her –which wasn't all that often- she always felt dejected.

"Then you should be getting back to the Hospital Wing," Kingsley told her gently.

"But I have classes today!" she disputed.

"Which you will not be able to do because. You. Have. No. Magic. Even if your wand weren't snapped into two pieces, you wouldn't be able to use it. You wouldn't even be able to pull the energy together to pull off a wandless shoelace-tying spell. Victoire, you used both of your Veela powers and all of the magic you had last night against Lassoder. You are magically spent. There's none left. You have to let the magic in your body regenerate," Kingsley told her. He didn't enjoy being harsh with her, but sometimes she needed to be talked to in a firmer tone if you wanted her to really listen to you.

"I could still take notes," she muttered under her breath.

Teddy pinched the bridge of his nose while Kingsley felt like banging his head against the wall.

"No Princess, you can't. You of all people know that magic is integrated into a person's being. It's a physical entity that's intermixed with their body, with their health and well-being. You also know that if anyone else did what you did –became drained of all of their magic- that they would be checked into St. Mungo's and would be made to rest until their physical body and magical body were back up to regular standards," Kingsley pointed out.

Victoire gritted her teeth and crossed her arms over her chest. She hated it when Kingsley related her health issues to the population at large, or to healing magic. She couldn't argue against him when he did stuff like that.

"But my magic's always been so close to the surface," she reasoned.

"Yes," Kingsley agreed, "That's because you had an abundance of it. Which means it might take you even longer to generate it all back."

Her mouth popped open. There was no way she was going to be spending _more_ than a week 'taking it easy' in the Hospital Wing.

She opened her mouth to explain such to her godfather when the door to the room opened and Agent Carver and Agent Alesci walked in. They obviously hadn't known that she was in there with Kingsley, because Agent Carver's first words were, "Miss Weasley! How long have you been awake?"

Kingsley answered for her, "Long enough to tell me what happened, and have Auror McKenny write it all down. But, she's going to go back to the Hospital Wing to get more rest."

Auror Carver nodded, "Maybe after she's gotten more rest _MLE_ can ask her questions."

"Perhaps," Kingsley said non-committedly. He looked at Victoire and nodded towards the door. It was her cue to leave.

She stood up to leave, Teddy moving to follow her.

"I'll send an MLE officer with her," Agent Carver told Kingsley.

Kingsley shook his head, "No. Auror Lupin can go with her."

Agent Carver frowned, "Auror Shacklebolt I don't know if that's-"

"Don't we have better things to be doing right now?" Kingsley asked crossing his arms over his chest.

The frown didn't leave Agent Carver's face, but she moved aside so that Teddy could escort Victoire out.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, so show of hands, who expected Colton to visit her because he saved her?

Thanks again to everyone who waited patiently for me to update, and since I'm off next week (Well since I don't have to go to classes) I might update again on the Holiday Monday, but that's only if I see that the majority of my readers have read this chappie.

Thanks again to every one has followed, favourited, read and reviewed!

**Next Chapter:** Xavier and Teddy play a rousing game of cards. Victoire has to identify physical evidence. And Victoire, Teddy, Xavier, and Kurt might come up with a theory to trump all other theories.

A Big thanks especially to:

**Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, owlcity2013, sushimaster18, IloveSpunk, barefoot and buckwild, TheFantabulousPotterHead, Oddliver, MaddieMonkey, Infinity Lily, GabrielaTJ, As the Robin Flies, MuggleCreator, zvc56, Last Ride Of The Valkyries, Badass, changewing, Forever Siriusly Sirius, The Regal Warrior, xsuperx, jeremiah123, Encypher, brilliant incandescence, babyemeraldeyes, nabdo, **and **SiriuslyGeorgia.**

**Infinity Lily**: Aww, t'anks *blushing profusely*

**As the Robin Flies**: I don't know about bestest friends, but they seem to be on their way to bestest frenemies!

**zvc56**: You're welcome. And, um, no. I don't have a tunblr. I'm a little hesitant to get one, because there are already like five people's tumblr pages that I check multiple times a day, and if I got a tumblr all I would have on my page would be reblogs from: Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Merlin, John and Hank Green and Nerdfighteria, Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and Emma Approved, and much more really nerdy stuff that would just make me lose my life to the internet. So for now, I'm going to go without a tumblr, and wait and see how long it take until I finally cave.

**Last Ride Of The Valkyries**: Why thank you, but if you thought that was good, wait til you get your eyes on the next chapter. (Not to be narcissistic or anything;)

**changewing**: Well Victoire's guessing the mask, but we'll have to wait and see . . .

**Forever Siriusly Sirius**: You're review was absolutely fantastic. As always, keep it up :) By the way, I totally can't tell you if your guesses are close, BUT MAN ARE THEY A GOOD GUESS! (Because you are either close, or they are just entertaining, you decide). And three midterms in a week isn't actually as bad as I've had before. Plus, I just got my final exam schedule for December, we have two weeks to do five final exams (all depends on when the prof gets given the place and time) and I have two exams on one day. The last day possible for exams. Which means I can't leave early to go home, and have to stay for an extra week to write those exams, even though my brother will have flown home from his university in Nova Scotia by then :(

**jeremiah123**: OH MY GODRIC. FOUR DAYS? THAT'S DEDICATION RIGHT THERE! Thanks :)

**brilliant incandescence**: Good guess on the Colton thing. Someone's thinking like me ;)

**SiriuslyGeorgia**: Aw, thank you. I'm glad you like it. And welcome to my story!

**Thanks again for reading. I hope you guys enjoyed!**

**Leave me a review if you'd like, and DFTBA!**


	100. Suspects?

**A/N:** Hey guys! Here's the next update, and guess what? It's my 100th chapter!

**P.S.** I hope all of my fellow Canadians enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend, and that my fellow Canadian University students who have their reading week this week like me enjoy their time off, because I know I will :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own HP.

**Warning:** Okay, read this chapter carefully and slowly because a lot of ideas, theories, and information is about to get thrown at you.

* * *

**Suspects?**

"Got any threes?"

"No, go fish . . . Got any eights?"

"Here . . ."

"Thanks. Got any tens?"

"Uh, here."

"Kings?"

"Bloody hell! How do you do that?" Xavier asked angrily as he threw his last card –a red king- at Teddy.

Teddy smirked at him as he picked up the cards and laid them out in their pairs, "I'm just good at guessing. Should we count our pairs and see who won?"

Xavier pouted, "No, it's already obvious that you won."

"Merlin will you two just shut up?!" Victoire asked angrily as she flipped over on her bed so that she could actually see the two boys. She had been trying to rest like everyone told her to do, but then Teddy and Xavier had decided to play a unexpectedly stimulating game of 'Go-Fish'. Which Xavier lost; he's not a good loser.

"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping Weasley?" Xavier asked her cheekily.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Quidditch practice getting quaffles thrown harshly at your face Wood?" Victoire countered.

After her friends had left her and Teddy that morning, Ally, Sandra, and Kyle went off to get ready for class, while Xavier left Hogwarts, just to come back a few hours later at lunchtime to visit. Victoire thought it was nice at first, but then he didn't leave. It was presently four o'clock in the afternoon, which meant that Victoire had had four hours of just Xavier Wood (Teddy was there too, but when Victoire and Xavier started to fight he'd usually just let them go at it and try not to intervene).

"Got the rest of the day off," Xavier said with a bright smile.

"How do you keep getting time off? I thought that professional Quidditch players were supposed to be very busy," Victoire asked seriously interested in the answer.

Xavier shrugged, "Saying that one of your best friends has been attacked and is lying unconscious in a hospital bed is usually a good excuse."

"Yeah, but how many times this year have you already used the same excuse?" Teddy asked.

Victoire frowned and threw one of her half a dozen pillows that were on her bed at him.

"Not funny Lupin."

"Oh, someone's testy. You know, you should probably use your bed rest to get some sleep Vic," Xavier commented.

She rolled her eyes and adjusted the pillows better on her bed so that she could sit up, "That's what I was trying to do. But then these two pillocks decided that they were going to get into a shouting match over a game of 'Go-Fish'."

"I still think you cheated," Xavier hastily said to Teddy.

Teddy rolled his eyes but couldn't hold in his smile. Victoire was glad to see it. He'd been rather dreary that day. After they'd gotten back from their visit with Kingsley, almost every one of Victoire's family members had stopped by to see if she was okay. Fleur ended up crying for an hour after Victoire had told her and Bill what had actually happened, while Dom and Louis said almost nothing to her, but gave her tight hugs anyway. Angelina's visit with George consisted of the healer re-explaining to Victoire exactly what was wrong with her health-wise, and going into such details that near the end neither Teddy nor George could understand what she was talking about. Hermione and Ginny ended up spending the entirety of their fifteen-minute visit worrying overtop of Victoire, and she felt only a little ashamed to say that she was happy to see them leave. Their insistent questions right up next to her made it a little difficult for her to breathe. Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey had actually been her favourite visitors, since Percy took one look at her wand and hastily promised to talk to Mr. Ollivander about getting her a new one as soon as her magic was restored fully. After her last visitors had left, Victoire did get another hour or two of sleep, but she was worried because when she had woken up because Teddy had had the same despairing expression on his face that he'd had when she'd fallen asleep.

"So, are you guys going to deal me in this round or am I gonna just have to sit here and listen to you argue again?" Victoire asked with a sly smile.

"If you think you can beat me, go ahead and join in little girl," Xavier said condescendingly.

Xavier had just finished dealing out the last card when a small red parchment paper plane came zooming into the room and landed gently on Teddy's lap.

He picked it up and read the note quickly before shoving it back in his pocket. "How do you feel about a little field-trip Vic?"

Victoire shot her boyfriend a suspicious look, "What do you mean?"

Teddy stood up from where he was sitting, "Kingsley would like for us to go to the temporary evidence holding room here so that you can positively identify the mask that was found in the hall."

Victoire nodded in answer and allowed Teddy to help her up from her bed. She knew that the errand was just 'busy-work' but that it also needed to be done. Xavier decided to tag along with them, despite Teddy's warnings that the auror in charge of the evidence holding room could easily kick him out because he had no real reason to be there. Xavier just shrugged his shoulders and said it would still be more interesting than just sitting in the Hospital Wing waiting for them to come back.

It was the second time that day that they'd walked into the temporary MLE/Auror room, and everyone seemed just as busy, if not more so than they had been earlier in the day. Victoire hoped that her statement would help move things along faster, and she hoped that the reason why they hadn't been back to ask her more questions was because they were busy getting new information.

Teddy led Victoire and Xavier into the room that temporarily held the evidence. When they opened the door, they were very surprised to see who was on the other side doing inventory.

"Hi Ted, hi Victoire!" Kurt Williamson said as he waved at them.

Victoire gave Kurt a little wave back while Teddy pulled out a chair for her to sit on at the table in the room that had the smallest pile of evidence bags on it.

"Kurt, how in the world did they allow you back on the case?" Teddy asked interestedly as he sat down next to Victoire. Xavier had quietly taken a seat on her other side.

Kurt rolled his eyes, "It's not as hard as you think. MLE all thinks that they're too good to be stuck in such a boring job as watching over the evidence to make sure that it won't be tampered with, and Shacklebolt was running out of aurors that he actually trusted. Therefore, MLE apologizes for ever thinking that I was involved in the whole kidnapping business, and then tells me that my job will be to babysit the only physical evidence we have."

"Ah, so have you come up with any new clues with them?" Teddy asked eyeing the few bags from the case on the table in front of them.

"No, but I feel like there's something here –don't touch that!" Kurt scowled, slapping Victoire's hand away from the evidence bag she was reaching forward to touch.

Victoire frowned at him and retracted her hand, "What do you need me to do anyway?"

Kurt spent a moment riffling through the pile of clear bags in front of them before pulling out a medium sized one filled with a plain white mask. He handed the bag to Victoire with the order, "Just look at it, and tell me if you can positively identify it. And don't take it out of the bag!" He added as an extra warning when he saw Victoire going for the zipper clasp of the bag.

She frowned again but pulled the bag closer to her so that she could get a good look at it.

While she inspected every side of it Teddy asked, "Have they got anything off of it yet? Magical signature, prints?"

Kurt shook his head, "I'm going to take it out later and visit a list of people that Shacklebolt gave me. He said if no one on that list can identify what is was and what it does, then no one probably would."

"Why not just put the mask on and see how it works?" Xavier asked looking at the bag in Victoire's hands.

"Could have an undetectable curse on it. If none of the people on the list can identify it then our next step will be working with it to see if we can find out what it does," Kurt explained.

Teddy looked back to Victoire, "Identified it yet?"

She nodded, "I'm positive that it's the one that ended up on the floor last night after Lassoder tackled me."

Teddy nodded, he knew that it was but they needed to have a positive identification anyway, "And are you sure that it's the one you saw in the control rooms when you were in the tunnels under the third task?"

"Pretty sure."

"Look at it some more. We need that to be a one-hundred percent sure," Kurt told her.

Victoire sighed but did as she was told.

"So what were you doing before we came in?" Teddy asked Kurt noting that there was a magnifying glass on the table near his elbow.

"Oh, I was just going over evidence again. Trying to see if there was something that was missed the first time," Kurt said picking up a bag that had a white piece of paper in it and handing it over to Teddy.

It only took Teddy a glance to recognize it, "It this the one non-encoded note they found in the tunnels?"

Kurt nodded.

"You mean the one they think Professor Cooke wrote to Auror Donaldson?" Xavier asked leaning a bit around Victoire so he could see the paper.

Kurt gave Xavier an odd look, "Do I even want to know how you know so much about the investigation?"

Xavier winked at him, "Victoire talks in her sleep."

Victoire, only hearing the later end of their conversation, slapped Xavier on the arm, "I do not talk in my sleep! Right Teddy?"

Teddy's cheeks went a little red, "Umm, I don't think that I want to be on record as knowing the answer to that question."

Xavier snickered and Victoire set down the bag with the mask so that she could deliver another set of slaps to both of their arms, "Gits. I do not talk in my sleep."

Kurt chuckled a little as he held his hand out for the mask, "All done there?"

"Yes that's definitely the mask from the tunnels too," Victoire told him a little distractedly.

"Good. Now we need to find out how it works. Then we'll have concrete proof that Lassoder was using it to change his appear –don't touch that!" Kurt called, slapping Victoire's hand away –again- from the bags of evidence on the table.

Victoire rubbed the hand he hit, "I just wanted a closer look. What's in that big bag?"

Kurt sighed but removed the big clear bag in question out from under the bottom of the pile and placed it in front of Victoire to see. It was filled with a dark scarlet fabric.

"Are those auror robes?" Victoire asked moving the bag closer to her and picking it up to get a better look at them.

"Yeah, those are the ones found in the tunnels with Jilly's name on them. Hello exhibit A," Kurt said sadly. He, along with Teddy and Victoire, didn't believe that she and Professor Cooke were involved in the kidnapping like they were being blamed for.

"These can't be Jilly's," Victoire said turning the bag around in her hands.

Teddy and Xavier gave her a look while Kurt frowned and reached for the bag, "Yes they are. Riiiight there. Her name's on the tag where they put the washing instructions."

Victoire looked at the tag where he was pointing, "No, they can't be hers. These say they're a size four. Jilly's more like a size eight."

All three men looked at her.

"What? She is. She's too tall and has too many curves to be a size four," Victoire stopped for a moment before her eyes widened, "Was there ever a time when Jilly was thinner than she is now?"

Teddy was the first to answer, "Yeah, she lost a lot of weight around a year ago. A lot of weight."

"Why?" Victoire asked, "Stress of auror training?"

Teddy shook his head, "No. Kurt and I were pretty sure that she had an eating disorder. It got to the point where we were going to confront her about it, but then she started to gain all the weight she'd lost back, and stayed around the size she is now."

"That kind of extreme weight loss doesn't usually just happen. There had to have been a trigger," Victoire argued.

"Lassoder," Kurt snarled.

"Excuse me?" Victoire said not understanding what he meant.

Kurt's fist tightened, "Jilly was dating Lassoder back when she went through her weight loss phase. Then all of a sudden they had a nasty break up, and she started to eat normally again. Took her half a year to put back all of the weight and muscle she'd lost, but she started to look much healthier after they broke up."

"Did she ever tell you why they broke up?" Xavier asked.

Kurt and Teddy both shook their heads, "No. We'd been trying to convince her to dump the prat since she started dating him though. We just figured she saw him for what he was and got fed up with him."

"Was he very controlling of her when they were dating? You know, controlled what she did, who she talked to . . . what she ate?" Victoire questioned.

Teddy's mouth popped open, "You don't think that he made her have an eating disorder, do you?"

Victoire shrugged, "Did he say, 'Hey you're getting really fat you should stop eating completely?' probably not. Did he slowly over-control what she ate and be manipulative until she ended up with an eating disorder? Happens more than you think. He could have affected her when her self-esteem was low, and therefore she figured the only way to lose weight would be to stop eating, and it could have psychologically developed into an eating disorder."

"The eating disorder might have been the catalyst between them. The Jilly before Lassoder was a lot like the one now. Thinks for herself and hates being told what to do. When she realized what she was doing just to please him, she might have snapped and that's why their breakup was so bad," Kurt reasoned.

Victoire looked back to the robes, "Would Lassoder have had access to her robes? When they were dating I mean."

Kurt gave Teddy a look before answering her question, "Well, yeah probably. I mean . . . they were _dating_."

Victoire's face went red, "That's not what I meant. What I meant was would it make sense to theorize that she could have left this pair of robes at his flat or whatever. And then after they had their bad break-up, she didn't even bother to ask for her stuff back that she might have left there. I mean if she went right back to gaining more weight and going back to her original size, she might have forgotten about a pair of the smaller sized robes she left at his place. Or she might have even repressed it, trying to keep thoughts of her time with him out of her mind?"

Teddy nodded, "That would make sense, I mean it throws doubt into there right? And we know for sure that Lassoder's involved, so he might have found her robes a while back and decided to use them to frame her."

Kurt nodded with the new theory.

"But we still have this note. And the wording 'To J. Love Prof C.' is pretty good evidence," Teddy said picking up the note again and scanning it.

"Yeah," Xavier jumped in, "And it's not like there's even another professor in the castle whose last name starts with a 'C'."

"Hmm," Teddy muttered looking at the note with his eyebrows drawn together, "Professor Cooke has kinda girly writing."

"Pfft. No he doesn't," Xavier argued while Victoire laughed, "His writing looks like chicken scratch."

Teddy gave the two a peculiar look before sliding the note closer to them so that they could see it.

"That does _not_ look like chicken scratch."

Victoire and Xavier shared a gaze, "That's not Professor Cooke's writing. He'd never be able to pull off something that legible."

Teddy looked back at the note, then at Kurt, "Didn't they compare this notes with other writings from his office? To compare hand writing?"

Kurt nodded, "Yeah. MLE said that all they could find though were hastily written notes on tests, and lesson plans just for him to read. They figured that he wrote them quickly and that's why it was messy. Thought that his writing would be neater when he'd go to write the note to his girlfriend."

Victoire shook her head, "It's hard to believe, but his writing has always been difficult to decipher. Even told the class at the beginning of the year that he failed a penmanship class at his muggle primary school."

"And his writing is always messy? Even when he writes things on the board?" Kurt asked the two.

Xavier nodded, "Yup. Even when he tries to make his writing more legible, it usually takes a bit of time for people to get used to his style of writing."

"So you're saying he couldn't have written this?" Teddy asked. He gave the note to Victoire so she could inspect it closer.

"Fairly certain," Xavier told them.

"Hmm, that's odd," Victoire mumbled.

"You're telling me. It says 'Love Prof C.' but you're saying that Cooke couldn't have written it," Kurt said.

Victoire shook her head while she studied the note, "No, not that. Here. In the note the writer wrote the word 'optimist' but they spelt it 'optimiste' 'o-p-t-i-m-i-s-t-e'."

"So they spelt it wrong?" Kurt asked.

"No," Victoire said, "They spelt it the French way."

Kurt gave her a look of disbelief. She hurriedly explained, "Optimist isn't actually that hard of a word to spell when you sound it out. Especially for a '_professor_'. I think this was accidentally written the French way."

"So you're saying that whoever wrote it, accidently wrote the word in French?" Xavier asked.

Victoire nodded, "Happens more than you think to people who are fluent in both. When words are spelt very similar to others, a lot of the time the person will revert to their native tongue to spell it and not realize. When I write in French, sometimes I accidentally use English words that are spelt similarly."

"So now you're saying that Professor Cooke in fluent in French and that it's probably his native tongue?" Kurt asked sceptically.

"No," Victoire groaned, "I'm saying that it doesn't make sense that Professor Cooke wrote it, because he doesn't know French."

"Well then who do you think wrote it? Professor Cooke's the only professor here whose name starts with a 'C'," Kurt argued.

"If we're arguing that Professor Cooke didn't write it, then can't we also argue that it's not directed to Jilly since we think she's innocent?" Xavier asked.

Teddy nodded, "Yes, but there's tons of names that it could be to if not Jilly. To 'J', to Jilly from 'Prof C.', Professor Cooke, just made the most sense. But if we're arguing that it's not Cooke it could be any name; to Julie, to Jackie, to Jennie, to Janet-"

"And if we're arguing that it's not by Professor Cooke, the note could even have been written _to_ a male. Teddy did say that the writing looked slightly feminine. To James, to Jeremy, to John, etcetera," Xavier said.

"Oh my Merlin!" Victoire yelled excitedly, "That's it Xavier!"

"What's it?" the male in question asked as the two aurors stared in confusion at Victoire.

"You said to John. When Lassoder was in the caves with me during the second task –when he had the mask on- I asked him how I should refer to him since he knew my name and I didn't know his. He told me that I could just call him 'John'. At first, I thought he was just being an arse and trying to aggravate me, but what if he was serious. What if his name actually is John?" Victoire enquired excitedly.

"So you think his name is actually John Lassoder?' Xavier asked confused.

Kurt broke in, "There is actually no 'Auror Lassoder' at all. He doesn't exist. MLE looked into his file as soon as he was brought in. There was a record of all of his work as an auror in training, but nothing before that. Not even a mention of seventh year school marks or anything else needed to get into the Auror program to start with."

"But he couldn't have just shown up with an acceptance letter from the Auror Department and just get in. They would have had to double check his N. E. W. T. marks," Victoire debated.

"They figured that he just plagiarised them," Kurt explained.

"How is that even possible?" Xavier asked.

"Very possible, and then very hard. To plagiarise marks from Hogwarts is difficult because both your student number and your name would show up on the Auror records. But not all schools do it that way. I know Beauxbatons doesn't. If someone went there and then applied to the Ministry's Auror Department, you send in your own file with your name and student number, not the school. Beauxbatons marks are only categorized by the student number, not by the name of the student," Victoire clarified.

"How do you know that?" Kurt asked her.

"Mum went there and I almost went there myself. I know how things work there almost as well as how things work here."

"So Lassoder could have just handed in his own application with his name, someone else's marks from Beauxbatons if he knew their student number, and then he could get accepted into it with a made up identity?" Xavier asked.

"Yes, that's what MLE thinks he did anyway. And before you ask Victoire, they already checked and whoever's student number he used to get marks had been wiped clean from the records, so they can't even check there," Kurt said.

Teddy frowned, "The student number had been erased?"

"Yes, they figured he did it to cover his tracks," Kurt expounded.

"But why bother? He'd have been stupid to sneak into the record room and clear his papers. There would have been a good chance of him being caught to start with. It would have been safer to just leave the original number on. The only time they would look would have been in a situation like this, where they would have found him guilty of something. By then it would be too late. Not having a number reference for exam scores there would have been just as suspicious as having someone else's reference number there," Teddy mused.

"Unless he cleared it because he didn't want people to know whose number he used," Victoire said.

Teddy nodded at Victoire quickly; he could see where she was going with her train of thought, "He used his real number from school. He went to Beauxbatons under his real name, and then applied to the Auror Department under a different name, but used the reference number for his real exams scores so that he could get in. Once he was in, he decided to wipe his record clean of the number in case he was ever investigated."

"You think Lassoder went to Beauxbatons?" Kurt asked a little startled.

"It would make sense," Victoire agreed, "He spoke to me, on different occasions, in perfect French. And earlier in the year, Teddy and I already deduced the man from the caves didn't go to Hogwarts because of the way he referenced some things when he spoke to me. It would make sense that he went to Beauxbatons."

"But he told you his name was 'John', that's not a French name," Kurt reasoned.

"No, but '_Jean_' is a French name," she said.

"But I thought we said that the letter was written to a 'J', if we're assuming that that 'J' is 'John' or 'Jean', A.K.A. Lassoder, how does that explain the person who was writing the note? We said that their first language had to have been French first because of the spelling mistake Vic just found," Xavier said.

"Yeah and there are still no other Professors 'C' in the castle," Kurt reminded them.

Victoire's eyes widened, "No. There isn't another Professor 'C', but there is a Professeure 'C'."

"Huh?" Kurt said, obviously not understanding the difference in Victoire's French.

"I can't believe I didn't see it earlier. Gosh, we're all such stupid Anglophones! Professeure La Croix could be 'Prof. C.'," Victoire explained excitedly.

"Wouldn't her initials be Professor L. C.?" Kurt asked.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "No. Her last name translated would be 'the Cross', but she wouldn't sign her initials as that. It's just the way the name developed. It's like how Samuel de Champlain's initials wouldn't be S. D. C., it would just be S. de C. or just S. C. for simplicities sake. The 'La' in Proffesseure La Croix's name could be dropped when she wrote her initials."

"Who's Samuel de Champlain?" Kurt asked distracted.

Victoire raised an eyebrow, "French explorer muggles learn about, not important. The important thing is that this note could have been written by Professeure La Croix!"

"Vic," Teddy cautioned, "We can't just go about accusing people with last names that start with 'C'."

"No, but we have more evidence than that. Think about everything we just figured out. One, the writing it too neat to be Cooke's, and you even said it looked kinda girly. Two, there's reason to believe that the person who wrote it is fluent in English _and_ French, and that French would be her first language because of the spelling error. Third, if this note _is_ written to Lassoder, which it could be because we know that he's definitely involved, then she could be writing to him because she knows him. They're around the same age so they both would have been at Beauxbatons at the same time," Victoire theorized.

"That's if Lassoder is actually French and attended Beauxbatons, and that's if Professor Cooke didn't actually write this to Jilly," Kurt reminded her.

"The only reason Jilly is thought to be involved is because they knew there was a leak in the Auror department, because of her robes, and because of this note to her from Professor Cooke. We now know that Lassoder was a leak –maybe the only leak. We also know that he could have had access to those old robes of Jilly's, and if Jilly isn't the 'J' in the letter, than she'd probably not involved. If Jilly's not 'J', then Professor Cooke probably didn't write it. Which makes sense because that's not his writing. The reason why MLE likes to blame him is because he knew about the change in date for the Tournament and because his movements in and out of the castle weren't being monitored, so he could have slipped away to pass of the information to someone else. Professeure La Croix knew about the changes in the tournament too because she was Noëlle's mentor. And because she's a professor, like Cooke, her coming and goings also wouldn't be monitored," Victoire said.

Teddy was quiet for a minute, "That could work."

Kurt and Xavier looked at him, both a little unsure.

He spoke again, "I'm not saying that it's definitely her, but we have enough evidence against her right now as we did against Professor Cooke. Definitely enough to ask her some questions in an interview room. Not to mention what we pieced together about Jilly could be enough to get her cleared if Cooke gets cleared."

"So we can bring this to Kingsley?" Victoire asked suddenly very excited.

Teddy nodded, "It's definitely worth looking into deeper."

* * *

Harry was standing on the outside of the two-way mirror charmed wall. There were a few other people in the room with him, a mixture of aurors and MLE, but his main focus was what was going on in the interrogation room on the other side of the wall. Kingsley was in there with Agent Alesci –working as a team, for what seemed like the first time in the investigation. They had their back facing the charmed wall, and were staring down Lassoder. He hadn't given them any new information since they'd brought him in. Not even after Victoire had given her statement, and given the case positive proof that the man in the room who looked so unlike the auror-in-training was in fact both the auror-in-training and the man who had been trying to kidnap Victoire for the better part of the year. Harry had assumed that once Lassoder had been formally charged he would at least ask to use his right to legal counsel, but he hadn't. All he did was sit in the interrogation room and alternate between smirking at his interviewers, or speaking in riddles that he only seemed to understand. The fact that MLE's investigation into 'Auror Lassoder's file' had brought up the shocking fact that there was no such man previous to almost two years ago, also wasn't helping their investigation.

Harry didn't know what the protocol would be to charge a person whom they don't even really know who he is. He doesn't even know if it would be possible to do.

"Merlin this would be easier if we knew his actual name," Ron muttered from beside Harry as 'Lassoder' evaded the line of questioning, yet again.

Harry nodded. Showing that he agreed with Ron's statement.

A few more minutes of fruitless questioning went on and Harry was really beginning to wonder if they'd be able to get any farther on the case, when the door to their little observation room creaked open. Harry and Ron turned to look at the door and were surprised to see Teddy poke his head in. His eyes brightened when he saw them.

"I need to speak with you."

"Is there something wrong with Victoire?" Harry asked as he and Ron left the room.

"No. I'm peachy-keen," Victoire said sarcastically, "Except for the fact that I'm not allowed to do magic."

Harry and Ron were a little taken aback to see Victoire, Xavier, and Auror Williamson with Teddy.

"What's going on?" Harry asked them.

"I've got proof that Jilly and Professor Cooke aren't involved with the kidnapping," Victoire said before Teddy could answer.

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, "Victoire, we've already told you that your theory about your patronus –while it does make sense- isn't enough to clear them."

"Good thing we've found more then," Victoire said crossing her arms over her chest and giving Teddy a look that said 'go-ahead-and-explain'.

Teddy muttered under his breath about her _finally_ allowing him to talk, before he launched into a condensed version of everything the group had puzzled together while they were in the evidence room.

To say that Ron and Harry were shocked when Teddy finished explaining would be an understatement. They were flabbergasted. Not just with what they had theorized about Jilly and Professor Cooke, but what they'd thought about Lassoder.

"And you think Professeure La Croix is involved in all of this . . . and that's she's the 'Prof C.' in the note?" Harry asked them seriously.

"Yes." Victoire said confidently the same time Teddy said, "Maybe."

Victoire shot him an irritated look and then explained to her uncles, "Teddy's not fully convinced because the suggestion came so far out of left field. But we have enough reason to at least bring her in to question her, right?"

Harry and Ron shared a considering look before the former spoke, "It wouldn't hurt to question her. I'm trying to figure out if we should talk it all out and explain it to Kingsley first, or if we should just do an initial interview to just in case she is totally innocent."

"Basic interview," Ron suggested, "If something interesting does come out we can always tell Kingsley and have him come over and watch the rest of the interview."

"If anything it will be doing something other than watching Shacklebolt and Agent Alesci getting nowhere with Lassoder," Kurt commented.

Harry nodded at Kurt's words before looking over at Victoire, "You should get back to the Hospital Wing."

"What!?," she exclaimed.

"If Professeure La Croix is involved with these kidnappings, we don't want her to be anywhere near you," Ron explained gently.

Victoire looked like she was going to argue, but then thought better of it. She would never admit it to any of them (particularly Teddy), but she was starting to feel the physical side effects that came with being magically drained.

"Fine."

The five men around her gave her incredulous stares –surprised that she had agreed so easily.

"But," Victoire continued, "I think Teddy should stay and help with the interview."

Teddy opened his mouth to argue; he didn't want Victoire to be without protection, when she interrupted him.

"Xavier will be with me, and classes let out in fifteen minutes anyway, so I'm bound to have tons of visitors soon. I'll be well looked after. They're going to need you here, since you were one of the ones who came up with this theory, you know the most about everything we talked through."

Teddy looked like he wanted to complain, but acquiesced to her logic since she wasn't complaining about being put back on bed rest.

"Alright," Harry said authoritatively, "Xavier, you take Victoire back to the wing. Teddy, you go to interview room number three and set up the recording stuff. Ron and I'll go and get Professeure La Croix."

* * *

**A/N:** Alrighty then, sorry to cut it there, but the chapter was getting long, and the next one is also going to be long, also . . .

**OH MY GODRIC WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THESE TURN IN EVENTS AND VICTOIRE AND TEDDY'S THEORIES?!**

**A few things:**

1.) I mentioned Jilly having had a possible eating disorder. I don't want to get into a big talk about the physiology, biology, or psychology of such disorders, so I'm just going to say that I'm not trying to make fun of or insult anyone who has had any type of eating disorder. Nor am I trying to glamorize it or anything. Eating disorders can be serious health issues, and I only mentioned it because it's a part of life for some people that they have to endure and overcome. Teddy and Kurt assumed that Jilly had an eating disorder, but before they could intervene she fixed it herself. Sometimes that can happen, sometimes it can't. I just want to make it clear that I mean no disrespect to those who do suffer from eating disorders and that this is all we're going to touch on them in this story. Okay, end of explanation.

2.) I know there's probably going to be some people commenting on how thin my reasoning for Victoire picking up clues in the notes are. But I live in a bilingual country, and attend a bilingual university. I see first hand how some of my profs who teach in both English and French may mistake a word or two or forget the right translation when they're talking about something else. It happens, so I believe that it could be very likely that not only did whoever write the note accidentally use French words, but that_ if it was_ Professeure La Croix, that she could shorten her name to just Prof. C. For those of you who don't, you're entitled to your own opinion, but however, as the author of this story, this is my opinion.

3.) Samuel de Champlain, for those of you who don't know who he is, was the explorer who founded New France (Quebec in Canada), and more specifically Quebec City. I just needed to use his name as an example, but I thought I'd give you a brief description of who he was.

**Next Chapter:** Teddy and Harry interview Professeure La Croix, and you may or may not find out who is behind pretty much everything . . . *cue evil laugh*

Thanks again to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed. Also, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY 100th CHAPTER?

An especially BIG thanks to:

**MaddieMonkey, jeremiah123, Infinity Lily, The Cornish Pixies, A Frozen Shadow, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, Seher, IloveSpunk, owlcity2013, Forever Siriusly Sirius, brilliant incandescence, 13, pryce123, alicenotinwonderland, Encypher, Enticing Prodigy, eyechange, barefoot and buckwild, Oddliver, **and** Guest (1)**.

**Infinity Lily**: What do you think about these new theories?

**The Cornish Pixies**: This chapter may or may not have answered that question, I know, but next chapter definitely will.

**A Frozen Shadow**: How is this for my 100th Chapter?

**owlcity2013**: Gosh, that sounds like a fantastic idea ;)

**Forever Siriusly Sirius**: Keep these theories coming 'cause next chapter we'll find out the truth! Yeah, Colton is pretty much just a very reluctant frenemy. Also, I like how you keeping thinking from different angles on how Lassoder could have set up Jilly. Lastly, I've been thinking for a while (like almost two years) to write the one-shot on how Teddy and Vic get together, but I haven't had much luck writing one. I know what I want, but for some reason I get a bloke when I go to type it out. Hopefully I'll get past it so I can get it done before/just after I finish this fanfic.

**13 (Guest)**: Aw, thanks :)

**eyechange**: TAKE A DEEP BREATH I DON'T WANT ANYONE TO PASS OUT FROM A PANIC ATTACK! ;)

**Thanks again to everyone who read. I hope that you liked it.**

**Please review and tell me what you thought about my 100th Chapter.**

**Have a good week and DFTBA!**


	101. The Truth Comes Out

**A/N:** Hi everyone! Here's the next chapter where we finally get to find out who's behind all of this.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Harry Potter, he belongs to JKR, although, all of the plot for this chapter does come from my imaginative mind.

**Warning:** You are about to be hit with a truckload of information, so take your time reading, I'll go over some of the main points at the end, and feel free to ask me questions via reviews of PMs. :)

Enjoy!

* * *

**The Truth Comes Out**

"Now, your name is Élise La Croix, correct?" Harry asked the brunette woman who sat across the table from him and Teddy.

She nodded, looking extremely nervous. Whether that was a consequence of a guilty conscience, or the fact that she was currently being interviewed by two aurors seemingly out of the blue was another question. When Harry and Ron had first approached her, she was very confused but freely followed them to the interrogating room. She hadn't chosen to take some veritaserum –not that that would have explicitly proven her guilt- but she also hadn't chosen to take the option to talk to a lawyer.

"What subject do you teach at Beauxbatons Professeure?" Teddy asked easily enough.

"Charms," she answered quietly.

"For younger grades or older?" Harry asked knowing that Beauxbatons broke up some of their classes in such a fashion.

"Older, fifth through seventh years."

"Ah, and how old are you Professeure?" Harry asked.

"Twenty-three," she answered automatically.

"That's a rather young age to being teaching at such a world-renowned school. Especially the older half of the students," Harry mused.

She didn't answer.

"How long have you taught there?" Teddy asked her. They had read the answers to most of these questions from her file just before bringing her in, but they wanted to get a feel for how she was going to handle the interview.

"Two years," she answered curtly.

Harry nodded, "And you attended Beauxbatons yourself as a student?"

She nodded.

"Was your year a large one?" Harry asked conversationally.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"If I were to give you a few pictures of different students that you would have gone to school with, would you be able to identify them?" Harry asked her.

Professeure La Croix looked very surprised, "Perhaps."

"So, let's say I showed you _this_ picture, would you be able to identify that man for me?" Harry asked taking a picture out from the folder that was sitting in between him and Teddy. It was one they'd taken of Lassoder without his mask just after they'd caught him.

Professeure La Croix looked at the photo. Her eye's widened a little, not over abundantly, but enough that a trained eye –such as Harry and Teddy- could catch.

"No," she said avoiding making eye contact with either Harry or Teddy.

"Alright then," Teddy said cheerfully, "How about this one?" he shoved a photo of Lassoder from one of his Ministry I.D.'s towards the woman.

Her face quickly turned ashen. She swallowed thickly before she answered with a forced sense of nonchalance, "Isn't that one of your aurors that's been at the Castle for most of the year?"

"Yes," Harry replied, "Do you know his name?"

She shook her head rapidly.

"_This_, is Auror Richard Lassoder," Teddy said pointing to Lassoder's Ministry picture.

"And this guy," Harry said pointing to the red-haired 'Lassoder', "Well, we only have one name for him so far. This is Jean, isn't it?"

Professeure La Croix's eyes widened again, this time it was visibly recognized as dread.

She swallowed thickly again, "I-I don't know-"

"Are you sure you don't know his name?" Teddy asked, "Because you did write this to him."

He passed the clear bag with the note in it to her. He and Harry had discussed earlier that they were going to show her the note and say that they knew she wrote it, and see how she would react.

She stared at the note, "I didn't –I'm not-"

"So if we compared this note to some of the other writings you've done in English, we won't find the writing similar?" Harry asked innocently.

She stared opened mouthed at the note, "I thought that was written by one of the Hogwarts professors. By one of the ones you have in custody."

"That's what we thought too. But it has recently been pointed out to us, that the writer of the note wrote one of her English words in a French spelling. Such a little mistake and one very easy to miss when the whole of the note seems to be written in perfect English, but it is a mistake nonetheless. And one that would only happen to someone who was used to writing in both French and English. However, let's forget our proof for a minute, and rewind to what you just said. How did you know that we suspected that this note was written by a Hogwarts professor? That is not information that was shared with the public," Harry told her suspiciously.

She looked down at her hands, "I . . . I . . ."

"Did Auror Lassoder tell you that to calm you down and keep you from worrying about your part in all of this?" Teddy asked shrewdly, "Or was it Jean?"

"It had to be one of them," Harry jumped in, "Because we know they're the same person."

Professeure La Croix closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed heavily.

When she opened her eyes again, they seemed newly determined, "What do you want to know?"

Harry and Teddy shared a quick look before answering.

"We know this man's name," Teddy said pointing to Lassoder's ministry picture.

"But, what we would love is _this_ man's full name," Harry said pointing to the picture of the red-haired man.

"When we went to school together his name was Jean-Paul Boisvert, he usually just went by Jean. Now though, he only goes by J. P. Holmwood."

* * *

Harry and Teddy had excused themselves quickly and went to get Kingsley. The man in question looked startled when Harry had first poked his head into their investigation room, but he agreed to meet with Harry outside since he hadn't been getting anything more out of their interrogation with Lassoder.

"What is it Harry, Ted?" Kingsley asked quickly.

"We know his name," Harry said nodding his head in the direction of the interview room that Kingsley had just vacated.

"Tell me everything," Kingsley said, knowing that there was probably more to the story than that.

Teddy filled Kingsley in on the theory he, Victoire, Kurt, and Xavier had come up with, along with their reasoning for why Professor Cooke and Jilly aren't involved, and why Professeure La Croix is. Harry took over when they went to explain their interview, briefly summarizing everything they'd gotten out of Professeure La Croix, including Lassoder's two names.

"Do you have someone going to check both of the aliases?" Kingsley asked as soon as the two had finished talking.

"I sent Ron a message to get Auror Williamson on it. However, I think we need to contact those two American agents from the North American Multi-Cultural Organized Crime Investigation Division. They said that they're the authorities on the Holmwood family. I don't want them interviewing La Croix, but they could be there to watch the interview," Harry said.

Kingsley nodded, "I agree. I'm not happy about having so many cooks in our kitchen, but the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D. seem to be the only people with knowledge about the Holmwoods."

"Should we wait for them to come before we continue to talk to La Croix?" Teddy asked.

Kingsley hesitated for a minute, "She hasn't asked for legal counsel yet?"

Harry and Teddy both shook their heads, "If Lassoder is involved with the Holmwoods, and Professeure La Croix is about to spill everything she knows she should talk to a lawyer first. I'm not sure how dangerous the Holmwood family is, but the agents from the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D. seem to think that anything involving them is serious. She may want to have a lawyer so she can strike a deal."

"That could delay our investigation," Harry pointed out.

"Yes, but she's still allowed to have legal counsel, and after what she just told us, she might need it," Teddy said.

Kingsley nodded. The three men made a plan. Teddy would go back and ask Professeure La Croix about whether or not she wanted a chance to have legal counsel. Harry would try to contact the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D. agents, and Kingsley would repeat all of the information that he'd discovered to Agent Carver, since the Auror Department was still supposed to be working with MLE for the investigation.

Teddy had made a quick stop in the break room before returning swiftly to the room that held Professeure La Croix. The first thing Teddy did when he walked back into the room was to hand the woman the Styrofoam cup that he had stopped to fill with water. He remembered her hesitant swallows as she admitted to him and Harry what Lassoder's names were, and figured that she could use a drink.

She looked at the cup warily for a minute.

Teddy spoke, "I didn't put anything in it. I just thought that you could use a drink."

She seemed to believe him, whether it was because he seemed so trustworthy, or because she was willingly to cooperate to an extent where veritaserum wouldn't be needed, Teddy wasn't entirely sure.

As she took a drink Teddy spoke again, "We will be continuing our interview shortly, but I'm required to offer you the option one more time of whether you want legal counsel."

She took a few minutes to think. Teddy could practically hear the cogs whirring in her head as she weighed the pros and cons of the action. She finally nodded.

Teddy nodded back and collected the proper information from her before leaving the room again to put his actions in motion.

* * *

"Before we start, Mademoiselle La Croix would like to remind you of the danger she is putting herself in, to tell you everything she knows about this situation," Professeure La Croix's lawyer informed both Teddy and Harry about an hour later.

Their tasks had gone over relatively quickly and the two were back in the interview room ready to start questioning Professeure La Croix. In the room attached, watching the entire proceedings were Kingsley, Agent Carver, and Agents MacKenzie and Brown from the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D.

"We've noted that. The amount of good information Mademoiselle La Croix tells us will reflect the kind of charges she may or may not be implicated with," Harry told them dismissively.

"Now, your lawyer said that you would like to begin this discussion Professeure?" Harry asked, looking directly at her.

She took and deep breath and nodded, "I went to school with Jean-Paul Boisvert. We were in the same year, and we had had a handful of classes together over the years since we both took such a broad range of subjects. In our sixth year, we started to see each other. It wasn't love or anything close, but it was comfortable and convenient. While we were together, I learned things about him. He was an only child and his mother was a single-mother. He said that he knew his father but that he wasn't very involved in his life. During our seventh year when everyone was deciding what they were going to do after Beauxbatons, rumours started to spread. They only passed along our year and between students, but they were out there nonetheless. They said that Jean had connections to the American mafia family, the Holmwoods. There were rumours spread about how when he graduated he was going to join them and that when he would leave for brief periods through the school year he was off doing illegal work for them. He instantly became the most popular and most feared boy in our year."

"I had spent months hearing these rumours, so, one day close to our graduation, I asked him about them. He was hesitant to answer at first, but then he said that he trusted me. He told me that his real father was Eldon Holmwood, and that he was a fraternal cousin to the Holmwoods who were in charge of the North American mafia family. He had said that his father and his uncle had been the founders of their organized crime family. His uncle had passed down the reigns to the entire family empire –all of the legal and illegal business- to his four sons, since Eldon Holmwood had had no ligament children with his wife. When Jean's father Eldon died of a heart attack in 2001, his will had implored to his brother, Linden, to help Jean. He had listed him as a child he had fathered through an affair with another French woman. During our seventh year Jean was contacted by the other Holmwoods; his family. They didn't take him too seriously since he was an illegitimate child; they didn't consider him their 'real' cousin or a 'real' Holmwood. Jean went on and on about how since his father and Linden had founded the criminal organization he should have as much right to it and be in charge as his four cousins were. The fact that he was a lot younger than his four cousins didn't help. They ended up telling him that his blood connections were only half the battle that he needed to prove himself other ways."

She stopped for a minute to rub her temples, "Jean had always been an . . . intense type. He always felt the need to prove his worth. To his biological father that had wanted nothing to do with him when he was alive, to his peers at school, and now to his hotshot crime boss cousins. He said that he would do anything they needed him to. He was determined to fit in to what was left of his family. They told him that they had an idea. He had always had good grades, and they always needed moles in high up associations abroad, so they told him to apply to the Auror Program at the British Ministry of Magic. They said that he'd have to dig himself deep into the role, and be patient because they would need him, they just didn't know when. Jean wasn't too happy about the situation because it seemed like a brush off, but he said he'd do anything they wanted him to do, so he did it. He applied to the program with his real grades but under a fake name. When he got in he was determined to make it through and show his cousins that he was worthy of being in charge of important roles."

"He started to turn into a zealot. Always talking about what they were doing wrong in their legitimate companies in America and their illegal organizations. That if he was in charge he could run all of their many branches in multiple countries better than they could. He started to scare me. A maniac boyfriend who was part of a big mafia family wasn't what I had signed up for. All I wanted was a bit of fun, and a distraction before real life started. It took me weeks to figure out how to dump him without getting myself in trouble with him. Finally, I told him that since I was staying in France and he was going to Britain that we should split up because long-distance relationships never work. I told him to feel free to go out with other girls and that it was fun while it lasted. After graduation, he went to Britain, and I stayed in France and tried for the first time to get a teaching post at Beauxbatons."

"Did you lose initial contact with him after that?" Harry asked evenly.

Professeure La Croix nodded, "He contacted me in August of the past year. He said that he had heard that I had been teaching at Beauxbatons for the past few years, and that he was going to be in France for a little while and that he'd like to get together to catch up. I automatically knew that I shouldn't go, but I remembered who he was and what connections he had and decided that it was probably best not to anger him and to agree to meet up. I told him to meet me somewhere very public and he agreed. When the day came, I spent ten minutes trying to pick him out of the crowd of people at the café. All of a sudden, this man who I'd never seen before came up to me and started to hug me and talk to me like I was an old friend. My confused expression must have gotten to him, because then he put his hand up to his face and seemed to peel a mask off. When it was in his hands it was just a plain white full facial mask, so I assumed that it had to have some other magical component that made him look like a completely different person. I was shocked to find that Jean was behind the mask, he had explained that years ago when he started the Auror Training Program he thought it would be better to have a full time disguise. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, I wanted to leave. He sounded as fanatical as he had when I'd broken up with him, and it was obvious from his words that he was still deeply connected with his cousins' crime family."

"But you didn't leave?" Teddy asked her.

She shook her head, "I was scared of him, but I knew that leaving him all of a sudden would also be bad. All I could do was try to get through lunch without doing something to make him angry with me. As we had lunch, he explained to me that his cousins had finally given him an opportunity to show his skills. They had a mission for him that was very important, one that he said _I_ could help him with."

"What mission?" Harry asked.

"He told me that the Holmwoods had heard through their many sources about the Tri-Wizard Tournament coming back to Hogwarts for the school year. They had a way to turn the event into a very lucrative deal for them, with comparatively little work on their part. They were going to wait to hear who the champions for the task were, have all of their competing crime families and other people they had illegal ties with take bets on them, pick the one with the least likely chance themselves. Then have Jean fix the Tournament so that their champion would win, and then they could rake in the money, merchandise, and favours that people would have bet against them."

"Wait, so this entire thing is just all over a bet?" Harry asked incredulously.

"More than just a bet according to Jean. There are 4 billion galleons, hundreds of shipments of illegal products, and of course the Holmwood family name on the line. The Holmwoods were fairly certain that Auror Shacklebolt would make it so that his aurors would spend a large amount of time in the castle during the tasks. However, if that didn't end up happening they needed someone on the inside. And since I was a professor at Beauxbatons Jean wanted me to help. He wanted me to be their eyes and ears on the inside for the Tournament if he wasn't able to get in himself. I wasn't going to agree, but then . . ." she trailed off looking at her hands in her lap.

"Then what?" Harry asked her softly.

"I'd been having financial problems recently. I was paid well as a professor, but I had a gambling problem. I had a lot of money in debt and I wasn't sure how I was going to pay it off. Jean said that he would pay off my initial debt, as well as give me a large amount of money when the Tournament was over and successful. I didn't want to say yes, but all I could think about was the money. I reluctantly agreed when Jean said that he just wanted help fixing the Tournament, and that he didn't have plans to injure anybody or anything like that. I figured as far as illegal activities went, what he was asking me to help him with wasn't as awful as some of the things I'd heard the Holmwoods were involved with. I agreed and he said he'd contact me later when he had more information."

"But what about everything that has happened with the tasks? He told you that he wasn't going to hurt anybody, and then he did," Teddy reminded her.

Professure La Croix took a deep breath, "It didn't start out that way. At first, we were just waiting to hear who the champions were. After they were announced Jean had to wait for his cousins to contact him and tell him who they'd betted on to win. They told him that they ended up betting on Noëlle, and that their competitors were putting steep bets on Victoire Weasley and Konstantin Krum. The Holmwoods would have more to gain if Noëlle won because the people they were gambling with were all so sure that she wasn't going to win. We had our object, fix the Tournament so that Noëlle would win, and specifically so that Victoire Weasley would lose. I was confident in Noëlle doing well on her own, or at least similar to what Konstantin's performance would probably be. It was Victoire Weasley that we both knew we had to worry about. Madame Maxine had spoken to me about her, and had said that while she would like Beauxbatons to win; if it were to be someone else, she was sure it would be Victoire because she knew that she was an abundantly talented witch. Jean was also worried about Victoire. He'd heard about her amazing magical abilities and how Shacklebolt, Potter, and Weasley were apt to brag about how talented she was. We decided to wait and see how Noëlle did on her own, but agreed that Victoire was going to be her main competition. I was hesitant at what to do at first so I suggested to Jean that we try to scare her out of the tournament before it started. We sent her unsigned notes meant to intimidate her. However, when she hadn't forfeited the Tournament, or even contact Auror Shacklebolt –to Jean's knowledge- about the notes, we decided that we'd have to do something else."

"You were the people who wrote those anonymous notes to Victoire?" Harry asked her.

She nodded and Harry made a note to get the notes out of evidence and have her positively identify them.

She continued, "Jean found out the day of the task where all of the champions were going to travel. He made copies of each portkey and watched to see which one Victoire would end up with. When he found out, he went in and waited out near the dragon's nest, looking for an opportunity to thwart her if she came close to finishing with a better score than Noëlle. She was doing very well, so when Victoire was on the dragon's back, he summoned her wand to come to him. He figured that if she didn't have it, it would mess up her task. He performed the spell so it would look like it just fell out of her hand. When she didn't let losing her wand faze her, he decided that he needed to do more because she was about to finish the task, having performed better than Noëlle. He told me later that he only meant to weaken the charms on the dragon's nest so that it would be able to see her in its lair, but that he must have cast the spell to strong because the security wards to keep the dragon out started to deteriorate. When she ended up apparating away without her wand, we realized that it would take a lot more than just a few inconvenient spells to stop her. He left the wand where he had been and apparated back to the grounds, because he was supposed to be on patrol somewhere."

"So those spells breaking weren't just an accident, they were on purpose?" Harry asked.

"According to Jean, yes."

"Continue please."

"When we realized how much trouble Victoire was going to be for us, we tried to scare her away again before the next task would happen. We sent her a few more notes, but those didn't seem to affect her any more than before. Jean wanted to up the ante, if we couldn't get Victoire to back out of the Tournament herself, he thought maybe he could get Shacklebolt to pressure her to quit. He arranged for a Manticore to be brought to Hogwarts and released into the Forbidden Forest. He thought that word about it would get around, and that it would worry Shacklebolt and his overprotective nature would kick in. Jean figured that sooner or later the Manticore sighting and the notes would get to Victoire and that she'd tell Shacklebolt, and that he'd make her quit because he didn't want her to be targeted or to get hurt. The day it arrived Jean skipped his patrol so that he could see to its release. He told me later that he wiped the schedule clean so that the aurors didn't know that he was supposed to have been patrolling the grounds when he wasn't. What we didn't expect was that Victoire and her friend would stumble upon the Manticore the day it arrived in the forest. Really, it wasn't supposed to hurt her, just scare her with its rumours."

"So you're saying that Jean and his connections to the Holmwoods are responsible for the Manticore being set loose on the Forbidden forest?" Teddy asked her.

She nodded, "When she was attacked by it was when I started to notice a change in Jean. He wasn't sorry about it. He didn't feel bad that she almost died; and that started to scare me. We hoped that the attack would convince her to quit the tournament, but it didn't and none of her family forced her to quit either. We tried to think of what the next step could be. Jean was starting to get desperate because we were only a few months away to the second task, so I suggested that since she was already injured from the maticore attack, that maybe we could slip her a potion that would make her sicker. Nothing that would damage her permanently; just something that would take a while to recover from. Jean said he had the perfect idea for it. At the end of November, she went out with her friends to Hogsmeade. He and a few people involved in the Holmwood's organization followed her. He had been stationed to be on patrol around her, but he needed to call in sick because he didn't want to look suspicious of her getting sick on his watch. They all had disguises on and Jean said he was able to slip a potion into a drink that the bartender had made for her, on their request. He said that they saw her accept the drink, but that she mustn't have actually ended up drinking it because she didn't get sick."

Teddy blinked. He remembered Jilly complaining about having to take over Victoire's patrol that day because Lassoder had called in sick and that he and Professor Cooke ended up going with her to watch Victoire, causing Teddy to turn into an awkward third wheel on Jilly and Cooke's not-a-date-date.

"And after that?" Harry asked.

She shivered, "Jean got even crazier. He was determined that she wouldn't make it to the second task, so he came up with an elaborate plan to kidnap her on the night of the Yule Ball. He figured that he'd give her back eventually, but that he'd scare her enough that she'd back out of the Tournament. When he told me that plan, I knew I couldn't help him anymore. But I felt like I couldn't get out. Jean had cleared all my debts, so now I was indebted to him. Our partnership changed. I started to stray from being involved in the tournament besides telling him information about it because I was Noëlle's mentor. He could sense the change, so to prove to him that I was still on his side and working with him, we revisited our old physical relationship from back when we went to school together. As you know, he failed to both kidnap Victoire that first time and scare her away from the tournament."

"So you're saying he was responsible for trying to kidnap her the night of the Yule Ball?" Teddy asked her as he wrote down her specific words.

"Yes, he dressed up as another student, and used his mask to disguise himself as someone that Victoire was familiar with," she told them.

"What happened next?"

"The Holmwoods were getting antsy, Noëlle wasn't doing too well, and Victoire looked like she was going to win the second and most likely the third task. They had gotten Jean information from some of their other inside sources in your Ministry and they told him what the second task would be. He was determined that Victoire would fail so he made the elaborate kidnapping scheme. I didn't know about what he did until after he failed. I was very angry that he'd put the younger children through such an event that he did. He was certain that Victoire would volunteer to stay and take the other children's place, so he was confident in the way things were working out. That was until he learned that Auror Lupin had disguised himself to be Konstantin Krum and had gone back in to save Victoire. They got out, again, and she still failed to let it get to her and quit the tournament," Professure La Croix explained.

"For the third task he'd found out about what it would be, but he was still under the impression that it would be the original date. I was told with the champions that the date was too be earlier, and Jean was told later that day. He was under a magical oath that he couldn't tell anyone about it, so he begged me to go off the grounds that night and to meet up with some of the Holmwoods' people. I was to tell them about what we had found out, and to give them a written message from him. Through me, he instructed the men to create their set of tunnels under the task and to fix the actual tasks tunnels so that there were chances that Victoire could be caught in them. Once the control room was in place below the tunnels Jean spent the majority of his time there trying to work through the kinks in the plan so that he wouldn't fail that time. We started to exchange notes between each other because it was easier than trying to get chances to see each other in private. When his plan for the third task failed, he left one of the notes in the control room of the tunnel. The way we had been addressing them would be enough to frame others for the kidnapping he had told me, along with the fact that he was going to leave a pair of another aurors robes in the room to frame her. He said that they were a pair from an old girlfriend that had forgotten about them, and that they'd make her a perfect scapegoat. He sounded very bitter to me, but I was just glad that the venom in his voice hadn't been directed at me."

"Have you spoken with him since the failure of the Third Task?" Harry questioned.

"Only a bit. He told me that they'd started to blame whom he hoped they would and that we would be in the clear. I tried to distance myself more and more from him because he was starting to scare me more than before. He was angry that Auror Lupin kept showing him up and saving Victoire from his kidnapping attempts, and that she had saved him from being blamed by MLE. He was also furious that Victoire kept escaping him. He no longer worried about just kidnapping her and delivering her safely. He was willing to do anything to get her to be out of the tournament. When he started to sound completely mental I really started to worry for the girl's safety."

"But you didn't do anything about it, did you?" Harry asked her.

"I was going to . . . I'm sitting here now-"

"Because he did try to kidnap her again," Harry told her. She obviously hadn't heard about it since they were keeping it hush-hush, and Lassoder obviously hadn't told her of his intent before it happened. Victoire's explanation of the event was making more sense. Lassoder hadn't set out last night to kidnap her, he ended up attacking her because she was going to give Kingsley proof that Jilly and Cooke weren't involved. His scapegoats were going to be set free and he couldn't let that happen.

Professeure La Croix didn't seem entirely surprised, "I figured something must have happened . . . is she alright?"

"He broke her wand and she used up all of her magical energy trying to get away from him. If another student hadn't happened along things would have ended up _much_ worse," Harry told her.

She nodded, as if she understood what Lassoder had almost done to Victoire. Heck, she knew the man better than they did; she could probably guess correctly, what he was going to do with her.

"I take it you have him in custody now?" she asked Harry.

"Yes."

"And he hasn't said a word, has he?"

"No. But he doesn't need to now. You've given us everything we need, for now," Harry said, he and Teddy standing up.

"I really am sorry," Professeure La Croix, said looking at them both, but specifically at Teddy, "I didn't want Victoire to get hurt, I didn't mean for her to get hurt . . . you will tell her that. Won't you?"

Teddy shared a look with Harry before speaking honestly to her, "Maybe."

* * *

As soon as they had finished interviewing Professeure La Croix, Harry, and Teddy spoke with Kingsley, Agent Carver, and Agents MacKenzie and Brown from the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D.

Kingsley, Agents Carver, and MacKenzie and Brown were going to work on the paper work required to press charges against Lassoder, while also trying to find concrete proof of his guiltiness with the aid of Professeure La Croix and different letters to and from each other that she said she still had. Harry and Auror McKenny were going to go back in and interrogate Lassoder himself and see if they could get him to talk and admit to some of the things Professeure La Croix had said. And Teddy was charged with the task of going up to the Hospital Wing and informing Victoire of everything they had just found out. It wasn't standard practice to tell victims everything in the case, but Kingsley knew that if he didn't give Victoire the information soon, she'd come back down and get it herself, one way, or another.

The trip up to the Hospital Wing was quick, and once Teddy entered it he could see Victoire –thankfully still in her bed- and surrounded by all of her friends, and siblings. As he got closer to the bed, he called out.

"Okay, if you're younger than seventeen, you gotta leave for a bit."

Dom, Louis, Cecilia, Freddie, James, and Molly all complained, while Al, Rose, Lucy, and Baxter easily agreed and forced the others out.

Kyle got up from his spot on Victoire's bed and let Teddy sit there instead so he could be closer to her.

"So what happened?" Victoire asked interestedly, "You've been gone a long time. Were you able to get anything out of Professeure La Croix?"

Teddy reached out gently and cupped Victoire's cheeks, "I'm so glad that you're safe right now."

Victoire gave him a confused look, "What's going on?"

"Well, first, you're a genius," Teddy told her as he kissed the tip of her nose, "We wouldn't have gotten any farther if you hadn't suggested La Croix."

"What's number two?" she asked him not liking that he was stalling.

"Sandra's a genius."

Sandra smiled brightly at hearing the words, "Hell yes I am! But what particularly are you talking about this time Teddy?"

"You Miss Collins are a genius for uncovering the Holmwoods," Teddy told her with a smile.

"What about them?" Sandra asked excitedly. She loved to help.

At her question, Teddy went on to explain everything they'd learned from Professor La Croix.

Victoire and her friends were speechless for a few minutes after Teddy finished his recital.

". . . So . . . you're saying that I've almost been killed and kidnapped because the Holmwood mafia family decided that it'd be fun to bet against the outcome of the Tournament with other crime families and incredibly rich and twisted people?" Victoire asked unbelievingly.

"That's the gist of it, yes," Teddy told her as he threw his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tight to him.

She blew out a long string of French swear words, but then she seemed to calm down.

"So the reason why the Holmwoods fell off the map was because they started an organized crime family and didn't want to be tracked?" Sandra asked Teddy. She was very interested in that part of his explanation because she'd spent so much time trying to find them.

"Yes."

"Good thing my grandpa decided against doing business with them," Kyle commented dryly remembering what he'd learned about the Holmwoods from his dad.

"Yes, a very good thing," Ally replied.

"And I guess it's a good thing that Andromeda didn't end up marrying Eldon either," Xavier commented quietly.

Teddy hadn't thought of that angle yet, "I guess that new business he'd told Andromeda's father about was this new crime organization. He probably figured that it would bring in a lot of money and power and put him back on the potential suitors list."

"It also explains why he was so worried about Eldon and Linden going to Azkaban for attacking your grandfather. If there had been an auror investigation, they might have come across their new businesses and put an end to it. If they'd done that there probably would have been a lot of angry people with Andromeda's father for letting that happen," Victoire reasoned.

"And the only reason why he allowed Grandmum and Grandpa to be together was because Grandpa said that he wouldn't press charges against the Holmwoods. Her father was more afraid of what the Holmwoods' connections in organized crime would do to him than the ridicule they'd face by letting his daughter marry a muggle-born," Teddy finished.

"He must have been really scared of the Holmwoods' connections, because I didn't think there was anything Andromeda's father would have hated more than a muggle-born being connected to the ancient house of Black," Ally said.

Victoire's eyebrows scrunched up, "If they had connections back then, they'd have even more now."

"Yeah-"

"So what's Professeure La Croix going to do? Yes, she was involved, but she's given you more information than what she needed to. She'll be in danger when all of this goes to trial," Victoire said.

Teddy nodded his head softly, "MLE are going to work on that. See if she'll be able to get into protective custody. It all really depends on how much more information she knows about the Holmwoods, or how many of their men she can recognize and tie to the events that have happened this year."

"Has Lassoder talked yet?" Kyle asked Teddy.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea. I came here as soon as we were done with La Croix."

"If you want, you can go back down and be involved in the investigation. You don't have to stay up here with me," Victoire told him seriously.

He leaned in and kissed the top of her head, "I know."

When he didn't move Victoire turned closer into him and rested her head on his chest. He squeezed her tighter and whispered into her hair.

She placed her hand on his chest where his heart was, "I love you too."

* * *

**A/N:** Alright a few things:

1. I hope you liked it.

2. Summary in simplest terms: Lassoder is Jean Paul Boisevert, who's father was Eldon Holmwood. Jean (Lassoder) dated Professuere La Croix in school, they went their separate ways when Lassoder joined the Aurors in England as a mole for his cousins (The other Holwoods who are in charge of one of the world's largest organized crime families). Lassoder contacted La Croix when he learned that his cousins wanted to rig the upcoming Tri Wizard tournament so that they could collect millions of galleons of money and items, and La Croix wasn't able to say no. Lassoder is to blame for: the notes Victoire received, the force-field failing during the first task, the Manticore in the forest, he tried to give a poison to Victoire during Ally's birthday in Hogsmede but Chirs actually ended up drinking it and got sick, he tried to kidnap Victoire during the Yule Ball, he concocted the whole scheme with the second and third tasks, and tried to kidnap Victoire one last time, two chapters ago. He started out small just wanting to scare her, but when she kept escaping him he got more mental and in the end didn't care if he'd hurt her or not, which caused La Croix to start to back out of their deal.

3. I none of the chapter made any sense I apologize because I have a cold so it very well could be interfering with my common sense.

4. If you don't think that Lassoder seems mental enough to have done all of this without superior motives, just wait until next chapter when him and Teddy have a bit of a talk.

5. If you have any questions, or something about this chapter confused you, please let me know.

**Next Chapter:** Victoire gets discharged from the Hospital Wing and Teddy and Lassoder have a bit of a chat.

Thanks to everyone who had followed, favourited, read, and reviewed! A Please keep the feedback coming because I'm anxious about how this chapter reads to you!

A big thanks especially to:

**maxie210, Power Winter, jeremiah123, eyechange, The Cornish Pixies, zvc56, hogwartsandhorses244, TedandVic4ever, barefoot and buckwild, Guest(1), Seher Syed, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, harrypotternut94, MaddieMonkey, Break This Spell666, Infinity Lily, IloveSpunk, brilliant incandescence, Forever Siriusly Sirius, A Frozen Shadow, loveislife94, Enticing Prodigy, Emily Alice, Last Ride Of The Valkyries, owlcity2013, Oddliver, katerinaVD, Encypher, **and **MagicalNinjaUnicorn. **

**maxie210:** I figured that while the notes were left there by whoever was in the tunnels, if they wanted to purposely incriminate someone, they would have made it more obvious through the use of actual names when addressing the letters. If the note was totally fake, the person who planted it should have made it sound more incriminating and used Jilly and Professor Cooke's real names instead of just initials. And as this chapter says, it **was** a note between Lassoder (Jean) and La Croix, but Lassoder left it in the tunnels last minute because he thought it might incriminate Jilly and Cooke.

**Power Winter**: Thanks, I'm glad that my plot makes sense to others too. ;)

**eyechange**: You're welcome.

**The Cornish Pixies:** I'm glad, though I hope this new chapter didn't totally confuse you.

**zvc56:** Thank you, but as you can see, she is most definitely involved.

**hogwartsandhorses244:** More screaming this time? :)

**TedandVic4ever**: All twists making sense now?

** Seher Syed**: Thanks, and actually this fanfic should be done soon, and by soon I mean like I don't think it will go past 110 chapters.

**MaddieMonkey**: First theory about Harry and Teddy questioning La Croix; very close to what happened, she kinda denied it, but then incriminated herself a bit. Second, I would never just end the story with the case being solved and without talking about the personal aspects of the characters, but I'm not entirely sure how to go about writing a epilogue. They always seem so forced when I write one, so I try to stay away from them. I might just end up writing the last chap, and then claiming that it's the epilogue though, even though I don't plan on doing a huge time jump for it, because that would interfere with my not-totally-concrete-but-getting-there-plans for a sequel.

**Break This Spell666**: Yes, I have been planning this all along, details came as it happened though, but by the chapters about Christmas I knew exactly how I wanted it to play out.

**Infinity Lily:** Thanks, I'm glad you feel that way about the reality of the story. And thank-you, I did enjoy my reading week, among many things I got to do, I got to go with my cousin on his birthday to the opening night Ottawa Senators hockey game, sixth row from the ice, behind the net. It was absolutely awesome!

**IloveSpunk:** I have tons of sequel ideas, whether they get written down is another subject all together.

**brilliant incandescence**: Still considered awesome?

**Forever Siriusly Sirius:** Loved the theories from your last review, so I wonder how you think my theories played out? And no, Noelle wasn't involved in any of this. Gold star for the Jean Holmwood = Lassoder and is an illegitimate child of Eldon Holmwood theory. Totally spot on there!

**Enticing Prodigy**: Gold star for you for remembering that Lassoder couldn't have leaked the info about the last task because of Kingsley's unbreakable vow, but that Professor La Croix could have!

**Thanks again for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!**

**If anything in this chap was confusing feel free to ask and I'll hope to clear it up!**

**DFTBA everyone!**


	102. Taunts, Tasks, and Wands

**A/N:** Hey guys, I'm sorry I didn't update last week but school got really busy, and unfortunately November and December and just going to get busier for me.

Any who, here's the next chapter

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter.

* * *

**Taunts, Tasks, and Wands**

"Teddy, could I borrow you for a bit?" Kingsley asked as he poked his head into the Hospital Wing.

It had been a week since Lassoder's attack on Victoire and she was going to be discharged from the Hospital Wing that day. Surprisingly, she'd been a good patient for Madam Pomfrey; she had stayed in her bed and rested so that her magic could regenerate. It had been a week and she'd gotten stronger by the day. She was due to be discharged in little less than an hour's time, and she and Teddy had something to do as soon as that was accomplished.

Teddy gave her a questioning look, and she shrugged her shoulders and told him if he weren't back by the time she was discharged, she'd go find him. He wasn't exactly ecstatic with that idea, but he figured he could make it back in time before she was let loose. He nodded at Kingsley and followed the man through the Castle and to the rooms that MLE and the Auror Department were still using as they finished up their case. When they walked into the room, Teddy noted that half of the people in the room were just putting things away and empting the rooms because the investigations into Professeure La Croix, Jean Boisvert (A.K.A. J.P. Holmwood, or Auror Richard Lassoder), and the Holmwood crime family were being moved back to the Ministry of Magic. Kingsley was still leaving aurors at the castle until the end of the year just in case, but since there had been no threats from the Holmwood family over arresting Lassoder; he didn't think that there would be any more problems.

The Holmwood family were going to have more problems than the money and property they were going to lose because of their bet. With the information that La Croix had given them, the agents from the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D. had a brand new case against the Holmwood crime family, and they were going to take over investigating that part of the case. Kingsley happily relinquished control of that part of the investigation; he knew that the other agents had the contacts and the intimate knowledge of the family to do the best job with it. Besides, he had almost everything he needed to close his investigation about the Tri-Wizard Tournament. All he needed now was some sort of confession from Lassoder. He still hadn't spoken about his involvement, preferring to talk in riddles that didn't convict him, or just stay silent. Even when he was posed with convicting proof that he was involved, he still wouldn't talk. Kingsley didn't need him to talk; he had enough of a case against him now to prosecute, and most likely end up with Lassoder being found guilty. However, if Lassoder did admit his guilt, even just a little bit, it would make the whole process easier, less painful, and faster. Three things that Kingsley wished for on Victoire's behalf. The sooner everything was wrapped up, the less involved she'd have to get when the case went to trial.

And in a roundabout way, this was why Kingsley needed Teddy. They were about to transfer Lassoder to the Ministry when he finally spoke. He said that he wanted to talk to Auror Lupin and Auror Lupin only. Kingsley hoped that perhaps Teddy would be able to either wrangle or irritate some form of confession out of Lassoder.

Kingsley had told Teddy as much as they made their way to the room, and Teddy agreed to give it a shot. He knew that Kingsley and most likely Harry were going to be in the room connected to the interrogation room, listening to their meeting, so he felt confident in agreeing to see Lassoder.

When Teddy stepped into the room, Lassoder was looking dully at the two-way mirror charmed wall. The man heard his approach and turned to watch him. There was an uncomfortable silence before Teddy broke it.

"What do you want?"

Lassoder frowned haughtily, "That's nice Lupin. Don't even use my name, just straight into it huh?"

Teddy rolled his eyes, "My apologies, however, I'm at a loss as to what I should call you."

"J. P. Holmwood is my name as you already know Lupin," he smirked.

"No, I'm pretty sure that legally your last name's Boisvert," Teddy told him evenly.

Lassoder's hands clenched, "That is _not_ my last name."

Teddy watched the man warily; he seemed to have hit a nerve, "Looks like someone has identity issues."

"I do not have identity issues! I'm a Holmwood!" he yelled.

_Well, at least I'm getting a different reaction out of him than the others_, Teddy thought.

"Seems like you have daddy issues too," Teddy commented idly.

Lassoder growled, "I do not! _He_ was the only one who saw my worth. _He_ was the one who informed his brother of me and told them to give me a spot in their organization. One that I should rightfully have based on my bloodline."

"But they didn't, did they? They gave you some lame excuses about being too young, and then brushed you off with the suggestion to infiltrate the aurors. Then, they gave you a foolproof mission –fix the Tri-Wizard Tournament. And that was your chance. You saw that as your way in, your chance to prove yourself. To prove that you're just as good as they are. That you deserve to be higher up in their organization's order. Then what happened? You botched every attempt you made. You failed," Teddy said as he enunciated the last two words carefully.

"I did _not_ fail. _You_ made me fail!" Lassoder yelled at him, his eyes blazing, "You saved her from me time and time again; this is your entire fault! I'm a laughingstock to my cousins because of you. They won't even come to my defence; they're just letting me take all the blame. All because of you."

Teddy watched the man's anger increase with each word and finally saw what Professeure La Croix had said about him being a zealot and obsessed with his cousins' opinions.

"But you were already a laughingstock to them weren't you? You were never going to be good enough in their eyes. They were real Holmwoods and you were just a mistake that their uncle made. One that, because of his death, they were now responsible for. It didn't matter if you had succeeded or not, they wouldn't have given you more power and control; they would have just regulated you to another job that they figured you wouldn't be able to screw up. And you were right; I did stop you. I did help ruin your plans, but that's only because you tried to injure and kidnap innocent people. You may have been able to hide yourself in the aurors but you were never a real one, just like you're never going to be a real Holmwood," Teddy told him steadily.

Lassoder's mouth turned up into a dazzling smile that looked very insane from Teddy's point of view.

"How politically correct of you there Lupin. You only stopped me because I was trying to harm and kidnap innocent _people_. I think we can both drop the pretenses because we know that this all boils down to _one _person."

Teddy watched Lassoder carefully. He was acting way too calm all of a sudden.

"Victoire Weasley," Lassoder pretty much spat her name, "Has been more trouble than I ever thought she'd be. At first I thought that you, Potter and Shacklebolt had been exaggerating her talent, but no, she's just as good with a wand as you all claimed she was."

Teddy was waiting for it; he knew that Lassoder had some sort of 'punch line' planned.

He didn't disappoint. He gave Teddy a considering look before breaking into leer, "Do you know what else she's good at? Kissing."

Teddy easily quashed his first reaction –which would have been punching Lassoder in the face- to say with a mocking smile, "She even better when you're not forcing yourself on her."

Lassoder frowned. He hadn't gotten the reaction he'd wanted. Teddy had hit him where it hurt with the comments about the Holmwoods, so he had tried to irritate him by speaking about Victoire. But it hadn't worked.

"But where's the fun it that? You know, she was so good that I don't think I can stop with just one," Lassoder said forcefully. Challenging Teddy; trying to get him to lose his temper.

Teddy was tired of it, "Cut the crap Lassoder. This doesn't have anything to do with me, or even Victoire. You're just trying to bully me by talking about her because it makes _you_ feel better about your own sad life. But you know what? It doesn't actually make you feel better, does it? You still feel as useless and as disposable as you did before."

Lassoder snarled, "I was going to get away with it. I wasn't under any suspicion and Jilly and Cooke were going to take the blame but no, your slag of a girlfriend just had to have a stroke of genius and figure out a way to prove that they weren't involved. Then you and her had to go and figure out that Élise was involved."

Teddy ignored the dig at Victoire even though he really wanted to physically harm him, "Seems like it's not just my girlfriend that you hate. How'd it feel to find out _that_ your girlfriend sold you out?"

Lassoder laughed a more than slightly maniacal sound, "Why should I care about her? She was just a pawn in this game, and a means to an end before that. She was useful for a time but then she went soft. She didn't want anybody to get hurt. She actually felt guilty about everything that had happened to Victoire."

"And you didn't?" Teddy asked, interested in the answer for more than one reason.

"No, little bitch deserved what she got. If she had any sense of self-preservation, she would have quit when she got the notes we sent, but no. Not even a bloody manticore attack or attempted at kidnaping after another could convince her to quit. What else did I have to do? What would have made her quit?" Lassoder complained.

Teddy smiled a little. If he weren't mistaken Lassoder had just sorta admitted to being involved in the Manticore attack, and at least a few kidnappings.

He answered Lassoder's question, "She doesn't give up easily, especially if she'd being bullied. The more you tried to ruin her, the harder she fought against you. You lost because you underestimated her, and everyone else, you were too caught up in yourself and proving what you could do to realize that you were doomed to failure from the beginning. The minute you decided to mess with Victoire Weasley, was the minute that you decided your fate."

Teddy turned around, thoroughly finished with their conversation, and completely done with talking to Lassoder.

"She's still not safe you know. The more people in the Holmwoods' organization that you take down with this investigation, the bigger the target it's going to paint on your backs. Both yours and hers!" Lassoder called out to him.

"That's nice," Teddy told him before he closed the door to the interrogation room behind him.

In the hall in front of him was Victoire. She had a worried expression on her face as she looked at him.

"Neither Harry nor Kingsley would let me into the room even though I did my best begging look. What happened?" Victoire asked him.

Teddy was relieved. He didn't want Victoire to hear the horrible things Lassoder had said about her. If she had, she would walk right in there and introduce him to her left hook. He held his hand out for her and she took it quickly. He began to walk her out of the hall.

"Nothing. He just wanted one last chance to get under my skin before he is carted off to Azkaban."

"Did you let him?"

"'Course not, you're the only person I ever allow to get under my skin," Teddy told her with a cheeky smile.

Victoire bumped her hip into him as they walked, "Very funny Lupin."

"I thought it was."

* * *

"Aaaaachoo!" Victoire sneezed loudly as she stumbled out of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron.

Teddy had flooed ahead of her so he was there to help her out of the fireplace, and dust some of the soot off of her clothing.

"Bless you Dear," Hannah Longbottom said sweetly as she came out from behind the bar.

"Thanks Hannah," Victoire replied as she wiped the last of the soot off her right sleeve.

"You guys look like you're on a mission," Hannah said conversationally as she smiled warmly at both Teddy and Victoire.

Teddy just nodded while Victoire sighed, "Neville told you everything didn't he?"

"'Course he did Victoire, he's my husband he can't keep secrets from me," the elder woman said with a laugh.

Victoire rolled her eyes, but Hannah knowing what they were doing didn't really bother her. Neville had probably informed her that they were coming so that she could keep an eye on their comings and goings. It was still a school day; even though Victoire had been given, special permission to leave the school grounds with Teddy so that she could attend to her errand.

Teddy and Victoire waved goodbye to Hannah and told her that if they finished early they would be back for a cup of tea. They left the Leaky through the back exit and Teddy tapped his wand on the bricks in the wall to open up the entrance to Diagon Alley. The pair's first stop was at _Gringotts_. She had promised her parents that she would stop and see them before she ran her errand; she also needed to get some gold out of her vault to complete her purchase. Fleur didn't look like she was going to let go of Victoire once she'd swept her into a hug, but thankfully, a colleague of hers came around for help on a financial report, and Victoire and Teddy were able to sneak out with a quick wave to Bill while she was distracted.

When they excited _Gringotts_ Victoire's gaze drifted for a minute to the entrance to Knockturn Alley. They passed by it as they started their walk to the store Victoire needed to visit, but it reminded her of something she hadn't heard the conclusion of.

"Teddy, what ever happened to that mask of Lassoder's? Did you ever find out what exactly it was?" Victoire asked him as they strolled past the _Magical Menagerie_.

A frown automatically came across Teddy's face, "Yes, we found out what it was. Borgin of _Borgin and Burkes_ knew what it was even though he said he'd never had one himself to sell. He said it was a mask made of organic materials from certain magical creatures that was then charmed with a spell that allowed it to change into whatever face the wearer wanted it to be. All they had to do was think and they'd become it. He looked at it and said that it wasn't cursed, but the way it was made, made it seem inherently dark. He also said that it was probably at least a century old and that because of this a bit of wear and tear on it could cause it to act up. Like when you saw the face of Austin Pennington ripple when Lassoder wore it to attack you at the Yule Ball."

Part of Teddy's explanation felt off to her, "What's the mask made of? You said magical creatures, but what of them?"

Teddy spoke quickly, "Some of it is made from thestral skin. Because they can only be seen by people who have seen death, part of their body functions as a natural camouflage, whoever made the mask harvested some of their skin and was able to use it to make the mask. It would help change the appearance of a person."

Victoire still felt like Teddy was hiding something from her.

"What else is it made of? You didn't just say thestrals, you said creatures in plural."

He swallowed thickly and his face looked green. Not from his metamorphosing, but as if what he was about to say made him feel nauseous, "It's made mostly from metamorphmagus skin and bone marrow. Their magical properties ended up extending to the mask when a certain spell was used on it."

Victoire felt bile rise up in her throat, "Metamorphmagus skin, and bone marrow? But, how would they have collected that, there's not that many of them out there even back when it was made. It would be difficult-"

Victoire stopped herself.

"Oh."

Whoever had made the mask had killed a metamorphmagus and used their skin and bone marrow to make it. Depending on how many masks were made, it could have been more than one metamorphmagus.

"I think I'm going to vomit," Victoire said suddenly stopping their walk.

Teddy, who had already had the chance to react to the news –pretty much the same way Victoire was- coached her to sit down and put her head between her knees. Once she'd done so, along with taking a few calming breaths, she stood up and continued their task.

"So, what are they going to do with the mask?" Victoire asked.

Teddy shrugged his shoulders, "It's going to stay in evidence for now, but it's not going to be quarantined forever. It's not a dark object . . . just a revolting one. And they can't trace back to where Lassoder found it either, not that it really matters, as I said, it's not illegal to own one, just repulsive."

His words made her think of something, "Wait, that mask is essentially made of dead people?"

He gave her an odd look but nodded.

"And Lassoder had it on all the time when he was in Britain. Even when he was dating Jilly?" she asked.

"He must have, or she would have known that he wasn't actually who he said he was."

"So, he would have been wearing it when they kissed and stuff?" Victoire asked feeling the bile rise up again.

Teddy nodded, "Jilly _did _actually vomit when she'd heard that one herself."

With Professeure La Croix and Lassoder being formally charged with all of the incidents that year, Jilly and Professor Cooke had been let off the hook. Jilly had to do a few additional interviews because she had been in a relationship with Lassoder a year ago, but when they had discovered that she didn't know anything new, she was free to go. Kingsley gave her back her old post at Hogwarts until summer break. And Professor Cooke was cleared to go back to teaching his History of Magic class, which was a really good thing because O.W.L.s and N. E. W. T.s were coming up in three short weeks.

Teddy and Victoire stopped walking when they got to _Ollivander's_. He opened the door for her to walk through, a little bell above it tinkling when he did so, and again when he shut it behind them a few moments later.

Blair Ollivander came out from behind the counter when he heard the bell. He had been expecting them.

"All healed up now Miss Weasley?" Mr. Ollivander asked her as he gave her a smile.

When Victoire was on bed rest, her Uncle Percy had promised to talk to Mr. Ollivander about getting her a new wand. He had set up an appointment for a week after Victoire was supposed to be fully healed so that she could have all of his time and attention to help her find a new wand. She was still mourning her old one. She had kept it on the table beside her in the Hospital Wing, until Harry had come by and asked if he could take it because they needed it for evidence. Victoire agreed because it was just depressing her where it was, and because it was just another piece of evidence they could use against Lassoder.

"Yes," she answered him smiling brightly, "Madam Pomfrey said that all of my magic should be back, and I can confirm it because I'm able to do a few wandless things without feeling like I'm going to faint."

Mr. Ollivander nodded, "Very good, now let's find you a new wand."

He turned so that he could go back behind the counter, and Victoire and Teddy walked up to it and watched him searching through one of the tall shelves behind him.

"Hmmm, ah! Here it is," Mr. Ollivander cried triumphantly as he handed Victoire an open case. She vaguely recognized the stylish wand that was resting on the velvet within it.

Mr. Ollivander described it as she picked it up gently, "That's the wand with the crushed faerie wing core that you almost bought when you were eleven. I thought for our first try we could go back to it and see if it will work like it did back then."

Victoire nodded and waved the wand lightly, trying to conjure a streak of light. Instead, a verifiable torrent of purple coloured fire shot out of its end. The intensity of the flame caused Victoire to drop the wand. As soon as it was out of her hand, it stopped.

Teddy bent to pick it back up, but frowned when he looked closer at it, "Vic, you just burnt the end off of it."

Victoire looked closer at the tip of the wand and gasped. The wood that should have been there had been scorched away, and when Teddy moved it, a bit of the crushed faerie wing core started to sprinkle out.

"Sorry," Victoire told Mr. Ollivander as Teddy carefully handed it back to him.

He just shrugged it off, "No problem, this is something that _can_ be fixed. And, now we know that you're going to need a wand with a stronger wood, and more durable core. Not very surprising though, your magic has obviously grown since you were eleven, all right. Let's try this next one."

And the next forty-five minutes went in very much the same fashion. Victoire tried wand after wand only to find something unsatisfactory with each. A few were too bendy compared to her last wand and as such would throw her aim off when she went to shoot a spell. Others had designs carved into the wood that irritated her fingers, or messed up her grip when she went to hold them. Still others didn't feel proper in her hands because the majority were made for right-handed witches and wizards, and Victoire was in the minority that was left-handed. She'd even had a few wands that felt okay in her hand, only to have it be too weak to handle the high concentration of her magic. She'd hadn't blown the end out of one again, but she'd come close a few times. There were even a few that she picked up, waved around wildly, but still nothing would happen. In summary, she hadn't been able to find the right one, and was starting to feel like she wouldn't find one.

"Perhaps you're just trying too hard," Teddy had suggested near the end of her appointment, "The wand is supposed to choose you after all."

"Well if you're full of so much good advice, how about you just give me your wand to use?" Victoire snapped. The more it seemed like she was going to leave without a wand, the angrier she became.

Mr. Ollivander came back out front –he had been putting the last box they tried back into his back room- and unlike Victoire, he was still all smiles.

"Don't worry Victoire, just because we couldn't find you a wand today, doesn't mean we won't ever find you one. I'll just have to pen a note or two to some of my wandmaking colleagues. Your wand had such an odd mix of cores that I'm sure you just need something a little more unique. Not to mention the fact that your mother's wand has such a different core, and your father's has an odd make, I'm sure we just need something more exceptional for you. Perhaps a wand from a French wandmaker might suit you better this second time around."

Victoire's face fell, "I don't want a wand from somewhere else. Everyone but my Mum had a wand from Ollivander's, I want the same experience."

Mr. Ollivander patted her hand comfortingly, "I'll find something for you; it just might take a few more days."

Victoire wanted to complain, but she knew that that would be rude. She was just upset that she'd been magic-less for a week, and now when she could go back to using a wand, she couldn't find one that would work with her. She and Teddy thanked Mr. Ollivander before quietly exiting the store.

They forgo having tea with Hannah with an excuse of Victoire needing to get back to school, when in reality Teddy knew that Victoire didn't feel like being around people. Losing your wand felt like losing a bigger piece of you, like an arm or a leg and he knew that even though Victoire could still use wandless magic, that it wasn't any different for her.

They flooed back into Hogwarts via Professor McGonagall's fireplace, and the two were surprised to see so many people in her office when they got back.

Before Victoire could ask what was going on, McGonagall came up to her and Teddy, "Did you get a new wand?"

Victoire shook her head. Teddy decided to elaborate for her, "We didn't find anything there, but Mr. Ollivander said that he'd speak to some other wandmakers and see if he could get anything that he thinks will work."

Professor McGonagall nodded but had a surprisingly upset frown on her face.

"Well this makes things more difficult," Minister Flannery said from where he was in the office.

Victoire gave the Minister an odd look. He wasn't the only person in the room who seemed out of place at the moment. Both the headmaster and headmistress of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were there, along with Konstantin and Noëlle.

"This makes what more difficult?" she asked Flannery knowing that she wouldn't like to hear what he was about to say.

"Well, I was collecting everybody here so we could decide what we wanted to do to end the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but you not having a wand is going to make this difficult."

"Wat were you planeeng on doeeng for ze end of ze tournament?" Noëlle asked.

"I figured that we still need to have one more task to figure out who the winner is-"

Victoire interrupted the Minister with a groan, "Seriously? You want us to battle more dangerous creatures? Can't we just play a game of rock paper scissors and decide who wins based on that?"

"I second Victoire's suggestion," Konstantin said raising his hand.

Victoire giggled a little, while Flannery looked absolutely aghast, "No we cannot just play rock, paper, scissors, we need something that your guys can compete against in. Something that requires agility and strength and speed-"

"'Ow about an obstacle course?" Noëlle jumped in.

"What? No-" Flannery started to disagree but Victoire cut him off.

"Oh, good idea Noëlle! We could have to dodge things and jump around things, maybe carry something to one end."

"No, no, no," Minister Flannery complained, "This next task is going to be like the last ones. Luckily, we still have a theme we can use. Now, it will be air but I'm sure that the Department of Magical Games and Sports could come up with something to do with that . . ."

"Vhy don't ve just do an obstacle course vhile flying on brooms?" Konstantin asked.

Victoire smiled brightly, "Brilliant Konstantin. I vote for that."

"Me too," Noëlle agreed.

Minister Flannery looked appalled, "No we can't just do an obstacle course, how are going to judge that and award points to know who'll get the cup?"

"Why don't we just say forget everything else that has happened in the past tasks, and just whoever completes the course first wins?" Victoire asked tiredly.

"I am good weeth zat," Noëlle said while Konstantin nodded with them.

Flannery looked like he was going to protest again, but McGonagall broke in, "Well this isn't usually the way the Tournament is handled, but is all of the champions agree to it I don't see a problem with it. However, we will have to do this soon since exams are coming up in three weeks, so within the next week. Will that be okay Victoire?"

Victoire nodded even though she highly doubted that she'd have a wand by then.

Professor McGonagall nodded and promised that she would see to it that Flannery would follow through on their decision before allowing the champions to leave.

Teddy left with Victoire and they quietly walked back to Gryffindor Tower. When they were a corridor away from the painting of the Fat Lady Teddy grabbed Victoire's arm gently to stop her.

She turned to look at him, her face still set into the lines of a frown.

"I know you were just kidding before at _Ollivander's_, but Victoire, you know that I'll let you use my wand if you end up needing it. Right?" he asked her.

She smiled a little and wrapped her arms around him so that she could hug him, "I do. Thank you. But I think I can get away without one for the next few days at least. We'll be focusing on revising notes and such in class instead of practical, and in potions Kyle can have a turn using his wand instead of me doing everything."

Teddy knew she was trying to make light of her situation. He moved his hand so that he could lift her chin up so he could see her face, "But what about the new task?"

"I can fly a broom without a wand Teddy."

"You'll still need to do magic though."

"Then I'll do wandless."

He sighed and stroked her cheek gently, "Vic, I didn't offer you my wand because I felt like it would be the proper thing to do in that situation. I really will give you my wand when you need it."

Victoire frowned, "Teddy, I know what it feels like to be without a wand. I don't want to inconvenience you like that."

"Since when do you care about inconveniencing me?" Teddy smirked, "But really, Victoire there is no one I would else I would ever share my wand with but you. I know you'll take care of it."

"But what if I don't? What if something happens when I use it?" she asked worriedly.

"What happens, happens, I know you'll never do something to it on purpose."

"How can you trust me with something like this? It's your _wand_," Victoire said as if saying the word would all of a sudden would remind him of its significance.

He gave her a sweet smile, "Victoire I've already trusted you with my heart, my wand is nothing compared to that."

Victoire swallowed thickly as she got lost in Teddy's sapphire eyes, "I promise to take very good care of it."

"Which one?" Teddy asked his lips a centimetre away from hers.

"Both," Victoire whispered before closing the distance between their mouths.

* * *

**A/N:** First, thank you everyone for waiting so patiently for this chapter to come out. Second, I apologize but the month of November is about to bring me a research essay, a term paper, and a biography due dates, along with two midterms, and somehow I get to fit a birthday in there. And then December starts, and so do final exams so my updating will be very sporadic over the next month and a half, but I promise that even if it takes a while I wouldn't leave you hanging indefinitely.

Alright, I hoped that you liked the chapter, it was a bit of a summarizing one in a sense, because we got to see a few loose ends tie up.

Thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed!

**Next Chapter:** Victoire's having trouble handling life without a wand, Sandra gets a little sassy, and I might have thrown in a little Teddy/Vic moment, and an Ally/Xavier moment.

Please review this chap, I'd like to hear your thoughts on Teddy and Lassoder's talk, Victoire's wand troubles, and the excitement over the next task :)

A BIG thanks to my reviewers from last chapter:

**Power Winter, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, jeremiah123, Guest (1), owlcity2013, hogwartsandhorses244, Seher Syed, Guest(2), barefoot and buckwild, The Regal Warrior, nabdo, MiraclesHappen94, sepoetry, MaddieMonkey, TedandVic4ever, zvc56, Oddliver, pryce123, IloveSpunk, Infinity Lily, sarahmichellegellarfan1, eyechange, cctjess, Enticing Prodigy, marthabear18, **and RoLouG.

**Power Winter:** Aw, thank you.

**hogwartsandhorses244:** Professeure La Croix will have to face some consequences, but because she gave up evidence and is cooperating she might not do 'traditional jail time'.

**Seher Syed**: No problem, I try to respond to all of the reviews that ask specific questions, or tell me something specific. And if I don't respond, I try to always acknowledge them :) And yeah, it's quickly coming to an end, but just because the story ends, doesn't mean that everything else will ;)

**Guest (2):** Totally understand your surprise, and yes, the closer connection to Teddy and Andromeda would have made an interesting twist, but I figured that the story lines were already elaborate enough without adding in the extra angst, although I did fiddle very seriously with the idea a one time, I figured people would be confused enough will all my different plot points. It still is a fabulous idea and motive though, although I hope that this chapter showed that Lassoder did have some rather strong feelings of hate towards Teddy either way.

**barefoot and buckwild**: My imagination is nothing if not extensive ;) I hope that you did enjoy their chat :)

**MaddieMonkey:** Good theory, you were kind of right :)

**Oddliver:** Thanks!

**pryce123:** Gee thanks, and that comment totally makes me feel like a magician.

**IloveSpunk**: Victoire, as you've seen above, is healed enough to use magic, but now she has another problem on her hands, and the next task is coming quickly.

**Infinity Lily**: Well, does Lassoder seem mental enough?

**sarahmichellegellarfan**1: Thanks, and I see that you've now caught up in the story. I must say, your dedication to write as many reviews as you did did not go unnoticed, I was just too busy to respond to each one by one. However, I will say that I did appreciate all of your reviews and feedback, as you read the story, and that that was some patience, especially with a story so large, thanks you again.

**eyechange**: As you now know, there will be one final task for the Tri-Wizard Tournament, which will occur in about three chapters time.

**cctjess**: They spell out N.A.M.C.O.C.I.D a couple of times in the past few chapters, but I'll tell yo here that it stands for the North American Multi-Cultural Organized Crime investigation Division. And yes, it's long and confusing because I just thought it'd be funny like that, and also satirical :P

**Enticing Prodigy:** Actually, the Auror Department is only going to far as to do the parts of the case they have, as Teddy explains above, the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D. will be investigating the Holwood family even further, because that's their area of expertise. And trust me, Kingsley is definitely okay with that.

**RoLouG:** Yeah, I knew from the start that I didn't want the Holmwood family angle to get to person too Vic, because it would just seem like too much, and unrealistic really. She's a Weasley but she's also a seventeen year old Hogwarts student. Now, it does get more personal, mostly because Lassoder's a whackadoo, but I think I did just the right amount. Too much more would have been just not realistic.

**Thanks again for reading, I hope you all enjoyed it.**

**Please review and tell me what you thought about this chapter!**

**Have a good week, and DFTBA!**


	103. Studying

**A/N:** Hey guys! Thank you all for waiting so patiently! I had/still have a lot of stuff left to do for school before winter break because we're just getting the last push to finish up our second set of mid terms and assignments before finals start in the beginning of December so I've been busy, but I still totally appreciate how patiently you've all waited.

Alright, this week there is good/(possibly, it depends) bad news.

**Good News first:** This chapter has some nice funny and fluffy moments so I hope that you enjoy it as a little treat.

**(Possibly) Bad News:** See my below **A/N** after reading this chapter.

**Disclaimer:** There is a bit of innuendo in this chapter, but as the rating says this is rated T, therefore if anyone is under 13 they shouldn't even be reading this in the first place . . . (It's not even a lot of innuendo at all, just thought I'd give a bit of a warning anyway. . .)

* * *

**Studying**

"Now who can remember the incantation for the supersensory charm?" Professor Flitwick asked his seventh-year charms class. They were two weeks away from when they would be taking their N. E. W. T.s and he was trying to give them as much revision time during class as possible.

"Anybody?" he asked again noticing that the majority of his students were either watching the clock or looking at their own wristwatches. He couldn't blame them really, there was only fifteen minutes left of the class, and it was the last class of the day on a Friday. He was surprised that so many students had actually showed up to his class instead of just cutting it.

"How about you Miss Weasley?" Professor Flitwick asked as he watched her doodle idly in her notebook.

"_Tergo Speculum_," Victoire answered easily.

"Good now-"

Austin Pennington raised his hand and interrupted whatever Professor Flitwick was going to say.

"Yes Mr. Pennington?"

"Could Miss Weasley perhaps show the class how the charm is executed?" Pennington asked as he gave Victoire a wicked smirk.

Victoire shot him a deadly glare back, he, along with a handful of Slytherins had been doing that all week. Victoire had yet to get a new wand, so during class she was either going wandless, or just not participating in the practical practices. Pennington and a few others had noticed and tried to call her out on it every chance they got. Usually it turned into an awkward silence until Victoire had to admit that she couldn't do the spell. They seemed to like that, to hear her admit defeat.

"How about someone else gets a chance? I can do an awesome supersensory charm!" Kyle called jumping into the conversation.

An eyebrow rose up high on Professor Flitwick's forehead, but he nodded and allowed Kyle to stand up and try.

Kyle jumped up, took out his wand, and completed the spell with a flourish.

"Very good job Mr. Line, five points to Gryffindor. Now, the origin of the spell was back in 1375 . . ." Professor Flitwick continued to lecture until the bell tolled, announcing that classes were through for the day.

As everyone hurried to pack up their things so that they could leave, Victoire walked over to Kyle's desk. She gave him a sincere smile, "Thanks."

She didn't have to elaborate what for, he understood.

"You're welcome."

"Aw, are you two finally getting along?" Sandra asked walking up to them and taking Kyle's hand. She pretended to wipe at a tear under her eye, "And it only took seven years too!"

Victoire rolled her eyes at Sandra and stuck her tongue out at her.

"Real mature Vic, real mature."

The three Gryffindors made small talk as they walked back to their dormitory. When they got to the Common Room, they spotted Ally sitting at a table near the window with a mountain of books and went over to say hi. She spared them a nod before going back to looking at her revision sheet.

"Love you too Ally," Victoire muttered, earning her a glare from the aforementioned cousin over her textbook.

Victoire raised her hands up in surrender, "I'm just going to leave then."

Sandra followed her and they went to their dormitory to change their clothes. Sandra had finished changing before Victoire and noted with interest that her friend was spending extra time trying to figure out what to do with her hair. Usually by four o'clock in the afternoon Victoire had given up and her hair would be in a messy ponytail for the rest of the night.

"Are you planning on going somewhere special?" Sandra asked her best mate as she watched her put her hair up in a bun only to take it back out and run her brush through it again.

"Just planning on doing some studying for N. E. W. T.s," Victoire answered simply.

"So you're prettying yourself up for Kyle then? He'll appreciate that," Sandra said pretending to check her nails.

Victoire stopped what she was doing and turned to look at her best mate, "Um . . . I'm not studying with you guys tonight . . ."

Sandra put on an expectant expression and Victoire sighed when she saw it.

"Ugh! Fine, I'm meeting Teddy in the Shrieking Shack and he's going to help me study for N. E. W. T.s."

"I'm hurt," Sandra said placing and hand against her heart as she feigned surprise, "What? You don't think Kyle and I are smart enough to practice with?"

Victoire knew that her friend was teasing, but she still felt the need to explain, "No, there's nothing wrong with you guys . . . it's just . . . I'm going to practice my practical stuff. I've spent the last week doing theory and books but I need to work on the wand-work too."

"And how do you expect to do that? Most of the spells we're going to be tested on are going to be too draining for you to do all wandless," Sandra pointed out.

"I'mgoingtoborrowTeddy'swand," Victoire mumbled at a decibel barely louder than a whisper.

Sandra's eyes widened, "Oh my Merlin. Teddy's giving you his wand? Wha- Wait, how come you didn't tell me this before?"

"It's not that big of a deal," Victoire replied with a shrug.

"Um, yes it is. He's sharing his wand with you; this is major. Kyle won't even let me touch his wand because he's worried, and I quote, 'About where my hands have been'," Sandra said.

Victoire snorted, "Kyle's just a germaphobe, not that it should matter with you though. He spends all day with you; he knows where your hands have been."

Sandra threw a pillow at Victoire's head, causing her to pick up her brush and run it through her hair again.

"But seriously Sandy, are you saying that you wouldn't let me borrow your wand if I needed it?" Victoire asked watching her friend's reaction in the mirror.

"Of course I'd let you use it, but it'd have to be an emergency, you'd have to beg, and you'd have to promise not to blow the end out of it."

Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose. In hindsight, telling her friends about how she'd done that to one of the wands at _Ollivander's_ probably wasn't her brightest moment.

"Thanks. I think."

"But that's because you're my best friend. It's different between romantic partners. It's a really . . . _personal_ thing," Sandra said wiggling her eyebrows for some reason.

Victoire groaned, "Godric Gryffindor Sandra! He's letting me borrow his wand, not a kidney!"

"Exactly, a good wand's more difficult to get than a kidney," Sandra said matter-of-factly.

Part of Victoire was impressed that her muggle-born best friend had come so far in understanding magic in the relatively short seven years she'd known about it, but the bigger part of her just wanted to end their irritating conversation.

"'Kay, I'm leaving now," Victoire said waving goodbye to Sandra even though she knew that she was going to follow her out of the room and back into the Common Room.

Once there, she said a quick goodbye to her friends before attempting to leave before Sandra had the chance to open her mouth and talk to Kyle. She didn't make it.

"Where's Victoire going?" Kyle asked his girlfriend as Victoire walked away from them.

"She's going to go practice with Teddy's wand," his gleeful girlfriend explained to him.

Kyle dropped the heavy textbook he was holding onto the floor.

"What?"

"You're going to pay for that later Collins!" Victoire shouted as she walked out the portrait hole.

* * *

Victoire and Teddy had agreed to meet in the Shrieking Shack at four-thirty. Victoire ended up being about ten minutes late because she ran into Lucy on her way out of the castle. Who then promptly broke down in a mess of nerves over her upcoming exams. Victoire expected to have to spend at least a half hour calming her down, however, when she was five minutes into her speech about how to handle exams, Lucy seemed to spot somebody she knew behind Victoire and ran off the join them. Victoire blinked as her cousin ran away from her, and stood there for a good minute before she realized that she was free to continue her journey.

When she got to the Shrieking shack, she saw that Teddy had beaten her there.

"You're late," he told her with a smirk as she walked over to the couch he was sitting on.

"Not my fault Lucy decided to have a nervous breakdown," Victoire said with a shrug as she sat next to Teddy.

Teddy's eyes widened in shock, "Is she alright?"

"Oh yeah. It only lasted five minutes, you know how kids are these days, short attention spans," she answered.

He still looked hesitant but believed her because he knew that she wouldn't just leave Lucy if she were still having problems.

"Okay . . . so what are we doing today?"

Victoire grinned, "I can think of a few things-"

Teddy sighed, "I mean what spells do you want to practice?"

"None," Victoire responded casually.

"None?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because we haven't started yet."

". . . When can we start then?" Teddy asked rather confused.

"After you kiss me hello of course."

Teddy rolled his eyes at her but pulled her close to him and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. When he pulled away, she was frowning.

"What now?" he asked eyeing her expression carefully.

She fluttered her eyelashes at him, "That wasn't good enough."

"My, my, my, someone's gotten picky. What if I said that that was all you're going to get?" he asked her with a serious tone.

"I'd say you're full of it."

Victoire was copying Teddy's posture and expression; arms crossed with a slight frown. They were currently having a stare-off to see who would cave first.

Teddy blinked first, and Victoire knew that she had won. A second later he groaned, "Ugh, fine."

"Your enthusiasm is _so_ flattering," Victoire told him sarcastically, even though she moved so that she was closer to him, to sit in his lap.

Teddy rolled his eyes at her before placing his palm against her cheek and brining her face closer to his.

"Hello," he whispered against her lips before capturing them with his own.

Victoire's hands automatically went for his hair to push their mouths even closer together, and she would have happily lost herself for hours in the kiss. Therefore, it was too bad that Teddy slowly put an end to it before he reminded her that they were here so that she could practice her practical magic with a real wand.

Her frown at his words only lasted a minute though before she reached out her hand for him to give her the wand.

"It still feels weird," Victoire commented testing the weight of Teddy's longer and heavier wand in her hand.

"That's because you're comparing it to your old wand, and nothing is going to seem as perfect as that. Until you get your new wand of course," Teddy reminded her as he watched her stand up from the couch to walk into a more open space.

"That's if I ever get a new wand," Victoire grumbled. She was still rather unsure about the whole it's-two-weeks-until-N.E.W.T.s-and-I-don't-have-a- new-wand-yet situation.

Teddy waved off her concerns, as he had been doing for the past week, "You're a witch in need of a wand. You'll find one. Mr. Ollivander was probably right; you just need a more unique one than the others you were trying out before."

Victoire sighed. She didn't necessarily believe Teddy's words, but she was tired of arguing about it.

"Okay, give me a spell and I'll see what I can do here."

Victoire had brought with her a list of spells from a variety of subjects that she needed to practice for. Teddy would call out random spells from a mix of subjects to see how she dealt with them. For the most part, she did very well considering she hadn't practiced with them for two weeks. Her incantations and hand and wrist motions were perfect, but she was still having a hard time adjusting to holding a different wand. It wasn't crippling in any sense, more like a serial marathon runner who had to wear someone else's shoes right before a run. It felt more awkward than anything else.

"Erecto charm?" Teddy called.

"Straightens out the target object, and if needed, sets it up," Victoire answered back.

Teddy looked around the room for a minute before spotting a pair of red drapes partially covering a window. Teddy used wandless magic to make the drapes fall down onto the floor, and then asked Victoire to use the charm to fix them.

Victoire waved the wand in an upwards motion, with a half swirl and flick at the end. When she finished the red drapes flew back up to the rod and set themselves back up.

"Good job. Now let's see some transfiguration. Anything you like," Teddy told her.

She looked around the room until her eyes rested on one of the doors leading into the room. She waved her wand in its direction and transfigured it into an empty bookshelf.

"Not bad," he told her as he walked over to it and checked its stability.

Victoire followed him to look at the work herself.

"Is that mahogany?" Teddy asked her, as he looked closer.

"Yup," she replied looking at it herself.

"Hmm. Now change it back."

Victoire rolled her eyes before waving the wand. The bookshelf shone a bright turquoise blue before changing back into the oak door that had first been there.

Teddy –who had an odd expression on his face–, tilted his head to the side as he intensely studied the door, "Is it completely back to normal?"

Victoire stared at him in disbelief, "Um, most likely, yeah."

Teddy didn't stop, "You should check its sturdiness."

She gave him a wide-eyed look, but when he didn't relent, she walked over to the door and pressed her hands against it. She pushed her weight onto it.

"Seems good to me."

She heard Teddy's hands move to hit the wood of the door on either side of her head. Soon after, she felt his face press into her hair, and could feel the brush of his lips against her ear.

"Are you sure?"

Victoire turned around and ended up nose to nose with Teddy. There was a burning look in his sapphire blue eyes as he quickly lowered his mouth to hers. His body pressed solidly against hers, pressing her back into the door. His sudden movements made her gasp, but his mouth swallowed the sound. She threw her arms around his neck as she felt him take her lower lip between his. He pulled on it gently, causing her to open her mouth wider to his. She breathed in his scent before tentatively pushing her tongue into his mouth.

In return, he tried to get rid of even more of the non-existent space between their bodies. From her hands on his neck, Victoire could feel the muscles in his neck strain as he bent his head toward hers to keep their mouths attached. She placed her hands on his shoulders so she could get a firmer grip, and felt Teddy's hands travel down her sides so that he could grab her thighs. She jumped a bit, and he helped lift her up so that she could wrap her legs around his waist.

This made their faces level, and made it easier for her to tangle her tongue with his. Teddy's hands stayed at the underside of her thighs, while Victoire's migrated back to his head so that she could knot her fingers back into his hair.

"Hi guys so how's the practicing been –OH MY MERLIN CAN'T YOU TWO WARN A GUY!?"

Victoire reluctantly separated her mouth from Teddy's so she could throw a glare over his shoulder at the intruder, "Flip off Wood."

Teddy turned his head so that he could see Xavier standing at the opposite entrance to the room, with his hands now covering his eyes.

"You can look now Dear," Teddy called to him sarcastically as he unwrapped Victoire's legs from around his waist and set her down.

Xavier slowly removed his hands form his eyes as if he expected the two to have been lying, "Do I even want to know what the two of you had been doing?"

"Testing the sturdiness of the door," Victoire answered without a pause.

Xavier gave the two of them a long look before concluding, "I'm never going to use that door again."

Victoire rolled her eyes at him before asking, "What are you doing here anyway?"

"You mean your boyfriend didn't tell you?"

Victoire looked at Teddy, "What did I do to you, to have you punish me in such a way?"

Teddy sighed, "It's not a punishment. I figured that both you and Xavier need to study for N. E. W. T.s, so why not invite him to our study session?"

"Why didn't you tell me earlier? I could have brought Sandra, Kyle, and Ally with me. Or just Sandra and Kyle, Ally's kinda stressing enough over her revising as it is and this would probably just interrupt her schedule," Victoire mused.

"And you two need to study without distractions," Teddy told them.

"So you're leaving then?" Xavier asked jokingly.

Teddy nodded, "Yup, I'm going to go into Hogsmeade for a bit."

Victoire frowned, "He was only kidding. You don't have to leave."

Teddy grabbed Victoire's hand and gave it a light kiss, "But I will. You and Xavier will study better by yourselves. You both like to compete; now you can compete with each other to see who knows the most."

He gave them both a cheery wave in goodbye before walking out of the room.

Once Teddy was gone, Victoire turned to glare at Xavier, "Thanks a lot Wood."

* * *

"Ready for your task tomorrow?" Xavier asked Victoire after they'd spent a good four hours going through most of their revision material.

Victoire stretched out her limbs from where she was on the couch and gave a little yawn, "Yes, and no. Personally, I thought the last task would be, well, my last task. But now I'm about to compete in the first Tri-Wizard Tournament ever to have four tasks instead of three."

"I still can't believe that Flannery agreed to make the last task some type of magical obstacle course," Xavier commented from his seat in one of the armchairs.

"Me either. I'm just glad that he did. Especially, since we get to do it on our brooms. That's going to make it so much easier."

"And both Konstantin and Noëlle are fine with using brooms exclusively for this task?" Xavier asked her.

"Yup, it was Konstantin's idea actually. They both like to fly so it's not a problem to have that as our task."

"So this whole Tri-Wizard Tournament mess will be over with by tomorrow night?"

"Yes indeed," Victoire replied happily.

"I'll definitely be there."

"Good, that way you can finally see how much better at flying I am than you are."

Xavier threw a throw pillow at her face.

"So we're done studying . . . what are we waiting for again?" Xavier asked her.

"Teddy," Victoire said the word as if it explained everything. In her world it usually did.

"Why am I waiting for Teddy then?" Xavier questioned.

"Because you love him almost as much as I do?" Victoire suggested.

Xavier snorted, "Yeah. That's it."

"I'm hurt Xavier. I thought we were really bonding these past few weeks," Teddy commented as he walked into the room.

Both Victoire and Xavier ignored Teddy's comment in favour of showing surprise over who had come with him.

"Ally!"

Victoire had called the name in surprise, but the sixth-year in question barely raised a hand in greeting to her cousin. She didn't even bother so much as to raise her eyes away from the book that she was holding, and reading attentively.

Before Victoire could say more, Teddy had grabbed her hand, and ushered her out of the room. She realized as she followed Teddy out of the room that he'd brought Ally so that she could have a chance to see Xavier.

Inside the room, Xavier had failed to make a sound, resulting in Ally still paying sole attention to her book. He walked quietly up to her, and stopped only when he was a foot away from her.

"Howdy."

Ally visibly jumped from the noise and finally raised her head from her textbook. Her brown eyes went wide when she recognized Xavier. They took the time to follow the sharp lines of his figure before she averted her gaze back to her book, this time, due to embarrassment other than concentration.

"Hi," she finally answered back quietly.

Xavier walked around her until he was behind her and looked down over her shoulder.

"Whatcha reading?"

Ally shivered. She could feel the gentle press of Xavier's body against hers.

"Ally?"

She'd forgotten that she was supposed to be answering a question, "Umm . . . I . . . Potions."

She could feel the gentle breeze from Xavier's laughter brush against the skin of the back of her neck. The few pieces of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail, tickling the same bare skin.

"A little distracted there Ally?" he whispered against the skin of her neck. The feeling of his lips on her skin sent her body into flames.

"Just. A little. Tired. From. Revising." Ally spoke the words slowly; her train of thought came close to being derailed because Xavier had started to press gentle kisses onto her neck.

Xavier didn't reply right away because he was too busy kissing his way up to her ear. When he got there, he whispered softly, "You ready to take a break then?"

"_But-_" She lost her train of thought completely when she felt Xavier kiss the lobe of her ear.

"But what Love?" He asked her as he wrapped his arms gently around her waist from behind. His hands coming to rest on her stomach.

"Exams," she spluttered out, unintentionally closing her eyes.

"Yes, exams are in two weeks," he agreed as he gently took the book from her suddenly limp hold. He tossed it behind him somewhere, and heard it land on one of the armchairs with a muted thud.

Once the book was out of her hands, Ally's body went rigid in Xavier's hold. Realizing that he'd gotten rid of any other pretenses she had, made her suddenly anxious.

Xavier could feel her sudden hesitation and kissed the side of her head softly, "Come with me."

He slowly unwound his arms from her waist before limiting their connection to just holding one of her hands. He led her over to one of the couches and pulled her to sit down next to him.

"So . . ." Ally trailed off as a bright blush came to her face. Xavier's expectant expression made her feel suddenly self-conscious.

Xavier gave her a lively smile before kissing her cloth covered shoulder, all the way over to her neck.

"So . . . uh . . . how's Brogan?" Ally asked as she tried not to focus on how Xavier's lips were traveling up her neck to the base of her jaw.

"I don't think that's what's most important right now Ally," he said against her skin. She shivered as she felt him smirk into her neck.

"_Yes_ . . ." Ally sighed, forgetting that she was supposed to be holding an intelligent conversation.

Xavier pressed a kiss to the corner of her lips before pulling back slightly, "Ready to give in?"

She shook her head, but reacted with a breathless gasp when Xavier pressed his lips against hers. He placed on hand at the back of her head, while sliding his other arm around her waist to bring her body closer to his.

Ally pressed her mouth harder against Xavier's so she could deepen the kiss, and let her hands travel to his chest where she twisted the fabric of his tee shirt in her fists.

Xavier used the angle of their kiss to open her mouth with his, while Ally placed her hands lightly to his chest and stomach.

"Wait, wait a minute," Ally huffed out as she separated her mouth from his and tried to catch her breath, "Did you put on more muscle?"

Xavier's eyes looked glassy as he regarded her. He hadn't expected the sudden change in mood, or subject, "What?"

Ally's hands were still travelling from his stomach, to his pectorals, to his broader shoulders, and back down in a reverse circuit.

"Um, probably. I have been spending up to ten hours a day working out and practicing Quidditch . . ." he answered her.

"Well it's really showing," Ally mused as she ran her hand down his stomach; she could feel his abs through the thin fabric of his shirt.

"Thanks . . ." he responded still not entirely sure about the change in direction of their _conversation_.

"No problem," she responded still feeling his muscles.

"Uh . . ." Xavier trailed off; it was his turn to be speechless.

"What's wrong?" Ally asked her hands coming to rest on his shoulders.

"I'm just wondering . . . can we go back to what we were doing, or . . .?"

Ally looked up from where her hands were to look into Xavier's eyes, "Oh. Of course."

She blushed a bright red that Xavier couldn't resist, "I love you."

"I love you too," she replied before he captured her lips into another kiss.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, first off I hoped you all liked that, and now . . .

**(Possibly) Bad News:** For those of you who have been wondering how close we're getting to the end of this story, well I can tell you now that this story will be 107 chapters. And if you look at this chapter, it's already chapter 103, meaning there are ONLY four chapters left in this story . . . Yieks!

**More** (Possibly) **Bad News**: My next fee updates will go back to being irregular (probably one update every two weeks instead of once a week) because of school work, final exams, and then Christmas vacation.

**More Good News!** (It's important to sandwich this kind of stuff): I have been contemplating a sequel like so many of you want and I have to sit down and actually see if my imagination will let all of my thoughts go down onto a word document before promising anything to you, but right now I'm about 67% sure that I will be writing and posting a sequel with all of your favourite Try and Tri Again characters.

On the above note, if you would like to read a sequel with these characters, please let me know. The more interest their is, the more motivation it gives me. (Although at 67% I'll probably still write one, just maybe not as soon or fast as I would be able to if I had encouragement)

So I would like to thank everyone again for Following, Favouriting, Reading, and Reviewing! Please keep it up, and a special THANK-YOU to anyone who has ever reviewed, because at the time of this posting I've got 1,879 reviews! So awesome and so close to 2,000 (My hope by the end of this story) so please keep those coming :)

**Next Chapter:** Vic wakes up on the day of the last task for the Tri-Wizard Tournament, she and Sandra have another sassy conversation, Vic gets her wand problems resolved, and if you're all feeling lucky we might get to see some adorable Baby Brogan Wood ;)

**Big thanks too:**

**Marianne 16, As the Robin Flies, brilliant incandescence, carbo21, barefoot and buckwild, jeremiah123, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, The Cornish Pixies, 13, MuggleCreator, reheni, Infinity Lily, owlcity2013, eyechange, Oddliver, Enticing Prodigy, hufflepuffPartierPrincess, Seher Syed, Anon, Encypher, misticangel101, jilyshippingforever, and Girrafacorn.**

**Thanks again for reading everyone,**

**Please review,**

**And DFTBA!**


	104. Fixed It

**A/N:** Hi everyone! It's an odd day to update, but I thought I'd give you all the gift of an earlier than I expected chapter as a present because it's my birthday tomorrow (I'll be legally able to drink now in all of Canada).

So, I hope you like this new chapter, it's not very big in plot, but it's very enjoyable!

**P.S.** For those of you who guessed correctly about Victoire's wand, virtual high-fives for you all!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything in here- Wait, yes I do, I totally own Sandra in this one . . . and Brogan :)

* * *

**Fixed It**

The next day Victoire had to be shaken awake by Sandra. It was an odd occurrence. First, because it was a Saturday and Victoire loved her sleep on Saturdays, and second, because it was the day of the last task of the Tournament and Victoire's past experience had her so nervous that she usually woke up early on those mornings.

"Wazzit?" Victoire mumbled out as she started to wake up from her deep sleep.

"Sorry Sleeping Beauty but it's time you get up and get ready for today," Sandra told her as she not-so-slyly took Victoire's pillows off her bed in case she decided that she wanted to skip the Tournament in favour of more sleep.

"What's today?" Victoire asked as she stretched her arms; she was still groggy.

Sandra rolled her eyes before smirking, "Don't you remember? Ally and Xavier are getting married today."

Victoire caught onto the joke and put a faux-hurt expression on her face, "Prats. Why am I always that last to know? I better be the best man."

Sandra giggled and tossed Victoire her hairbrush from where she'd left it the night before, halfway across their dorm room, "Sorry but I think Kyle gets best man. You can be maid of honour if you like."

Victoire snorted as she placed the hairbrush down on her bed and opened her trunk to grab her clothes, "And be forced to wear some hideous dress? No thanks. Besides you know what they say, 'always the bridesmaid never the bride'."

"I doubt you'll ever have to worry about that Vic," Sandra replied as she waited for her friend to get ready, "But are you saying that you won't wear a bridesmaid dress for mine and Kyle's wedding?"

Victoire, who was on the way to their little bathroom to brush her teeth, dropped her toothbrush and toothpaste, "Did Kyle officially propose?"

Sandra was taken aback by Victoire's sincerely earnest look, "No . . . and I doubt that's going to happen any time soon. . . Unless . . . has Kyle said something to you?"

"No, he wouldn't tell me even if he was. However, you're right; I doubt he will so soon. He saw how giving you that promise-ring/necklace scared you, he wouldn't propose so quickly," Victoire reasoned thinking methodically.

There were a few moments of a charged silence before Sandra spoke up, "Okay, well we're just going to end that conversation on hypothetical marriages, and try this whole thing again. Morning Victoire, ready for the last task today?"

Victoire sighed as she tied her trainers onto her feet, "Yeah, so ready. Oh, except for the tiny fact that I don't have a flippin' wand yet!"

Sandra saw Victoire's blue eyes widen anxiously could hear her starting to breathe rapidly, "No, no you don't. You're not going to hyperventilate on us and almost pass out. You are going to get through today without ending up in the Hospital Wing and then maybe Kingsley and your father will believe that you can handle yourself."

"How am I supposed to do this without a wand?" Victoire asked timidly as she and Sandra walked down from their dormitory to the Common Room.

"Think positive Victoire. Mr. Ollivander said he'd come see you before the task starts and show you the three new wands he portkeyed to Russia to get. He's convinced that you'll have the right wand for you before the task starts," Ally commented as she overheard the two older girls and followed them down the stairs to the Common Room.

Victoire opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when she looked at what Ally was wearing, "Are you wearing a white sundress?"

Ally was slightly taken aback by Victoire's change in topic, so she looked down to observe her own clothing, "Yes, it's the middle of June, it's hot. Why? Do you think it's too dressy?"

"No," Victoire answered quickly before breaking down into a series of giggles. Her nerves over the upcoming task were presenting themselves through how humorous she found the situation.

"Really, what's wrong?" Ally asked noticing Victoire's one-eighty change in attitude.

Sandra just rolled her eyes. She understood why Victoire was laughing but she didn't want to tell Ally it was because they had just been talking about her earlier, "Nothing. I think she's just gone crazy."

Ally inspected her cousin for another minute before deciding to just shrug it off, "Whatever. So, are you feeling better now?"

Victoire's laughter died down quickly, "No. What if none of the wands are right?"

"Didn't Teddy say that you could use his wand if you needed to for the task today?" Ally asked as the three girls left the common room and started to go to the Great Hall.

"Yes but I don't have the best track record with keeping a wand in my hand for these tasks. Besides, it's still . . . weird to use," Victoire tried to explain.

"Maybe you just need more practice with Teddy's wand?" Sandra suggested innocently.

Victoire playfully slapped her friend on the arm, "You seriously need to stop that. It's not funny anymore."

"No, it's still pretty funny," Ally commented with a smirk.

Victoire slapped her arm too as they made it to the ground floor of the Castle.

"Ow."

"Victoire why are you abusing our girlfriends?" Kyle asked with a raised eyebrow as he and Xavier walked out from around a corner and towards them.

"Because they're trying to distract me by teasing me and while I appreciate the gesture I'd rather they find someone else to pick on," Victoire told them grumpily as she watched Kyle and Xavier kiss their respective girlfriends hello.

"Good thing I haven't eaten yet or it would be coming back up right about now," She commented dryly as she watched her friends' pair off into couples.

"Do you really want to argue about PDA Weasley? After what I walked in on last night?" Xavier asked with narrowed eyes.

"That does not classify as PDA," Victoire argued as she tried to hide her smirk.

"Yes it does, Private Display of Amour," Kyle quipped with a lecherous grin.

"Oh, now you want to speak French?" Victoire asked him; trying to change the conversation topic.

Kyle rolled his eyes, "Let's just get some breakfast."

"I'd rather get a wand," Victoire sighed.

"It's a good thing that I can help you with that then," Teddy commented as he walked through a doorway off to the right of the hall they were in and joined their little group.

"How so?" Victoire asked a coy smile playing with the edges of her lips.

"Well," Teddy said pretending to think about it, "I may just know where you can get a new wand from a certain wand maker."

"Mr. Ollivander's here already?" Victoire asked excitedly.

"Yup."

"Let's go then!" Victoire cried impatiently as she grabbed Teddy's mind and ran out of the corridor. Her friends shared looks before nodding and running after her.

* * *

"It's okay Vic, we'll think of something," Teddy told her gently as he rubbed soothing circles on her back.

Victoire nodded at his words but didn't speak. She was afraid if she did, she'd start to cry.

She had been excited to test the three wands Mr. Ollivander had gotten her from Russia. She greatly appreciated the lengths he went through to get her the wands, and she told him that before they started. He seemed very certain about the three wands he'd gotten, so she had started to believe that she was going to find the right one. To be fair, they'd all been close. The first one was a good length and had a very comfortable grip, but when she used it to cast a simple spell, she felt as if the wand and the magic were rebelling against each other. Instead of collaborating and working as one, she felt as though they were arguing. It was like oil and water; they weren't going to mix. The second wand had a similar mix of cores, only this time it was dragon-heartstring and phoenix-tail feather. When she'd been practicing before, Victoire had usually stayed away from the dragon-heartstring wands because they always just felt weird to her. She was apprehensive of the wand at first because usually she tried wands with unicorn-hair since they were good for healing, but she gave the dragon/phoenix wand a shot. The wand had a good rigid make like she was used to, but all of her spells felt washed out with it. Like she wasn't putting enough emotion into her magic to make it work.

The last wand she tried was by far the best. It was the same length as her last one, and even though it was springy as opposed to rigid, it still felt good in her hands. The only thing that made Victoire pause was when Mr. Ollivander told her that the core was made out of Veela hair. Victoire knew that her mother's wand had the same core and that it worked perfectly fine for her, but something about that fact made her feel uncomfortable. When she tried a few spells with it they worked perfectly fine, but there was still something Victoire didn't like about it. It gave her an odd feeling and she didn't like holding it despite the fact that it had a grip with minimal grooves and one that was made specifically left wand-armed witches and wizards like her.

Victoire had originally told Mr. Ollivander 'no' to the three wands he'd tested her with, but she wasn't so sure about her response now.

"Maybe I should take one. They felt better than all of the other ones I'd tried. Maybe I just need to get use to them," Victoire mused her thoughts aloud.

"You didn't like how they felt Vic. You said there wasn't a connection to them," Xavier reminded her.

Her friends had followed her and Teddy to the large white Champions tent that they usually waited in before each task. Teddy had arranged for Mr. Ollivander to meet them there, so that's where they tested the wands.

"But maybe I'm just being picky. If I used one for a bit I might have forced a connection."

"You can't force a connection to a wand," Ally reminded her.

"Yeah, besides you shouldn't have to settle for a wand Vic. You should be able to be excited about the one you have . . . like your last one," Sandra reminded her gently.

Victoire sighed and kept to herself her disheartened thoughts about never being able to find the right wand.

Teddy could tell by the look on her face where her thoughts were going, but before he could speak Harry walked into the tent.

He seemed taken aback at first at the amount of people in the room, but soon recovered, "Um, I need to speak to Victoire."

No one moved.

"Alone," he added to clarify.

Ally, Xavier, Sandra, and Kyle quickly left the tent, but not before promising to come back before the task was to start.

Harry walked farther into the room and shot an amused look at Victoire, but aimed it mostly towards Teddy who was still standing next to her with his hand on her back.

"I didn't know your name was Victoire," Harry commented sarcastically as he gave his godson a considering look.

Teddy blushed, "Sorry. I can go . . ."

Harry shook his head, "No, I figured you'd be here anyway."

He turned to Victoire next, "I heard from Mr. Ollivander that the wand search didn't go very well."

Victoire frowned, "No."

"Well it's a good thing that I came prepared then," Harry told her with a light smile as he pulled a long and thin package out of his pocket that seemed to be wrapped in a cushiony fabric. Harry handed it to Victoire with an encouraging smile.

"Open it."

Victoire took the oddly shaped package gently and easily unwrapped the fabric to reveal a wand. It was eleven and a half inches long, and seemed to be made of willow like her old wand. When she looked closer, she gasped. The wand not only had the same grooves and markings on it that her old one had, but it also had the same nicks near the top and the end that her old one had from different situations over the years.

"This . . . Is this my wand Uncle Harry?" Victoire asked shocked.

"Why don't you try it out and see?" Harry told her gently.

Victoire grabbed the wand with her left hand, handed the fabric wrapping to an expectant Teddy, closed her eyes, and waved her wand.

Seconds later a bright silvery wolf patronus shot out of her wand, did a small circle around the inside of the tent, and then disappeared.

"It works," Victoire said in awe. Not only did the magic flow effortlessly out of her and to the wand, but she could also tell by holding it that it was the same wand. The old one she'd been mourning for the last two weeks.

"Good, I thought it would but you can never be too sure," Harry told her.

Victoire's eyes snapped back up from examining her wand to her uncle's face, "But how? My wand was broken right in half. Only part of the core was intact but that wouldn't be enough to fix it."

Harry shrugged but she could see something serious in his green eyes, "I know what it feels like to be without the wand you're used to; the one that seems to fit you best. So I fixed yours for you."

"But how?" Victoire repeated, "Even the most talented wandmaker wouldn't have been able to fix the damage in more than a superficial cosmetic way."

"I told you Victoire. I know that you were having trouble finding a new wand, so I figured that nothing would fit you as well as your old one. My own wand has broken you know, about twenty years ago. So I fixed it," Harry explained.

Victoire jolted a bit when she finally clued in on what her uncle had been trying to subtly tell her.

"Oh my. Uncle Harry you didn't have to do that," Victoire quickly replied.

Harry reached forward to place his hand on her shoulder. He locked eyes with his niece; green with blue and told her sincerely, "I know I didn't. However, I wanted to."

Teddy solemnly spoke Victoire's next thought aloud, "But you said you never wanted to use it again."

Harry's gaze shifted slightly to look at his godson, "I know. Nevertheless, I needed to use it and all it took was a quick _reparo_. I break most rules anyway. What's the problem with breaking my own?"

Victoire knew that Harry was trying to take their conversation to a more lighthearted avenue but she couldn't quite follow him. She knew what he would have had to do to fix her wand and what it would have felt like to him. She needed to make him understand how much she appreciated his gesture.

She didn't realize that she'd started to tear up until she spoke, "Thank you _so_ much Uncle Harry. I really appreciate it."

Harry could see her struggling to keep her tears in and pulled her into a willing hug, "It was no problem Honey. I would have done it for any of you."

Victoire nodded, she knew that he meant he would have done the same thing for all of his nieces and nephews, not to mention James, Al, Lily, and Teddy.

Harry was still embracing Victoire when he looked over her shoulder to see Teddy watching them with a sentimental smile on his face, "C'mere Teddy. Join the hug."

Teddy initially gave him an incredulous look but when Victoire added her own voice to Harry's pleading, he gave in. He couldn't say 'no' to two of his favourite people. When he joined them, he tossed one arm around Harry's shoulder, and the other across Victoire's lower back. Teddy had just joined the hug when they heard the sound of footsteps entering the room.

"Yes a group hug! I want to join!" Kyle yelled excitedly as he bolted across the tent to where Harry, Victoire, and Teddy were.

Despite his words about wanting to join the 'group hug' Kyle made a beeline straight to Victoire and grabbed her into a tight hug from behind. The group hug quickly disbanded when Harry and Teddy started to laugh at Kyle's actions, but Victoire didn't find it quite so funny.

"Seriously Kyle. Let. Go. Of. Me."

"Or what Vic?" Kyle taunted squeezing her even tighter.

"Or I'll hex you," Victoire told him threateningly as she slipped out from his hug and faced him with her wand pointed dangerously close to him.

"Oh my Godric Victoire! Is that your old wand?" Ally asked excitedly as she came closer to the group.

Victoire looked down at her left hand and smiled fondly at the familiar piece of wood in her hand, "Yes it is."

"But how?" Sandra asked coming up to Victoire with Xavier trailing not too far behind her.

Victoire shot Harry a concerned look before answering, "Uncle Harry got it fixed for me."

Sandra, Kyle, and Xavier still looked confused, but they nodded at her words and didn't bring it up again.

Victoire turned back to her uncle, "How can I thank you?"

Harry gave her a bright smile, "Win the Tournament."

Victoire gave him a smile in a return and said that she'd try her best. Harry left soon after when more of Victoire's family members decided to show up and wish her good luck (almost all of them hoping that it would be the last time they'd have to). They came in smaller groups, and left once more stopped by so that the tent wouldn't get too busy. Victoire could tell when it was getting close to the time for the task to start, because both Konstantin and Noëlle had made it into the tent, and were just getting wishes for good luck from their friends. As time went by though, fewer and fewer people came into the tent, signalling to Victoire that most people were probably being asked to go to their seats. By the time, Professor Longbottom came into the tent to make sure that all of the Champions had made it there and were waiting for the task to start; the only people left in the room were Konstantin, Noëlle, Victoire, Ally, Xavier, and Teddy. (Sandra and Kyle having just left to find Kyle's parents 'before they end up having to sit with a less _desirable_ group' according to Sandra.)

Professor Longbottom smiled when he saw the wand in Victoire's hand.

"Finally got one?" he asked her.

Victoire's face was radiant, "Yes!"

Professor Longbottom chuckled a little before putting on a more stern expression and eyeing Ally, Xavier, and Teddy, "Even though only one of you still attends Hogwarts, I'm still going to tell you that you need to get seated because the event will start soon."

Ally giggled while both Xavier and Teddy looked slightly chastised. Ally started the exodus by giving Victoire a big hug and telling her to 'kick some arse'. Xavier followed behind her with a hug, a light kiss on the forehead, and a half-joking half-serious warning about making sure that she doesn't fall off her broom.

Teddy went last. He opened his arms wide and Victoire slid right in for a tight hug. He gave her a kiss on the tip of her nose and whispered into her ear the sentence: 'don't go flying off the broom handle'. She chuckled a bit before leaning back out of his embrace to let him leave. Teddy gave her an amused look when she did so.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked as he used his hold on her to bring her back into his embrace.

"You have to go," she said a little confusedly.

"We're not done here yet," he told her with a smirk before dipping her slightly and pressing his lips against hers.

The kiss didn't last an inappropriate amount of time, but when Teddy brought her back up and finally let go, Victoire had an expression of complete shock on her face. She wasn't actually sure that that had just happened. That Teddy kissed her, in front of not only Professor Longbottom, but also Konstantin and Noëlle.

Teddy noticed Victoire's expression and gave her one last smirk before leaving with Ally and Xavier to get their seats, "For good luck," he explained as he gave her a wave goodbye.

Victoire was still staring at the entrance/exit of the tent for a good five minutes after they'd left.

* * *

"What took you guys so long?" Louis asked the trio of Ally, Xavier, and Teddy as they finally sat down in their seats in 'Victoire's cheering section'.

"Just making sure that Victoire wasn't going to freak-out or anything before the task," Ally said quickly before Xavier had the chance to say something crude and embarrass Teddy.

"Victoire freak-out over a little obstacle course on a broom? If dragons, manticores, kelpies, and trolls don't scare her, I doubt this task will," Dom piped up from her seat just in front of where Teddy, Ally, and Xavier were sitting.

"You say that, and the next thing you know she's fallen off her broom and plummeting down to the ground," Kyle commented dryly as he and Sandra made their appearance and made their way to their seats.

"Why does that prospect sound so pleasing to you Kyle?" Cecilia asked with an arched brow from beside Louis.

"Because she's already fallen off her broom a few times during Quidditch, so we know that it wouldn't be a deadly accident," Kyle explained easily.

Teddy could hear both Ally and Xavier struggling to find an argument for Kyle's theory, but sadly, they couldn't.

Soon, a magicked voice announced that it was time for everyone to find their seats because the last task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament was about to begin. (Teddy found it entertaining that the voice said 'last' instead of 'fourth' as it was.)

The announcement brought the stragglers to their seats, including Victoire's parents and a few of her aunts and uncles who had been talking with friends. Luckily, Teddy got out of sitting next to Bill this time, because Ally had thoughtfully snagged his ticket and saved him a seat.

When everyone sat down Teddy looked around and noticed something out of place, "Xavier, are your parents coming today?"

Xavier shook his head, "Merlin I hope not. Brogan's just barely a month old, they'd have to bring him with them, and he's started to get a little colicky."

"He's a baby Xavier, and babies cry. Get over it," a mocking voice said.

Xavier and Cecilia both whipped their heads around when they heard the voice. Coming down the aisle that they were sitting in were Katie -holding Brogan- and Oliver –holding a large diaper satchel.

"Mum, you're supposed to be taking it easy, you gave birth a month ago," Xavier reminded her as his parents made it to the empty seats next to Teddy. Xavier's biggest concern about his parents coming today wasn't because Brogan was so young, but because he felt that his mother hadn't taken the time to rest properly since Brogan was born. "So why are you here when you should be resting?"

Katie rolled her eyes at her eldest son, "Brogan wanted to see Victoire compete."

"Brogan's met Victoire once," Xavier replied.

"Brogan's only a month old," Cecilia added finding Xavier's last justification as the least important point in the argument.

"He'll be fine. Fresh air is good for babies and besides, he usually sleeps for an hour or two around this time of day anyway," Katie explained. And, as if Brogan was able to understand their conversation and wanted to prove his mother wrong, he chose that time to let out a rather piercing wail.

"Bugger," Katie muttered. She began a rocking motion with her arms to calm Brogan down, while at the same time she reached over to the bag Oliver had set down on the floor to see if she could find something. She wasn't having the easiest time multitasking.

"Here," Katie said suddenly handing Brogan over to Teddy, who was sitting in the seat next to her, "Hold him while I find a receiving blanket."

Teddy's expression of surprise didn't have a chance to wane before Brogan was in his arms, and he had to make an appropriate cradle for him.

"Just don't forget to support his head," Katie reminded him as she found the blanket she was looking for and turned back around to look at Teddy. She saw that her directions weren't needed though; since Teddy already had Brogan safely cradled, and was presently moving his arms in a slow rocking motion that put a quick end to Brogan's cries.

"I guess you didn't need me to tell you that though, did you?" Katie said slightly amused as she tucked the blanket around Brogan, who was still in Teddy's arms. With the rocking motion and the extra swaddling of the new blanket, Brogan's eyelids started to flutter until they quickly drifted to a close.

"No," Teddy replied in a quiet tone. He'd held lots of babies over the years, almost every one of the Weasleys and Potters had been in his arms at some point over the course of their lives.

"Aw, you're so good with babies," Ally cooed to Teddy as she tried to lean over Xavier so that she could get a better look at Brogan.

Xavier gave Ally an earnest look, hoping to bring her attention at least a little back to himself, "I'm good with Brogan too."

"That's nice Xavier," Ally responded automatically, not even looking at him.

Xavier grumbled and sunk a little lower into his chair. Cecilia, who had been watching the exchange burst out into laughter.

"Shh!" Katie scolded her daughter, "Don't wake him up. You wake him you take him."

Cecilia laughed again and promised that she'd hold him if they needed her to.

Katie smiled but declined the offer and then looked to Teddy, "I'll hold him again if you want."

Teddy shook his head, the smile that had grown onto his face when he saw Brogan fall asleep, still present, "I don't mind holding him."

"Okay, just tell me when you need me to take him back."

Teddy nodded, and then peeled his eyes off the peaceful form of a sleeping Brogan in his arms to the middle of the Quidditch pitch as a loud voice announced that they should.

"It's going to start!" Ally said excitedly grabbing for Xavier's hand and giving it an anxious squeeze.

Xavier squeezed back, "Yes it is."

* * *

**A/N:** So I hoped you liked it. My exams are starting next week so I'll be busy and the next update will be in about two weeks.

Chapters left in the story: 3.

**Next Chapter:** Will be the last task and, well, we'll see what happens.

**Sequel?:** Well, it's a rather unanimous YES on a sequel from everyone who reviewed, thank you for those opinions. I've decided that I the chances of a sequel have now moved up to and 85%, but the length of the sequel and when I will actually start one are under still under discussion (With myself), but thank you again for all of your input, and enthusiasm to read the sequel when it does happen :)

I want to thank everyone who's followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed! And please don't forget to review and tell me what you thought about this new chapter (Consider them a birthday present to me! One I would very much enjoy ;) or, just review if you think Teddy holding Baby Brogan is just completely adorable :) Oh, and I'm only 69 reviews away from hitting the 2,000 review mark, *hint*hint* ;)

An especially BIG thanks to:

**jeremiah123, Power Winter, Anon (Guest), SiriuslyGeorgia, Lemoi, SunBlade6963, GleeDanceLove, eyechange, zvc56, potterhead1997, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, Millatz, nifflerstorm17008, Forever Siriusly Sirius, misticangel101, Owlbuddie212, xsuperx, DreamingOnACloud, reheni, fiendfyre13, nabdo, BriD, Guest (1), TheFantabulousPotterHead, sepoetry, Girrafacorn, MiraclesHappen94, barefoot and buckwild, As the Robin Flies, TedandVic4ever, Break This Spell666,Infinity Lily, JediMasterDraco, Last Ride Of The Valkyries, Chocolate-Horse, GoldenGyrfalcon, changewing, MuggleCreator, Michaelarules2013, Enticing Prodigy, AnnabethWeasley22, jilyshippingforever, Guest (2), brilliant incandescence, cctjess, MaddieMonkey, marmar8089, clessard, Oddliver, isabellamargot, IloveSpunk, Encypher, Guest (3), katerinaVD, Daniella, **and** SevenHeartsOfRuby**.

**TheFantabulousPotterHead**: Yes, DFTBA.

**MaddieMonkey**: Since I'm from Canada and I have free-health care, and then I'm on my parents private medical insurance for everything else, I would have absolutely no idea how to pay your medical bill, so good luck with that and I'll try not to make my next few chapters too cute, but no promises ;)

**SevenHeartsOfRuby**: The next thing I write will definitely be this Teddy/Vic sequel, but if I were to do another HP couple, I've got a couple ideas: Andromeda/Ted Tonks and Katie Bell/Oliver Wood are my top two for something else, but depending on how the _Try and Tri Again_ sequel I could always go farther with any of Vic's family or friends, so there is really a lot of people I'd be willing to play around with.

**Thanks again to everyone who read, I hoped you liked it,**

**Please review and DFTBA!**


	105. The Fourth Task

**A/N:** Hey guys! I decided to update early for you all because I had a few days between exams, and I might be procrastinating from studying . . . but oh well, my loss in study time (not much of it anyway) is now your gain :) Oh, and thanks for all of the Happy Birthday wishes from last week!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything HP.

* * *

**Fourth Task**

"Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the last task of this year's Tri Wizard Tournament! Today all three of our champions will have to complete a series of tasks and overcome a wide variety of obstacles. Simply enough, the first champion to complete the course, wins!"

Victoire could hear the announcer's voice from where she and her fellow champions waited in the tent. She wanted to scoff at his attempt to make the task sound far more intricate and glorious than it was.

"Ve should have really pushed vor rock, paper, scissors," Konstantin commented from Victoire's left.

Noëlle gave a chuckle from Victoire's right, "Zen ze Mineester would 'ave 'ad a 'eart attack."

"That would have been one way to end the year," Victoire mused trying to picture what Flannery's face would have looked like if the three of them had insisted on using rock, paper, scissors to determine who'd be crowned the champion. Knowing what it looked like when he realized that they'd decided on the obstacle course, she could only guess that he would have looked even angrier if they'd tried to end the Tournament through a game of chance such as rock, paper, scissors.

"Oh well, this should be fun too," Victoire said in a clearly sarcastic tone.

"At leazt eet won't be vareey dangerous," Noëlle reminded her.

"Don't count on vat. Vey still might haf made vis one a nightmare for us," Konstantin warned the two girls.

They nodded at him, and then Professor Longbottom walked back into the tent.

"Time to get going."

None of them responded positively to his cheerful voice, so they just slowly followed him out of the tent and to the Quidditch pitch where he then told them to walk single file to the centre of the pitch where Flannery would be waiting for them. They did as they were told in silence, with rather serious expressions on their faces; Noëlle first, then Konstantin, and then Victoire.

Once they were standing on the pitch opposite if Minister Flannery, he started a speech, "Good morning ladies and gentlemen and good morning to you champions. Today you will be tested on your speed, strength . . ."

Victoire stopped paying attention to Flannery's words when she realized that he was about to try to sell them a load of deplorable dribble. She just watched his mouth move until he stopped to take a breath, and started to pay attention then because she figured he might actually say something of importance.

"Now for the champions. Today will be a simple task. You will fly around the pitch while a series of different obstacles arises. You will have to do a few circuits of the pitch, so the obstacles will change each time. You will all be competing at the same time, yet a different obstacle might come before you than what might come before another. There is no rule about changing your flying courses or flying behind or cutting off one of your opponents to get to or through an obstacle, so in that sense everything is fair game. Just no offensive spells directed at a fellow champion or a spell that would cause their obstacle to impede them, understood?" Flannery asked them.

Victoire rolled her eyes, but nodded along with Konstantin and Noëlle. After everything all three of them had been through in the last few tasks, Victoire highly doubted that any of them had the intention to hurt each other.

"Good, then let's get started!" Flannery yelled as the crowd began to cheer after them.

Victoire had a sudden desire to shoot the Minster of Magic a rude hand gesture for trying to glamourize their situations, but had to refrain because Konstantin had nudged her arm lightly to get her attention. He gestured to her that she needed to start moving, and Victoire blatantly realized that Flannery was waiting for all three of them to mount their brooms and get in a ready position not unlike the one they used for Quidditch right before kicking off a game.

Victoire took her spot on the far right of the line next to Konstantin and tried to get herself into her 'flying zone', while Flannery nattered on in the background.

"Now remember folks, this task will be happening very quickly and right in front of your eyes. So as I reminder I'll inform you that Miss Varens of Beauxbatons is wearing light blue, Mr. Krum of Durmstrang is wearing grey, and Miss Weasley of Hogwarts is wearing a red shirt. Now champions, on your mark, get set, GO!"

Victoire kicked off hard as soon as she heard Flannery enunciate his 'G'. She was up in the air a second later, a quick glance around her showed that Konstantin had kept pace with her and that Noëlle was even a little ahead of her.

Victoire shifted her attention back to the direction she was flying towards, just in time to see a series of blue enclosed tunnels appear in front of her. She lowered herself closer to the length of her broom and shot forward into the tunnel. It was dark inside so she could only see the twists and turns of the tunnels when they were right in front of her or when she would have been in danger of crashing. The tunnels reminded her of enclosed slides that were found on play structures, only horizontal instead of vertical.

Once she was out of them, she smiled to herself.

_Is that really, how easy this task's going to be?_

A minute later, she realized that she thought too soon.

* * *

In the stands, Teddy was thinking the same thing.

"That was too easy."

Xavier nodded, "There's definitely something else coming up."

"Look!" Ally called suddenly, her voice drew the boys' eyes back to the pitch.

A series of long walls appeared in front of Victoire, directly stopping her path. They were in a line one behind the next, a few meters away from each other. They would be too long for Victoire to go around, so Teddy assumed that she'd have to fly up to go over the wall, or down to fly below it.

She seemed to realize the concept once he had, and he saw her shoot upwards to go over top. Quickly after clearing that wall, she had to make a sharp nosedive down because the next wall suddenly shot up to stop her again. They seemed to be moving on their own accord, the movements greatly reminded Teddy of the moving staircases in the castle.

Victoire flew in a nosedive to go under that wall, and then flew straight up to fly over top of the next one. She did two more series of sharp nosedives down and sudden streaks upwards to clear a few more walls until she got to one that was short enough for her to hook around on the right side. Teddy could tell that she thought it was her last one, but directly behind it, a new rounded wall popped up and Victoire had to make a hasty 90 degree turn to avoid crashing face first into it. She followed the semi-circular shape of the wall and ended up at the end of the pitch she'd been flying towards, but facing the way she'd just came.

She took a minute to stop as the walls that she'd just swerved and zigzagged around, slowly vanished. She shrugged her right shoulder quickly as she waited on her broom for the next obstacle to appear, but Teddy noticed the grimace that accompanied the action.

"I think she hurt herself," Ally said worriedly, also noticing her cousin's movement.

"Yeah, it looked like she skimmed her shoulder against that wall when she turned. The speed she was going at probably would have made that more painful than it looked," Kyle commented.

"Let's hope that she doesn't have to use that arm for anything besides holding onto her broom then," Xavier said, his trained eyes closely watching not only Victoire's movements but also Konstantin's and Noëlle's.

Teddy looked back at the pitch in time to see Victoire take off on her broom again.

The next obstacle to appear before her seemed to be a series of hoops. They looked rather non-threatening, very similar to muggle hula-hoops. The very fact that they looked non-threatening told Teddy that they were probably rather dangerous.

In accordance with his hunch, Teddy watched Victoire fly directly to the closest one, most likely with the intent to fly right through it, when she suddenly put the brakes on her broom and stopped right in front of it. Her blonde head tilted to the side as she looked at it and Teddy squinted to see if he could get a better view at what she was looking at. Beside him, Ally and Xavier were leaning forward in their seats to get a better view, but Teddy couldn't do that since he was still holding a sleeping Brogan.

"There looks like there's some sort of force field in those hoops," Louis said when he noticed a dark green light emanating from the middle of the hoop.

"So it's probably to stop her from going through it?" Cecilia reasoned.

"Probably," Ally agreed as the green light from around the hoop faded and Victoire shot through it only to come to a stop a few metres later in front of another hoop that was emitting an orange aura.

"What's the point of these then? They come on, and then a few indeterminable minutes later they turn off? What are they for?" James asked from the row that Cecilia and Louis were sitting in.

"To stall," Dom said simply as she pointed out how both Konstantin and Noëlle were at that time trying to go through their own series of hoops. It seemed that one champion would take the lead, only to be stopped, and then a different champion would move ahead a bit to be stopped again.

"So she's got to figure out how to get rid of the force-field then if she wants to get a head start on everyone else," Louis summarized.

A few of them nodded their heads, but they all went back to watching the task.

Victoire had just gotten through the hoop she was stalled at only to come to yet another stop in front of one that was glowing a light blue colour. Teddy could tell from her expression that she was neither impressed, nor going to wait to be allowed through this time. He watched her tighten her right hand on her broom handle and pull out her wand with her left. She conjured a rock and used her wand to flick it through the hoop. The rock made it through the hoop intact and dropped to the ground after it had gone through. Victoire had a contemplative look on her face before she shot right through the hoop.

"What is she-" Kyle was about to yell before he realized that she made it through the hoop in one piece and was flying to the next one, several metres away.

"Does she look . . . wet to anyone else?" Katie asked from beside Teddy as she tilted her head a little and inspected Victoire.

Teddy looked closer at his girlfriend and noticed that Katie was right. Her shirt was suddenly a darker colour, and it, her hair, and her broom seemed to be dripping.

"So that hoop was filled with water then?" Sandra asked aloud to no one in particular.

"Let's hope so," Xavier responded.

The next hoop was the second to last laid out in front of Victoire, and once she was within five metres of it, the entirety of it erupted in bright yellow, orange, and red flames.

"Oh look, that one's on fire. That's nice," Kyle commented sarcastically.

"She's going to have to stop for that one," Ally said fearfully, as if she already knew that Victoire wasn't going to.

Teddy snorted, "Don't bet on it."

Victoire was now three metres from it, and she was close to being past her safety point for a proper stop. Teddy watched her head flash to the side and he could tell that she was looking to see how close Konstantin and Noëlle were to her. It was hard to tell from Teddy's seat, but he figured that at the rate they were all moving at –waiting for the hoops to allow them through, anyone of them could finish before the other.

"She doesn't look like she's stopping," Cecilia cried suddenly anxious as she watched Victoire speed up as she approached the flaming hoop.

"That is because she's not going to," Louis said matter-of-factly as his eldest sister approached the hoop at a breakneck speed.

No one spoke while Victoire flattened herself as much as she could and turned her face down and into her broom as she shot through the hoop.

Teddy held his breath until her saw that she'd made it through without being scorched. He could hear Xavier and Ally releasing their breaths too.

"Blood hell she really needs to stop doing stuff like that. One of these days she's not going to prove to be as fireproof as she thinks she is," Sandra said angrily. She was more vexed about the fact that Victoire could have caught on fire, but because Victoire made it through without a visible problem, she was happy to push some of that anxious energy into anger at her best mate for worrying her like that.

"She's ahead now though," Dom pointed out trying to distract everyone from their irritation at Victoire's stunt.

"There's only one left now!" Cecilia said excitedly as Victoire flew up to the last hoop.

Victoire did make a stop in front of the hoop this time, but that's because even from where her friends and family sat, they could see that the middle of the hoop was filled with solid rock. Teddy saw Victoire kick out her foot and land firmly against the rock in the middle of the hoop. She shot another look over her shoulder to see where Noëlle and Konstantin were, and then faced the hoop as she pulled her wand out again. With a quick flick of her wrist, the rock in the middle of the hoop was decimated into a scattering of pebbles and Victoire was through the hoop a second later.

On the other side of the hoop was the end of the Quidditch pitch, the one they started at. Victoire spun in a semi-circle on her broom to face the way she'd came, and she waited again for the hoops to disappear and for her next obstacle to arise. Once the hoops were gone, nothing else popped up across the pitch, causing Victoire to look worriedly around the entire expanse of the pitch as she tried to figure out what she was supposed to do next.

"What is that?" Sandra asked confusedly as a bright streak of red light whizzed just past Victoire's face.

Victoire noticed the motion and spun her broom around to see if she could find the streak of red light again. It had disappeared. As Victoire looked around for it, Noëlle came to stop at the same end of the pitch she Victoire was at. Noëlle was breathing heavily and she seemed to be just as confused as Victoire looked as to what the next obstacle could be. Suddenly, another streak of light flew past Victoire, but this time it was a deep blue and it moved past her and towards Noëlle's direction, only to disappear itself when Noëlle tried to target in on it. The two girls were still looking for the streaks of light when Konstantin joined them at the end of the pitch. Victoire's head start had given away and the three of them were tied again. When Konstantin joined them, another streak of light flew around Victoire and towards him, this time it was a dark grey in colour, but neither he nor she could pinpoint it before it disappeared just like the other two.

"Were those snitches?" Xavier asked questioningly.

Ally hit his arm lightly, "Not everything it related to Quidditch Xavier."

"That's not what I meant! I mean they're flying around like snitches. I wonder if they have to try to catch them," he tried to explain.

* * *

"They look like snitches!" Victoire cried suddenly as the red, blur, and grey streaks of light showed up again. This time all three colours traveling around the champions, but not lasting long enough for them to get a good look at them.

"Ow do you know? Zey are goeeng zo fast," Noëlle said frantically trying to get a good look at the closest grey one to her, only to have it soar away.

"Ve don't know. But vat's vat snitches do," Konstantin said, agreeing with Victoire's assessment.

"Do you reckon that we're supposed to catch them then?" Victoire asked the two. She really didn't care at this point who won, she just wanted it all to be over with.

"Vell, you're a seeker. My dad's a seeker, and Noëlle knows how to play Qvidditch, so I'd zay vat vat is most likely ve case," Konstantin stated.

"Good enough reasoning for me," Victoire said before zeroing in on the red streak of light that had just zoomed around her head. It shot forward when it was done circling her and she took off after it out into the middle of the pitch.

Behind her, Victoire assumed that Konstantin was going after the grey streak, and that Noëlle would follow the blue. Victoire tried to zone into her 'seeker skillz' but she couldn't concentrate as fully as she normally would because she kept expecting some new obstacle to pop up out of nowhere, and result with her flying headlong into a concrete wall or something else along those lines. Thankfully, that didn't happen, but as Victoire tried to follow the streak of red light, she realized that it was acting exactly like a snitch. Meaning that it wasn't necessarily flying in straight lines and that it would fly in one direction only to quickly change its course. Victoire followed it dutifully until she had to make a sharp left turn to avoid flying into Konstantin, who had somehow ended up flying right back towards her as he tried to follow his own grey streak. The almost incident caused Victoire to lose sight of the red streak for a minute, until she found it doing a series of small circles above Noëlle's head as she herself flew around trying to follow her own blue streak.

Victoire actually took the time to roll her eyes at the ridiculousness of their situations before flying rapidly towards Noëlle, before slowing when she got closer. Noëlle was still trying to catch her streak, so Victoire had to approach her carefully from above, but without scaring her and making her think that, they were going to crash. Victoire chose to approach from high above her, and then reach down to try to grab the streak before it would have the chance to fly away. When she grabbed for it the first time it dodged it and she almost smacked Noëlle on the head. She didn't give up though, and the second time she got her fingers wrapped around it, and then pulled up on her broom.

When Victoire came to a stop, she realized that she was, once again, at the end of the pitch. Directly in front of her, Konstantin and Noëlle looked closer and closer to catching their own streaks. Victoire hurriedly looked down to see what exactly it was that she caught, and was a little surprised to see that it was a little brass key about the size of her thumb, with wings on either side of it.

"Okay then," Victoire said to herself since her other champions were still searching for their keys. She looked towards the end of the pitch opposite her and saw that a large white wall had appeared just past the halfway point of the pitch. It seemed to go all the way to the bottom of the pitch, strained out the absolute farthest to stretch across the width of the pitch. She looked above the wall and saw that it went incredibly high into the sky. From where she was, she could see three different doors around the middle of the white wall. She assumed that that was where she was supposed to take the key.

She griped the key tightly and then shot across the pitch to get to the door. She was a few metres away from it and was about to start to slow down to a stop when the shadow of something very large shot over her head and she swerved to a sudden stop, several metres short of the door. It was a good move, because a second later a large winged beast swooped down in front of her and faced her with its back against the doors. It looked like a ginormous brown bird that was about the size of a buffalo. A second look told Victoire that its head region looked like an eagle, and that its lower body greatly resembled that of a lion.

"Wot eez zat?" Victoire heard Noëlle's voice asked from not too far away.

Victoire flew a little farther away from the bird, and looked beside her to see that both Noëlle and Konstantin had joined her, their own winged keys in their hands.

"That my friends, is a griffin," Victoire told them plainly.

Konstantin, who had drifted a little farther forward on his broom than the other two girls, had to quickly retreat backwards when the griffin went to swipe at him for his intrusion in its space.

"Ees eet goeeng to attack us?" Noëlle asked Victoire since her knowledge of magical creatures was rather limited, she was better at charms.

"No. Not unless we get in its way. Its duty seems to be to protect that door, not to attack us," Victoire replied.

"How do ve get past it. I doubt it vill just let us go by," Konstantin said.

Victoire smirked a little, "You are definitely correct in that sense."

Noëlle gave Victoire an incredulous look, "Why do you not seem as worreed about zis az we do?"

"Because Noëlle, unlike every other stupid creature we've had to deal with this year, I know how to deal with a griffin," Victoire told them as she studied the situation in front of them.

"Is vat because you're a _Gryffin_dor?" Konstantin asked her.

Victoire smiled a little at that, "No. It's because I might have run across one in the wild before."

"'Ow een ze world deed zat 'appen?" Noëlle asked suspiciously.

"Long story, the moral of it however, is that griffins are easily distracted."

"Vat do you need us to do?" Konstantin asked, rightly guessing that Victoire had come up with a plan.

"Just do what I say and don't question my motives," she told them seriously.

They both looked apprehensive with that order, but they nodded their heads at her.

"Good. I take it you can both produce a patronus?" Victoire asked them.

They both nodded their heads, this time they stashed their keys in their pockets so that they could grip their wands.

"Okay. First Noëlle, send your patronus to the left. Nothing fancy, we just want it to catch his attention," Victoire instructed.

Noëlle did as was instructed and her patronus shot off to the left of the griffin. It didn't follow it, but it was still looking in the direction where the silver light had vanished to while Victoire gave Konstantin the next direction.

"Now Konstantin, make your patronus come from the left where Noëlle's would have disappeared at. However, when it gets directly in front of the griffin, wait two counts and then send it off to the right."

Konstantin did as was told and soon the griffin was looking at the right where Konstantin's patronus had dropped off. Victoire noticed though, that he had moved a little farther away from the door, which was good because that meant that her next step in the plan should work.

"I'm going to send my patronus next, it's going to loop around the griffin, and then down the pitch to distract it. The minute the griffin passes by us and goes to the end of the pitch, we go straight for the doors, put our keys in, and get through. Understood?" Victoire asked looking at both of her companions to make sure that they understood the plan.

Konstantin nodded, but Noëlle asked, "'Ow are you goeeng to keep your patronus goeeng for so long zough?"

"Just trust me," Victoire told her seriously before she closed her eyes to come up with a strong memory that she hoped would be enough to do the job.

It must have been a good one, because her patronus shot out form her wand in a bright and thick stream of light. Victoire directed it quickly in a loop around the griffin; she hoped to get its attention. And it soon did. Victoire wasn't sure if it was the bright light that attracted it, or the fact that the griffin might have been able to recognize it as a wolf and form of prey. However, it reacted to the patronus nonetheless and followed right after it when she moved the patronus to streak off behind her and to the opposite end of the pitch.

Once she felt the breeze of air from the griffin's rapidly flapping wings pass her, she shot forward on her broom, but with her torso still angled so that she could see behind her and keep her patronus up to continue distracting the griffin.

"Keys now!" Victoire yelled at both Konstantin and Noëlle when they followed her to the doors near the white wall. A little bit of scrambling from the both of them had ended with them straightened out with one of them at a door on either side of Victoire. They both shoved their keys into the keyhole and turned them in the locks. Victoire heard the muted '_click_' '_click_' from both of the locks, and Konstantin and Noëlle's doors swung open easily.

"Go!" Victoire told the two who were still sitting on their brooms on the outer side of the door.

"Vat about you?" Konstantin asked.

"I'll take care of myself, just go; I have to drop the patronus soon."

Noëlle and Konstantin seemed to share a look but they flew through their doors on their brooms at Victoire's rather vocal request. She waited until their doors were shut tightly behind them before she turned back around to look at the griffin. It was still chasing her patronus around the pitch, but she knew the minute she dropped the spell, that it would be speeding back towards her. It would be able to cover the distance between them in five seconds flat.

Victoire had been planning on trying to keep the patronus up long enough to get her door unlocked, but the sharp pain in her head and stomach told her that she was straining herself as it was keeping it up as long as she did. She didn't have time to contemplate if her physical reaction was because of her total drain of magic two weeks ago, or if it was because she'd gone just as long without doing the difficult magic needed to be done with a wand, but she was sure that she wouldn't be able to keep the patronus up any longer.

She dropped her wand arm, and her patronus disappeared into a sliver mist. The minute it was gone the griffin turned towards her and shot back towards the door.

Victoire turned her back to it and quickly got out her own key and shoved it in the key hole. She turned it quickly, pushed open the door, and shot through it on her broom without even bothering to first see what was awaiting her on the other side.

The door shut with a bang behind her, followed by a loud thump, which she assumed was the griffin's claws because it tried to grab for her.

"Are you alright?" Konstantin's voice asked, easily making Victoire jump on her broom.

She looked up to see Noëlle and Konstantin on either side of her.

"What are you guys still doing here?"

"Waiting for you," Noëlle told her.

"Why?"

"Look."

Victoire looked before her for the first time since making it through the door and smiled. In front of them were three different tubes like the ones she had first flown through at the beginning of the task. One in front of each door, so assumedly one for each champion. At the end of the tubes a good few meters away was a hovering platform that held a lone Tri-Wizard Cup.

"Through the tunnels?" Victoire asked the two of them with a smirk.

"First one to grab ve cup vins," Konstantin said smiling back.

Victoire nodded and got in position in front of her tunnel.

"Vun . . ."

"Two . . ."

"Three . . ."

"Go!"

The three of them zoomed forward at the same time, but Victoire was soon encased in her own tube-tunnel focusing on trying to get through it as quick as possible.

What seemed like seconds later she was out of it and flying straight towards the cup. When she got closer, she reached her arm out like she would do if it were a snitch she was trying to catch. Out of her peripheral vision should could see two other arms stretched out around her.

The one on her left had a delicate hand attached at the end, and looked like it was probably that hand's length ahead of her. To her right was a long thick forearm that had a hand with fingers that were longer than she expected attached to it.

As she looked back to the front of her, she could see her own arm and hand in comparison to the other two as they reached for the cup.

For the first time that day, she doubted whether she'd be able to win.

* * *

**A/N:** Well there it is! Sorry for the cliff hanger but I just needed to end it there. I hope you liked!

**Next Chapter:** Will be in about a week and a half, as soon as I'm done the rest of my exams. And in it we will definitely find out who wins, along with some nice Vic/Teddy time and tie up a few loose ends.

**Chapters Left:** 2! Oh my Godric I can't believe it!

Thanks to everyone who had followed, favourited, read, and reviewed! It means a lot to be able to see how many people actually really enjoy my story. Oh, and we're only 35 reviews away from 2,000! So keep 'em coming!

**Sequel?**: Well, I may have changed my 85% from the last chapter to 100%, and might just be half-way through writing the first chapter . . . so . . . yeah . . . but of course, it won't be posted until after I'm finished this story.

An especially big thanks to:

** rockon88, Tillinator, Jobo78, ILovIceCream, barefoot and buckwild, ntlpurpolia, nifflerstorm17008, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, zvc56, Oddliver, MuggleCreator, reheni, Anon,RoLouG, GabrielaTJ, Seher Syed, brilliant incandescence, jeremiah123, isabellamargot, MaddieMonkey, Infinity Lily, owlcity2013, clessard, nargles and fairie lights, fanaticfan123, IloveSpunk, Guest (1), pryce123, Luv this story, SevenHeartsOfRuby, and Forever Siriusly Sirius!**

**rockon88**: I don't think it would be possible to think up enough stuff to write a sequel, without mentioning Sandra, Kyle, Ally, and Xavier. So rest assured they will most definitely will be in the sequel! As for how the sequel will go, I'm thinking full story, but there is a different style of writing I want to experiment with for parts of it, so I need to write a couple chapters, update a few, and then see what my readers think.

**Tillinator**: Thanks. And you might have just written a basic summary of what the sequel will contain.

**Jobo78**: As you would have read above, sequel is definitely a go!

**zvc56**: Aww, thanks :)

**RoLouG**: I hope that you'll follow the sequel too?

**MaddieMonkey**: Thanks!

**Infinity Lily**: So what, did Vic rock the task or what?

**clessard**: The sequel will definitely include all of your favourite OC characters I created, along with all of our favourite Weasleys and Potters!

**Luv this story**: Well then welcome to my story, it wa nice to meet you, even though we are so close to the end!

**Forever Siriusly Sirius**: Again, I absolutely love your reviews, and I got it this morning and I was already thinking of updating and your excitement for my story just tipped it over. Thanks again for your always awesome reviews (two this time!) and yes, the sequel will have Kyle/Sandra in it. They're not going anywhere.

**Again, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter,**

**Please review and tell me what you all thought,**

**Thanks again for reading, and DFTBA!**


	106. Packing Up the Loose Ends

**A/N:** Hey guys! I had my last two final exams today and I just finished, so in celebration, you guys get an update!

I hope you guys enjoy, and meet me at the A/N at the end so that you can find out when my next, and last update of this story will be :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything, HP.

* * *

**Packing Up the Loose Ends**

* * *

_The Tri-Wizard Tournament Has Been Won!_

_Yesterday the fourth task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament was completed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The task looked like a close one, and even to the end, it looked like it could have been any of the champions' victory. However, despite the amazing performances of Durmstrang Institute's Konstantin Krum and Beauxbaton Academy's Noëlle Varens, it was Hogwarts' own Victoire Weasley that ended with the Tri-Wizard Cup hoisted in the air. _

_Miss Weasley had had a rather rough history with not only some of the tasks of this tournament, but also with some of the judges for her scores hadn't shown her to be in lead for the majority of the year. However, luckily for her it was decided that the last task would be an all or nothing, with the first champion making it to the cup, the winner._

_Yesterday Weasley spent a good amount of the task ahead of her fellow champions, but near the end it was definitely a photo finish (See below pictures), for all three champions were neck-in-neck when racing towards the cup. At the end though, Miss Weasley reigned supreme as she was first to grab a hold of the cup, with both Miss Varens and Mr. Krum only a few centimetres behind her. _

_The race was so close, that many of the audience couldn't tell who had won until the final grab for the cup was replayed in slow motion for all to see. When the task was finished, there was a winner's ceremony in which Miss Weasley was insistent about taking pictures and celebrating with both of her fellow champions (See pictures on next page). _

_As the new Tri-Wizard champion, Miss Weasley not only gains the glory that such a position holds but also a more material representation . . ._

"Victoire, if you're going to just sit at the table you could do something constructive."

Victoire moved her gaze away from the article in that morning's _Daily Prophet_ to look up at the strict look on Kurt Williamson's face as he stood beside her.

"I _was_ putting the dishes in boxes, but then Teddy's owl Iris flew through the window with the _Daily Prophet_ and I hadn't read it yet because I skipped breakfast to sleep in-"

Kurt cut her off before she could finish rambling, "What's up?"

"What do you mean?"

"What's wrong? You're rambling."

Victoire sighed and stood up from the chair she was sitting in to glance around her. She and Kurt were standing in his and Teddy's kitchen area from the rooms they had in Hogwarts. Since the school year was winding down, the aurors were starting to pack up everything in their rooms so that they could move out. Teddy had only packed away the important things he needed when he had to quickly leave the castle a month ago, so he still had a few things in his room to pack up, and all of the dishes and kitchen wear he had hidden in the cupboards. Kurt had a lot more items to pack away since he hadn't had the chance to pack anything away yet. Victoire had agreed to help them box things up, and had been separating the kitchen items into two different groups: Teddy's, things and items she didn't recognize (therefore, most likely Kurt's things), while Teddy and Kurt worked on packing away the stuff from their rooms.

Victoire didn't have the chance to answer before Teddy came walking into the room with a large cardboard box in his hands. He stopped when he saw Kurt and Victoire just standing in the kitchen.

"What's going on?"

"Your girlfriend's being weird," Kurt told him before turning to the counter behind him to peek into one of the boxes.

Teddy placed the box he was holding down onto the kitchen table and noticed the newspaper Victoire had been reading. He picked it up and glanced at her, "Wanna talk about it?"

She nodded quickly.

Teddy smiled and held his hand out for her, "C'mon, I'll pack and you can cast the safety-cushioning charms on the boxes.

Victoire took Teddy's hand and he led her to the room he had stayed in. Almost everything but the large pieces of furniture like the bed and the dressers was gone from the room. The only things Teddy actually still had to pack were a few items that were in his bathroom, and the sheets and comforter that were still on the bed.

A blonde brow rose on Victoire's forehead, "Is there actually anything left to pack?"

Teddy shrugged, "A few things in the bathroom cupboard and the sheets on the bed."

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" Victoire asked.

"Doesn't matter you could clean out the bathroom cupboard or strip the sheets . . . Actually, never mind. You do the sheets I'll do the bathroom cabinet," Teddy said.

Victoire smirked, "Something in the bathroom that you don't want me to see?"

Teddy shook his head vehemently, but his hair was starting to turn red at the tips, "'Course not."

Victoire snickered but followed Teddy's direction. It only took her a few minutes to strip the sheets off the bed and put them in a laundry basket, Teddy had told her earlier that he was planning to wash them once he got back to his flat in London, so she didn't need to fold them.

Minutes later Teddy came out of the bathroom to join her, with a little box filled with an assortment of bottles. He set the box down on the empty dresser and walked forward to take the laundry basket out of Victoire's hands, and set it down with a pile of other boxes in the corner of the room.

"Why does Kurt think you're weird?" Teddy asked her gently.

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Who doesn't think I'm weird?"

Teddy folded his arms across his chest and just gave her a look.

She sighed and looked down at her feet, "Fine. The article in the _Daily Prophet_ was just . . ."

"Did it make fun of you?" Teddy asked.

She shook her head, "No. It just . . . I can't believe I won yesterday."

He gave her a smile and pulled her into a hug, "I can. You're fantastic."

"You mean I was fantastic during the task yesterday?" she asked for clarification.

He smirked at her before pressing a kiss to her temple, "You're always fantastic."

"Really?"

"Yes really," he replied before dropping a quick kiss to her lips.

Victoire had stood up on her tiptoes when he tried to pull away so that the kiss would last just a little longer.

"But right now, you need to tell me what's bothering you," Teddy told her when he'd finally pulled away.

Victoire's face slipped into a blank expression, "I don't know what you mean."

"Vic, I can read you like a book. Something about the way the Tournament ended is bugging you."

She bit her lip, but decided to tell him because she knew, sooner or later, he'd get it out of her, "I spoke to Konstantin and Noëlle after the task . . ., and I think they let me win."

Teddy's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"I think when I reached for the Cup at the end, the two of them pulled back. It seriously looked like one or the both of them were going to get to it first."

"Did you ask them about it?" Teddy questioned.

Victoire nodded, "I told them the same thing, and they both denied it. But I think they were lying."

"But why would they have let you win?"

"I don't know, I've been wondering that myself, and I haven't come up with a good reason why. I mean there are reasons why they could have done it, but none of them are really sound ones."

"Why do you think they would have done it though?" he asked.

"Well, they were told a bit about the investigation and everything that happened because Kingsley thought that they had the right to know, so maybe they wanted to make sure that I won to mess with the Holmwoods that the Ministry can't legally touch."

The Aurors and MLE had enough evidence to take down J. P. Holmwood (Lassoder) and a few of the Holmwoods cronies that Professeure La Croix had been able to identify as helping Jean, but they hadn't been able to take down anyone higher in the organization. J. P. Holmwood (Lassoder) had claimed to be in charge of all of the kidnapping attempts and incidents during the Tri-Wizard Tournament, so even though the agents from the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D. were trying to find evidence against leaders of the Holmwood family, they hadn't been able to find enough to arrest or charge them. Teddy had learned, and told Victoire, that the leaders of the Holmwood family were in fact Graeme, Kent, Isaac, and Braxton, the people that they had been trying for a month to find information about.

Teddy smirked a little, "I can see Konstantin and Noëlle wanting to get a little revenge for everything they've had to go through with the tasks, but I don't think they would just _let_ you win."

Victoire bit her lip and didn't respond. Teddy's smirk faded into a concerned expression. He reached out and wrapped his arms around Victoire's waist so that he could bring her body to his.

"I know what you're really worried about, and the answer is no."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Victoire responded quickly.

Teddy gave her a look before answering, "You're more worried that Noëlle and Konstantin let you win out of pity."

She looked like she was going to argue, but didn't.

"I think yesterday's task was very close between the three of you, but at the end, you won," he told her.

Victoire nodded her head and finally cracked a small smile, "Okay. We should probably go back out to your kitchen before Kurt ends up buried beneath all of his boxes."

Teddy chuckled and moved away from her so he could pick up a few boxes, "Yeah, I can't believe all of the crap he's accumulated over the year."

Victoire put a levitation charm on the boxes that contained less breakable stuff and followed Teddy out of the room. They left the boxes in a pile near the couch, and all that was left to do was make sure that the kitchen was emptied of Teddy's kitchenware.

Teddy peeked into the boxes that Victoire had already packed, while she opened and closed cupboards to see if anything else was left to be packed. She checked the first few cupboards and found nothing left, but when she got to the cupboard above the stove, she saw what she assumed to be a white mug that she'd missed the first time, on the top shelf. She stretched up on her tiptoes, to try to reach it, but she was short a few inches. She stretched her arm as far as it would go, causing her blue tank top to ride up a bit, but she still couldn't reach.

She tried one last grab for it, but stopped halfway through when she felt a pair of hands grab her around the waist where her top had ridden up. The hands were warm on her bare skin, but they also sent a shock through her body that made her heart start to beat quicker.

"Isn't this the part where you're supposed to offer to help me?" Victoire asked more than slightly sarcastically as she felt the hands on her waist start to trace absentminded patterns on her skin. Their gentle movement was causing Goosebumps to rise on her skin, despite the fact that it was the end of June and that it was actually rather warm in the room, just like it was almost everywhere else in the castle.

"Is that what a gentleman would do?" Teddy asked speaking into the skin at the back of her neck where he had suddenly had the urge to place a kiss.

"Yes," Victoire commented with an attempt at disinterest. She wasn't having the best of luck with it though since Teddy's hands were unabashedly traveling further under her tank top to trace patterns on the skin above her bellybutton.

"Too bad then. I don't think I've ever once claimed to be a gentleman," he commented with a smirk that she couldn't see but he was sure she could feel since his face was presently pressed against the skin between the crook of her neck and where the thin strap of her blue top started.

"Don't let Andromeda hear you say that, she'd make you re-take all those etiquette classes she made you attend as a child," Victoire said with a giggle. She remembered how much the younger Teddy hated attending those two-hour-long classes every week where he'd learn which utensils to use at a fancy dinner; how to properly make small talk with snobby purebloods; and, something which Victoire decided she really didn't mind, how to properly dance in a ballroom.

Teddy groaned into her collarbone, "Do not remind me of those. It took me years to repress them."

Victoire giggled again, "I'd say that you're just exaggerating to get sympathy, but Kyle once told me that they were literally Hell and that as a child his mother would threaten, and punish him with them, so I'll take your word for it."

"Good," Teddy replied, "So would you like some help then?"

Victoire nodded and a minute later, she felt his hands spin her body around so that she was facing him and then slide down to her hips and grip there tightly. In the next minute, he'd lifted her up so that she could sit on the counter next to the stove. He kept his left hand on her hip while he reached up and to the right with his right, and easily grabbed the mug that had previously eluded her. He set it down on the counter to Victoire's right, before placing, his now free hand on her other hip.

He moved his face in close to hers and gave her an expectant look, "Well?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, "What? Are you expecting me to thank you for coming to my rescue?"

"That's exactly what I expect," Teddy told her with a smile. He moved closer to her so that he was standing in between her legs, and shifted his hands on her thighs to the small of her back so that he could bring her body closer to his.

"Oh, my bad. Let me try that again," she answered him sarcastically before throwing her arms around his broad shoulders and fluttering her eyelashes at him, "My hero."

Teddy sniggered at her, very poor, attempt at a Southern Belle accent and kissed the tip of her nose, "Please tell me that you're not thinking of going into acting."

Victoire fake-gasped, "Why? You don't think I'd be any good?"

"I think that you have an abundance of talents and potential and that you can do anything you want. That being said, you're a horrible actor," he told her with a grin.

She pushed him away from her for a minute, but quickly brought him back, "Don't sugar coat it or anything Teddy, tell me what you really think."

He gave her another grin before dropping a kiss to her forehead, "You want to know what I really think?"

"Yes," Victoire told him earnestly as she laid her forehead against his and gazed sincerely into his sapphire blue eyes.

"I think that you are absolutely brilliant and that you are going to pass your N. E. W. T.s this next week and a half with flying colours."

"Hmmm, proceed."

"I think that you're amazingly talented and that any day now you're going to get your official letter that lets you into Healing School for September."

"Anything else?"

"Yes, one last thing, I think you should kiss me."

Victoire eyed him intently, "Do you really now?"

"Oh yes. Definitely one of the smartest things you could do right now."

"But how exactly would that better my future, as your other examples explained."

"We could consider it practice of course. We are only two short weeks away from our trip to France," Teddy told her with a seriousness that was just short of teasing.

Victoire felt her face break out into a bright smile. Her birthday present to Teddy a few months ago had been a trip for just the two of them to her parent's beach house in France for the first two weeks of July. They would be leaving in just less than two weeks, the day after her Hogwarts graduation ceremony.

"You make a very convincing argument Mr Lupin."

"Do I now Miss Weasley?"

"Oh yes. With such argument skills like yours I'm surprised that you didn't decide to go into magical law as your profession instead."

Teddy chuckled, "Yeah, thanks but no thanks. I'll leave studying the law to Dom; a person needs just the right level of fierceness for that occupation."

"Very true," Victoire agreed with a quiet giggle.

The conversation drifted into a pause that for anyone else would probably seem awkward, but for the two of them was anything but. Their vocal conversation had ended, but their silent one was still intact.

They were staring into each other's eyes until they slowly closed them as they closed the distance between their mouths. The kiss had started out sweet and tender, but as their kiss grew deeper, the heat between them increased and in no time Victoire had her arms wrapped around Teddy's neck, and her lags wrapped around his waist. Teddy had one hand under Victoire's shirt, touching the skin at the small of her back, and the other wrapped around her blonde hair. At what seemed like the same time they pressed their bodies closer to each other's, and wound themselves even closer.

Victoire had just tangled her tongue with Teddy's when they were interrupted by a voice calling out.

"Merlin just because you guys can snog in public now doesn't mean that you have to take every opportunity to."

Teddy only removed himself from Victoire enough to be able to turn around and shoot their intruder a glare.

"First, this kitchen is hardly public, and second, just leave us alone Jilly."

Victoire giggled and rested her head against Teddy's chest; she knew he wasn't actually angry; he was more frustrated than anything else. However, she didn't really want Jilly to leave as Teddy had told her to, she'd barely had time to see Jilly since she and Professor Cooke had been cleared of all charges against them a few weeks ago, and she wanted to know how she was.

Luckily, Jilly wasn't in the habit of taking instruction from most people, including Teddy, so instead of leaving when he spoke to her, she just chuckled and walked further into the room.

"As much as I'd like to leave and let you two get back to I-really-don't-want-to-know-what, there is a reason why I'm here," she told them.

"Then tell us and leave," Teddy said only a bit more politely. He'd had to hide the majority of his physical affection for Victoire around people for the greater part of the last 11 months, and he wasn't too eager to continue the trend, especially when there was absolutely no reason for him to do so anymore.

Victoire tapped his shoulder gently, a sign that she wanted him to be more polite, and then spoke, "It's really good to see you Jilly . . . is everything going good with you?"

Jilly shot Teddy a smirk before sending a genuine smile in Victoire's direction, "Everything is going very well now. And congratulations on winning the Tournament yesterday."

Victoire blushed, "Thanks, but hey, I want to ask you something-"

Teddy placed a hand over Victoire's mouth to stop her. He knew she was going to bring up the topic about whether or not Konstantin and Noëlle let her win again, and he knew that for her sake she needed to let it die. She was just being self-conscious and it would do more harm than good to dwell on her worried thoughts.

"So what are you here for anyway?" Teddy asked Jilly in an attempt to move the conversation along.

Jilly gave him a strange look, since his hand was still covering Victoire's mouth, but answered him, "Shacklebolt says he wants to see you two in the second interview room."

"Why?" Teddy asked her very surprised. They had both been in and out of interview rooms for the past two weeks, to recite over and over statements about the attacks and kidnappings on Victoire's part, and to recite statements, but to also write down some statements on Teddy's part.

"All I know is that they're trying to tie up a few loose ends before moving all evidence and suspects to the Ministry and clearing Hogwarts for good," Jilly told him.

Teddy nodded and then extracted himself from Victoire so that she could get down from the counter; he grabbed her hand with his left, and the white mug he'd gotten off the top shelf with his right. He handed the white mug to Jilly and told her to pack it into one of Kurt's boxes, and then pulled Victoire towards the door.

Jilly looked at the mug but then called out, "Teddy this is a _Holyhead Harpies_ mug!"

"I know," Teddy told her with a smirk, "Make sure that you pack it closer to the bottom so that he won't notice it until he unpacks the boxes at his flat later."

He then turned and left the room with Victoire, leaving Jilly behind to cackle with laughter as she anticipated how much Kurt was going to hate finding the mug with his things later.

As Teddy and Victoire walked down the corridor to go find Kingsley, Victoire shot Teddy a look.

"I thought you said that Kurt hates the _Harpies_."

"He does."

"So why are you punishing him then?"

Teddy gave her a wicked smile, "He called you weird earlier today, didn't he?"

Victoire felt the corners of her lips turn up into a smile, "Remind me not to get on your bad side."

* * *

"Alright, all we need you two to do is to confirm that the notes in front of you were the notes sent to Victoire earlier in the Tournament," Kingsley told Victoire and Teddy once they had gotten seated in the second interview room.

"Didn't I already do this?" Victoire asked tiredly even though she reached out to accept the clear evidence bags that Kingsley handed her.

"Yes, but you did that before Professeure La Croix admitted to writing the notes. You identify these notes again; we go ask Professeure La Croix, who is in the other interview room right now, to positively identify them herself; she agrees that she and Lassoder wrote them; and then we can officially close this case," Kingsley explained.

Victoire nodded at him. She shared the evidence bags with Teddy, and they both affirmed that those were the notes they had found earlier in the room.

Kingsley nodded and handed the bags to the other auror in the room, before telling him to go and give them to Auror McKenny, who was waiting in the other interview room with Professeure La Croix.

When the auror left the room, Kingsley turned to Victoire, "Ready for N. E. W. T. s to start?"

Victoire nodded calmly, "So much more ready now that I've got my wand back."

Kingsley smiled at her and reached across the table to pick up her hand that wasn't holding Teddy's, and to give it an affectionate squeeze.

A minute later, Auror McKenny walked into the room with an evidence bag, "We've hit a snag."

"How so?" Kingsley asked standing up to walk over to him.

"Professeure La Croix admitted to all of the notes except this one."

Kingsley took the evidence bag and studied it for a minute, "But why would she do that?"

"She claims that she never wrote that one and that to her knowledge neither did Lassoder."

"But why would she do that?" Teddy asked, "She cooperated with everything you've asked her to do so far, and she knows that the severity of her own punishment will reflect how easily she cooperates on the case. And why admit to all of the others except one?"

Kingsley shook his head; he didn't understand it either. He tossed the bag onto the table so that Teddy and Victoire could get a look. Victoire's eyes narrowed when she read the note again:

_. . . Three champions will complete three tasks . . ._

_. . . And thwart the one with many masks . . ._

_. . . A task for each, they'll need to lead . . ._

_. . . To stop evil before it can seed . . ._

_. . . The final task does not mean this ends . . ._

_. . . To foil peril, you must work with friends . . ._

"This was the first note I ever received," Victoire told Kingsley as she remembered how it had landed on her desk during class, and how she then asked Xavier if he could tell who had wrote it, only to have the writing disappear and have Xavier think she was slightly nuts.

"Wait," Teddy said reading over the note, "Didn't you say that you got this note before the tournament started?"

Victoire nodded, "I got it before Durmstrang or Beauxbatons even came to Hogwarts . . . actually, it was the day that Kingsley decided that he was going to have aurors staying in the castle the entire year."

McKenny spoke up, "All of the aurors in the castle were with us for that entire day, there's no way Lassoder would have been able to sneak away to send the note, even if he would have known where Miss Weasley was."

"And didn't Professeure La Croix say that they waited until they knew who was going to be the champions before they tried to scare her off? Why would they send her a note, if they in fact could have, when they didn't even know she'd be competing? This happened a month before the champions were picked," Teddy said.

"It's different from the other ones too," Victoire, said studying the note closer, "The others were threatening, telling me to drop out of the tournament. This one's different."

Teddy shot the note another glance, "This one reads almost like a prophecy."

Kingsley nodded and took the note back. He studied it for another minute before telling Auror McKenny to go back to Professeure La Croix and to only charge her for the notes she said she'd written. Kingsley took the note out of the evidence bag and gave the clear plastic bag to McKenny and told him to dispose of it when he had the chance.

Auror McKenny looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but wisely followed Kingsley's instructions. When he was gone, Kingsley sat back down in his seat across from Teddy and Victoire and placed the note on the table between them.

"You're sure you don't know who this is from?" Kingsley asked.

Victoire shook her head, "No. I don't. What do you think it means?"

"I think we need to be careful about assigning greater importance to this note than what it deserves," Kingsley told her.

Victoire shot him a questioning glance, but Teddy answered her confusion, "He's saying that we need to be cautious about assigning the note more importance that it really has. It might all be a coincidence."

Victoire frowned at the two men before bringing the note closer to her, she read it again and shivered, "But . . . it was so accurate. The 'one with many masks' was Lassoder. He didn't actually have many masks, but many faces and personas. 'A task each they'll need to lead', that was the tournament. Konstantin led in scores for the first task, Noëlle for the second, and I lead, or won the last one. 'The final task does not mean this ends' the kidnappings didn't end with the third task, Lassoder's last attempt was after it had finished. And it did take a lot of people to work out what was going on and to finally figure out that it was Lassoder and La Croix."

"Victoire, you need to stop trying to fit everything into this note. It's hindsight bias and it's not fool proof. Besides, it said that there'd be three tasks. There were four," Kingsley pointed out firmly.

Victoire was a little surprised at Kingsley's sternness, but she commented back anyway, "It says they'd 'complete three tasks'. The third task wasn't actually completed by anyone because it was stopped when I disappeared; technically even with the fourth task we champions only _completed_ three."

"Victoire you don't need to worry about this note. Since we've pointed out that it wasn't the work of either Lassoder or La Croix, it is no longer connected to the case or worth any thought. Understand?" Kingsley asked her suddenly and harshly.

Victoire nodded quickly not entirely sure what to do when Kingsley was as angry as he seemed. He nodded back and picked up the note from the table before leaving the room without as much as a backwards glance.

They waited, until the echo of the door closing had dissipated throughout the room, to speak.

"What's his problem?"

Teddy sighed and squeezed Victoire's hand tightly, "He's just realized that he might have something else to worry about."

"With what? Everything's finished, the note even says so," Victoire reminded him.

"But it might not," Teddy countered.

"What do you mean?"

"'The final task does not mean this ends'," Teddy quoted.

"And it didn't, Lassoder tried to kidnap me for the last time after the third task, but he failed. We've got him now, and the Holmwoods know that they're being investigated. They wouldn't be stupid enough to try something else," Victoire argued.

"The note said the final task, not the third. Yesterday was actually the final task, and if we interpret the note as meaning that, then this might not be done," Teddy explained sadly.

Victoire swallowed thickly, she hadn't thought that, "But . . . Kingsley looks convinced that this is all done, and that the letter means nothing."

Teddy nodded and stood up from his chair, they'd been sitting in the interview room for long enough, "And that's what he truly believes, but a little part of him is always now going to wonder 'what if' and whether this is actually all done. Especially if you keep insisting that the note is reading like a prophecy."

"But there's no proof that the note is either a prophecy, or that if it is that it didn't mean the third task as the last," Victoire pointed out.

"Exactly why Kingsley wants us to forget about it. We have other more important things to do than to worry about some riddle written by an anonymous person," Teddy explained as he grabbed Victoire's hand and dragged her out of the constricting interview room.

"So I just need to forget about it?" Victoire asked. She wasn't totally following either Teddy or Kingsley's thought processes, but she decided that just agreeing to do what they said would be easier than arguing with one or both of them.

"Yes."

* * *

**A/N:** So, I hope you guys liked that chapter! Don't read too much into the latter part because this is still the second-to-last chapter.

**Chapters Left to Go:** ONLY 1 LEFT GUYS!

**Next Chapter:** Okay, so I will upload the last chapter of this story sometime on Tuesday, December 24th EST (Eastern Standard Time, my timezone). So that you guys will either get the update as a Christmas eve, or Christmas day present :) Along with -maybe- a little 'sneak peak' of the sequel!

**Sequel:** If you guys have any questions about the sequel that you would like me to answer before this story is finished, you have to review or PM me before my next chapter is out, sot hat I can answer you (mostly just those of you who ask questions, without allowing me to comment back).

Thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed! And please, please, please continue to review because we're only 13 reviews away from hitting 2,000 reviews! :)

An especially big thanks to:

**eyechange, cmorehart, Infinity Lily, brilliant incandescence, jeremiah123, carbo21, A Frozen Shadow, Forever Siriusly Sirius, clessard, SiBheagSiMhor, MaddieMonkey, Millatz, barefoot and buckwild, Oddliver, Encypher, Anon, pryce123, Guest (1), Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, Guest (2), elusivemelodies, **and** reheni**.

**Okay, let me know if you liked the chapter, **

**and how excited you are for the last chapter and the sequel!**

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**Have a good week until my next update, and DFTBA!**


	107. Wrapped Up

**A/N**: Okay everyone, here it is . . . THE LAST CHAPTER!

**READ THIS:** I'm not going to do another A/N at the bottom of this chapter because I want to leave off with the ending.

**HOWEVER:** I am posting another 'chapter' after this one that will be an authors note. Which you should all read because it concerns my sequel, and all of the questions you asked me in your reviews :)

Also, I'm going to give you a sneak peak of the sequel, so make sure to check out that page.

Anyway, enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything JKRish, but I'll take credit for Colton Knott in this chapter ;)

* * *

**Wrapped Up**

The next week and a half of N. E. W. T. s went by quicker than Victoire or any of her friends expected. One day they were beginning their exam weeks with their Charms N. E. W. T. and then the next thing they knew, they had finished their last practical (Defense Against the Dark Arts) and they were officially going to graduate from Hogwarts in two days' time.

Victoire was in her dorm room in Gryffindor Tower, looking out onto the grounds and watching everyone exit the gates and get into the carriages that would take them down to Hogsmeade station, and then to the Hogwarts Express. It was the day after all exams had finished, and the graduation ceremony was slated for just after noon the next day. Several years ago, the professors had noticed the pointlessness of seventh-years leaving the castle and traveling home, just to arrive back the next day to graduate, so they installed an opportunity that, those who chose to, could stay at the castle until the graduation ceremony actually commenced, to save time in traveling for those who lived rather farther away.

Victoire had chosen to stay at Hogwarts until the ceremony, for three reasons. The first two were practical. Since her entire family was coming to the graduation ceremony anyway, she needn't be home right away to see them. She figured that they were all going to converge on her after the ceremony and at her graduation dinner at the Burrow anyway, so waiting a day to see them all wasn't going to be a big deal. The second practical reason was that her mother was going to have her hands full getting her father, Dom, and Louis all ready for the ceremony the next day as it was, she didn't need to add a reluctant to both wake up and get dressed in fancy clothes Victoire to the mix. The third reason was more sentimental. Victoire had wanted to stay so that she could have the rest of the day to walk around the castle and the grounds, and say her own goodbye to Hogwarts.

Kyle and Sandra had agreed with Victoire's idea and thought that they'd enjoy having the leisure to say goodbye to the castle at their own speed, but Sandra had her own reservation. Her family was going to come to the graduation ceremony the next day, but she was the only one who would be able to talk them through the portkey they were going to use to travel. She had come to the conclusion that she wouldn't be able to stay because she'd need to go back and see her family before the ceremony, when Kyle suggested that his parents just apparate to her house and walk her family through the portkey themselves. Kyle's parents had been to Sandra's home at least a handful of times over the past four years of their relationship, so he assured his girlfriend that his parents wouldn't mind at all. Sandra had only agreed with the plan when Kyle's mother wrote her a short letter telling her that it was settled thing and that there was no way she was going to convince them to change their minds.

So, Sandra and Kyle had decided to stay at the castle, along with a handful of others in some of the different houses, but what really surprised Victoire was the fourth addition to their party.

"Knock, knock."

Victoire smirked at hearing the voice but didn't turn away from the window to look at the arrival.

"So now you decide to knock? The year's technically over, and you decide to use proper etiquette now?" Victoire said sarcastically.

The visitor rolled his eyes but came to join Victoire at her window.

"I can't believe we're actually done school."

Victoire giggled and faced him, "And I can't believe that you actually gave Delaney a black eye yesterday."

Xavier's eyes were bright and satisfied as he recalled the event, "He so had it coming."

. . .

_Xavier had decided a week and a half ago that he was going to take his N. E. W. T. exams at Hogwarts, instead of letting the instructors come to him. He only came on the days where there were exams, and he didn't stay very long in between because he still had the odd practice to get to, but he did take all of his exams in the castle. Yesterday he had had the Defense Against the Dark Arts practical along with all of the seventh years, and he had decided that he'd stay to celebrate the end of exams with his friends. Sandra and Kyle had finished their practical before Victoire and Xavier because of the spelling of their last names, but had promised to wait outside until their other two friends were done._

_Victoire and Xavier had finished their practical around the same time (both of them decisively concluding that they did well) and because they were at the end of the alphabet, many other written exams were finishing about the time that they were._

_Victoire and Xavier had left the room but waited just outside it because they had started a discussion with Sandra and Kyle about it. The classroom across from them was just letting out, and Victoire reminded them that that was Ally's written History of Magic exam._

_They were trying to spot Ally's dark head amidst the sea of sixth-years leaving the room when Kyle pointed her out. Before they could go over to her however, Carson Delaney walked out of the classroom and over to her._

_He began speaking to her and Xavier could see Ally inching further and further away from him. She misjudged the direction she was moving however, because she backed herself right up against the wall, and Delaney was still moving towards her. He ended up about a foot away from her, and leaned a hand out against the wall beside her head._

_"Xavier-" Victoire started to warn him as she saw him starting to move towards where Ally and Delaney were._

_Xavier didn't heed Victoire's warning, but he did shoot her a look that said I-know-what-I'm-doing, before walking over to his girlfriend with calm strides._

_Victoire, Sandra, and Kyle shared a look before following him. They were sure that something serious was about to happen, and they didn't want to miss it._

_Xavier walked up slowly behind where Delaney had Ally backed up against the wall and stood there. Ally noticed him right away, but Xavier shook his head at her when he saw that she was about to say his name._

_"So Ally, what do you say to hanging out tonight? We're done exams so your excuse about studying isn't going to work this time," Delaney told Ally in a tone Xavier assumed was supposed to be charming._

_"Listen Carson-" Delaney didn't let her finish, he could tell from her facial expression that she was going to turn him down._

_"C'mon Ally, just give us a chance. What's stopping you anyway? You know we'd be great together."_

_Ally sighed in annoyance, "Carson, listen to me carefully. First, I have a boyfriend. Second, I don't particularly fancy you."_

_Delaney rolled his eyes at her, "Be serious here Ally, Wood is not your boyfriend. You make think he is, but he's a professional Quidditch player now, he has many more and many better girls to pick from now and that's just something you have to accept. And second, you do too like me; you're just playing hard to get, which I must say, was cute at first, but is really annoying right now. Just be a good girl and give in now and things will go on much more smoothly."_

_Ally's eyes sparked with anger, "He does too care about me!"_

_"Really? If he cares about you so much then where is he right now?"_

_"Hi."_

_Delaney startled a bit and turned around to see Xavier standing behind him with his arms crossed against his chest, and a calm expression on his face, "Problem here?"_

_Delaney's mouth gaped open and Xavier took that as an answer._

_"Alright then," he stepped around Delaney and made quick work of the distance between him and Ally._

_"Hey," Xavier said giving her a huge grin as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her towards him._

_"Hi," Ally replied back a little shocked. She placed her hands on his chest and gave him a sweet but embarrassed smile._

_"How was your exam?" Xavier asked, continuing with the conversation as if they didn't have both Delaney and a small crowd of people staring at them._

_"Good. How was your practical?" Ally asked, her cheeks were reddening with the attention but she couldn't stop her grin._

_"Well even though I was working next to Vic she didn't hex me, so overall I'd say it went well."_

_Ally chuckled but quickly stopped. She could feel her face heating up even more, although she didn't exactly know why, probably because Xavier was staring at her with such an expression of awe._

_"So, about tonight Ally?" Delaney asked breaking into Xavier and Ally's bubble._

_Victoire heard Kyle choke on a laugh beside her, and knew that the conversation was going to go somewhere _very_ specific. She quickly tried to clear the dozen students that were still milling around the classrooms, expecting a show from Xavier, Ally, and Delaney, and might have had to use the warning 'I-don't-care-if-it's-the-last-day-of-school-I'm-still-HeadGirl-and-you-will-listen-to-me' a few times to finally get rid of all of the bystanders besides herself, Sandra, and Kyle._

_Meanwhile, Ally was giving Delaney an incredulous look, "Carson I've told you a dozen times that I don't like you. Just leave me alone!"_

_"And I've told you a dozen times Ally," Delaney began barely caring about the intense glare Xavier had just shot him, "That we'd be good together. Wood doesn't actually care about you; you're just convenient for him right now. Do you actually think that next year when _you're still a student_ he'll find your long-distance relationship more convenient then Quidditch fangirls?"_

_Victoire had to slap Kyle's arm when he whispered "Oh snap" and shhhd him so that she could hear Ally's retort._

_"You know what Carson-"_

_Xavier stopped her and shifted their positions so that he was standing in front of him, "You are not worth either of our time. So if you would just leave us alone, that'd be nice."_

_Delaney didn't look like he was going to take 'no' for an answer, "Whatever, go ahead and use her all you want. I'll be here next year to take care of your sloppy seconds when you unceremoniously ditch her."_

_Xavier moved faster than Victoire, or Delaney it seems, expected. By the end of Delaney's comment Xavier had shot forward and delivered a healthy right hook to Delaney's face._

_"Bloody hell!"_

_"Xavier!"_

_"Brilliant!"_

_Were the shouts uttered by Kyle, Sandra, and Victoire respectively as they moved closer to the confrontation. Sandra went to Ally, placed an arm around her, and started to speak comfortingly to her because she looked like her eyes were going to pop out of her head from Xavier's unexpected boxing lesson. Kyle went to Xavier and placed a stern hand on his arm; he didn't think that Xavier was going to introduce Delaney to his fist again, but he wanted to make sure. So that left Victoire to slide in between Xavier and Delaney in case the latter decided to stand up for himself with his fists instead of his mouth like usual, which was also unlikely._

_"You're going to be sorry for that Wood!" Delaney called out when he decided that he could speak through the blinding pain that was emanating from his left cheekbone and eye socket from Xavier's poke. _

_"Calm your pants Delaney," Victoire told him sharply as his voice was getting louder._

_ "And why exactly should I listen to you Weasley?" Delaney sneered back at her. _

_Victoire was a little taken aback. Usually he was civil to her, even when James and Freddie were trying to make his life more difficult, because she was the person who decided whether or not he would play in the Quidditch games. Now that the year was over, he didn't need to suck up to her because of that anymore._

_"School's not done until tomorrow so I still get to wear this nifty Head Girl badge, meaning I get to tell you what to do."_

_Delaney switched his glare from Xavier to Victoire, "Like you're not biased or anything there Weasley."_

_Victoire opened her mouth, most likely to introduce him to a few colourful French insults, when a whistling sound suddenly started._

_Everyone turned their heads to the source of the sound when they saw Colton Knott mosey around the corner while whistling. He stopped in his tracks when he got close enough to properly assess the situation. His expression quickly dropped from one of mild contentment to a frown before he walked over to the group._

_"Do I even want to know what's going on?" Colton addressed the group, but Victoire in particular._

_Delaney answered, "Wood punched me."_

_Colton nodded and gave Delaney a once over before turning his head to catch a glimpse of Ally standing with Sandra._

_"Well obviously you must have really done something to tick him off because it takes a lot to rile Wood up. To tell you the truth it would have been more credible if you told me Victoire or Alexandra hit you," Colton told Delaney seriously._

_Delaney scowled, "Just do something about it will you?"_

_Colton crossed his arms over his chest, "I do believe Victoire Weasley is the Head from your Gryffindor House, at least until tomorrow. Why don't you let her deal with this situation?"_

_"Because she's completely biased against me and for Wood! You're still Head until tomorrow, too, you do something!" Delaney told him._

_Colton glanced down at his Head Boy that was still affixed to his robe for a minute before plucking it off and slipping it into the pocket of his robes, "I've got some overtime racked up so I'm going to retire early. Victoire can take care of this."_

_And before Delaney or Victoire could say anything, Colton turned on his heel and left the way he'd come._

_"Alright then, you heard the Slytherin, I'll handle this," Victoire told Delaney, "You go and see Madam Pomfrey if you don't want that hit to turn into a lovely purple shiner, and I'll discipline Wood."_

_Delaney gave Victoire an incredulous look, "He's your friend; you're not going to discipline him."_

_Victoire scoffed, "He doesn't even go here . . . technically, so any punishment I come up with will be worse than anything that he could actually be forced to do by a Head or professor, so just run along now. The longer you allow your face to bruise the harder it will be to hide."_

_Delaney didn't look very happy with Victoire's command, but he didn't look like he was going to argue either. He shot one more look at Ally before turning and walking out of the corridor._

_Once he was gone Victoire clapped Xavier on the shoulder, "That was a nice one you delivered there slugger."_

_Xavier rolled his eyes at her before turning to Ally, who was standing with Sandra._

_"You alright?" He asked her gently as he walked over to her._

_Ally nodded before giving him a little smile, "You're my hero!"_

_Xavier rolled his eyes again but grabbed Ally into a hug, "You're a nutter."_

_"I'm your nutter," Ally told him as she gave him a peck on the cheek._

_"Yes you are."_

_"And you're my temperamental Quidditch player," Ally smirked._

_"Yes I am," Xavier answered her before giving her a kiss on the lips._

_. . ._

"I'm not going to argue with you there, especially not after what he was saying about Ally. Although you still need to go through with the punishment I came up with for you," Victoire told Xavier as she turned away from the window and gave him a devilish look.

Xavier's face turned white, "I told you I'm not doing that, I'd rather serve some sort of summer detention with Linkwell."

Victoire giggled, "I figured. Which is why you can do the other punishment I came up with instead."

"Which is?" Xavier asked looking nervous, and not without good reason.

Victoire bestowed upon him a wicked smile, "I think Katie will appreciate this one. Anytime you're with Brogan, with or without your parents, you're going to change the diapers."

"And for how long do I have to do that for?" Xavier asked.

"At least the whole summer."

Xavier groaned, "Fine. I'll take it."

"Sure you don't want to think that over?"

"Nope, not when I know you can and will come up with something worse," Xavier told her.

"Good idea Wood. Now, onto a new topic," Victoire started, "How in the world did you convince McGonagall to allow you to stay over tonight like the rest of us actual graduates?"

Xavier rolled his eyes, "I'm graduating too."

Victoire crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a look.

"And we know that I was always McGonagall's favourite, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise," Xavier told her with a wink.

She gasped, "You liar, I'm her favourite."

"Well we're probably both her favourite, which makes sense because I was sent here to get you, because she'd like to see the both of us," Xavier told Victoire coming back to the reason why he'd some to her dorm room in the first place.

"Right now?" Victoire asked.

"She figured if she waited until after Teddy and Ally got here that we probably wouldn't make it," Xavier told her with a smirk.

The plan was for Ally and Teddy to apparate into Hogsmeade after she got off the Hogwarts Express at Kings Cross and said a quick hello to her parents. Then they were going to walk up to Hogwarts and meet the four seventh years (Victoire, Xavier, Sandra, and Kyle) and were going to accompany them on a walk around the grounds almost as a goodbye tour until it got dark, which was when Teddy and Ally would leave only to come back the next day for their friends' graduation.

"She's a smart woman. Let's go then," Victoire said leading the way out of her dorm room.

Their trip to the Headmistress' office was a quiet one, yet not necessarily an awkward one. They got passed the gargoyle without as much as a password, and shared a look before knocking on McGonagall's door. A soft, 'come in' was called and Xavier opened the door and gestured for Victoire to go through.

McGonagall gave the pair a smile as they strolled in, she took a minute to sign something with her quill before returning it to her inkpot and saying, "Good afternoon Victoire, Xavier."

Victoire ignored the fact that McGonagall hadn't even attempted to be formal with them and greeted her, "Hello Professor, Xavier told me you wanted to see us."

McGonagall smiled at her, "Victoire, you're graduating tomorrow. You can start to call me Minerva."

Victoire hesitated a minute, "Can we work up to that? I don't think I'm mentally capable of handling that right now."

McGonagall smiled again, "Of course. You know you two can sit if you'd like." She gestured to the space in front of her desk and in a minute two chairs appeared.

"Thank you Professor," Xavier told her before taking a seat.

"I didn't do that," McGonagall told Xavier, before shooting a look a Victoire.

She had a bright smile on her face, which Xavier rolled his eyes at, "Really? You freaked out for two weeks about not having a wand, and yet now that you do have one, you only use wandless magic?"

Victoire waited until she was seated next to Xavier before she flicked his ear in annoyance.

McGonagall looked as though she was enjoying their banter, and waited for them to finish before speaking, "I know you're probably wondering what you're doing here, so I guess we should just get right down to it. I wanted to congratulate you both on your graduation."

"Thank you Professor . . . but we don't need to take up your time, we'll hear about it tomorrow in your speech I'm sure," Xavier told her politely.

"Yes, but I wanted to talk to the two of you specifically. You've both been through so much this year. You've each seen your fair share of highs and lows, and many trials and tribulations. I just wanted to make sure that I had the chance to tell you both that I'm so very proud of you. I'm proud of all the work you two have done not just this year, but in the last six years too. You are two of the most talented students I've had, but what really makes you both stand out is your determination and stubbornness," McGonagall said.

Victoire and Xavier shared a small grin before McGonagall continued, "And what I want to tell you both the most is that those traits are what you're going to need to keep a hold of in your next years after Hogwarts. I have no doubt that you two will go on to do amazing things, but with the amazing things you guys are going to achieve, you will also meet your fair share of troubles and problems. And I want to remind you both that you're going to need to be stubborn and determined to get through those. The more you two go on to do, the more prominent you both become, the bigger and more troublesome your problems will be.

"I've seen you two mature so much over the past seven years, and especially the past year itself. You both have the abilities and skills to do great things, but I need you two to promise me that you won't give up when the going gets hard. It's easy not to give up when you're constantly surrounded by your friends and in a generally secluded area like this Castle, but when you're out in the real world and all of your friends have their own cascade of problems it will be a lot harder. Growing up, outside of Hogwarts, will be very difficult for you both, just like it is for everyone else, but I believe that you two will be able to get through it. You just need to have faith in yourselves and to remember this even when you feel like giving up."

Victoire and Xavier shared a soft look. Xavier spoke for the both of them, "Thank you Prof—Minerva."

McGonagall stood up and came out from behind her desk, "I just wanted to make sure that I had the chance to speak to you both before your graduation ceremony tomorrow. I'm sure after it you'll have a very large reception of friends and family that will want to see you."

Victoire and Xavier both smirked with the anticipation of their families' reactions tomorrow. Victoire was anticipating the outbreak she was going to get by most likely every single one on her family members. While Xavier expected less people than Victoire did attacking him, yet just as much commotion seeing as his mother would most likely be equivalent to a total of ten emotional relatives.

"Especially seeing as you're going to be leaving very soon after the graduation ceremony, right Victoire?" McGonagall asked her with a smirk.

Victoire's face showed her shock, "Um . . . yes . . . but—how, how do you know?"

"Something you will soon learn Victoire, is that I know everything. And that will still be the case even when you're gone from Hogwarts."

* * *

"Where have you two been?" Kyle asked Victoire and Xavier when they walked back into the girls' dormitory.

"We were just speaking to Professor McGonagall," Victoire told him as she went over and pushed Kyle off of _her _bed, that he'd been perched on.

Kyle landed on the floor with a thump and rubbed his elbow as he frowned at her. Xavier spoke before Kyle could complain.

"So where have you two been?"

Sandra smirked, "We were just doing a last visit to some of our favourite places in the Castle before we leave to tour the grounds."

"You have favourite places in the Castle? Like where?" Xavier asked her interestedly.

Sandra blushed while Kyle snickered, "Oh yes, we had a list of our _favourite_ places."

"Wha-" Xavier started before Victoire interrupted him.

"Xavier, he's saying they visited their favourite places to snog."

Xavier's ears turned red and he spluttered while his friends laughed.

"Can we just talk about something else?" Xavier asked when their laughter had quieted.

Victoire looked down at her watch before answering, "Well, Teddy and Ally should be here soon, we can start to leave, and meet them at the gates."

Her suggestion wasn't met with opposition, so the four of them began their trek to the grounds, reminiscing about different times over the past seven years. After a few moments, they made it to the gates and only had to wait a few moments before they saw two forms walking towards them.

When Teddy and Ally made it to the gates, Victoire tapped her wand on the metal and the gates opened without a sound. Without the metal boundary, Ally sprinted towards them and jumped in Xavier's arms.

Victoire was chuckling at them when Teddy calmly walked over to her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her into a hug.

"Hey."

"Hey."

Victoire grinned up at Teddy, and he bent down and kissed her gently on the forehead.

When he pulled away, he asked, "So I guess I can congratulate you in person now, huh?"

At breakfast, Victoire had received her long-awaited acceptance letter from the healing course she had applied to. Once she'd read the first few sentences, she let out an very un-Victoire like squeal and gave the closest person to her a kiss on the cheek. Unfortunately, after Victoire had removed her lips she realized that she'd just kissed Kyle and that he was grinning at her like a nutter. However, even Kyle's lecherous grin couldn't rain on her parade and very soon, Victoire had told everyone of her friends and family members at Hogwarts about her acceptance, and had written a note to Teddy and several of her family members outside of Hogwarts.

Teddy had quickly written back to her with his congratulations, but left a promise that they would celebrate when he saw her later.

"Is it time to celebrate?" She asked him with a grin.

He smirked back at her, "We'll do a little celebrating right now, but I think we should save the majority of it for when we get to France tomorrow after your graduation ceremony."

"Is that a promise?" Victoire asked him archly.

"Yes, and have you ever known me to break a promise?" He asked her looking into her eyes.

"No, and I don't think you ever will," she answered him honestly.

"And I'll do my best to not make a liar out of you," he told her back.

She smiled at him, "I can promise _you_ that I love you."

"And I love you."

"C'mon you two, you've got plenty of time to get cozy tomorrow when you're in France where nobody has to watch. But for the rest of the day we're a group," Kyle chastised.

Victoire shot a glance over her shoulder and saw that Xavier and Ally were still attached at the hip, or more accurately by the mouth.

"Why are you complaining about me and Teddy when Ally and Xavier are acting a thousand times worse?"

"Sandra's got them," Kyle responded.

Victoire looked back over at Ally and Xavier and saw that Sandra had just stepped up to them an evil grin on her face and her wand in her hand. Sandra waved it, and right after Xavier jumped away from Ally and started scratching at himself uncontrollably.

"Seriously? An itching hex? Weren't not eleven anymore," Xavier complained as Ally removed the hex from him after he looked like he was going to start to scratch himself raw.

"We may be adults now and going into the real world, but we don't need to stop having fun. Being an adult doesn't have to coincide with growing up," Kyle smirked.

Victoire shot a look at Sandra, "Just so you know that's his way of telling you that _he's_ never going to act like an adult."

"It's okay," Sandra told Victoire as she walked over to Kyle and wrapped her arms around him, "I don't expect him to."

"Hey!" Kyle cried indigently.

Victoire giggled a little before grabbing Teddy's hand and pulling him with her, "C'mon everyone, we have patches of grass, rocks, and trees to get needlessly sentimental about."

"You're snarky now, but trust me by tomorrow's graduation ceremony there'll be a stream of constant tears running from those baby-blues," Xavier told Victoire as he and Ally walked over to them hand-in-hand.

"Yeah, I'll be crying from joy that I don't have to see Kyle's face daily anymore," Victoire responded.

Sandra laughed, "Vic, we're going to be living together next year, remember?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, they still had to go flat shopping, but they had concrete plans to live together for at least the next year as she attended her healing courses and Sandra attended her accounting classes.

"Yes Sandra, I know we'll be living together next year."

"That means that you're probably going to be seeing a lot of Kyle as long as I'm there," Sandra told her.

Victoire's face turned white, she'd thought of that problem before, but she hadn't really _considered_ it.

"NO!"

"Oh yes," Kyle answered her with a devilish look.

Victoire groaned and leaned her head against Teddy shoulder.

"I'd offer you my couch for when Kyle's at your place, but I'm afraid Xavier's commandeered it so many times that there's probably an impression of his body on it," Teddy told her.

"So your couch is the only thing you're going to offer me?" Victoire asked with an arched eyebrow and a teasing smile.

"What else is there left to offer you? You already have all of me, including my heart," Teddy told her.

"And you have mine," Victoire promised in return.

* * *

**The End**

* * *

**A/N:** Join me on the next chapter, please, for my Author's Note :) And please don't forget to review this chapter!


	108. Final Words and Sequel?

**Final Words**

**Last A/N of TTA: **Well everyone it has been an amazing and quick almost 3 years with this story and i want to thank everyone who has joined me on this, much, much longer than I expected journey. You are all completely awesome and I thank you a million times over :)

**Review Stats**: Before posting the last chapter this story had 2,025 reviews, which is mind blowing, so thanks for that, and an especially big thanks to JediMasterDraco for being the 2,000th reviewer!

Thanks to: **elusivemelodies, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, hogwartsandhorses244, clessard, owlcity2013, zvc56, Encypher, Oddliver, barefoot and buckwild, Emily Alice, The Regal Warrior, azngurlz093, JediMasterDraco, nargles and fairie lights, Guest (1), brilliant incandescence, A Frozen Shadow, Infinity Lily, carbo21, MiraclesHappen94, potterhead1997, GabrielaTJ, Millatz, Seher Syed, MaddieMonkey, jeremiah123, pryce123, Guest (2), Last Ride Of The Valkyries, eyechange, Anon, Break This Spell666, Yina94, Nikkie995, ntlpurpolia, **and** rockon88**, for reviewing chapter 106 and getting me to, and past, 2,000 reviews!

**And please don't forget to review this story one last time and tell me what you've thought about it! :)**

**Views:** Again, before posting the last chapter this story had 295,105 views in the entire time it had been up, so that is also completely mind boggling so thank-you all again.

**Word Count:** According to my Microsoft Word count, excluding A/Ns, the story is 536,618 words. Which is amazing considering so many people have stuck with a story that is that long.

A big thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed.

**Twitter:** A few of you follow me on Twitter, but I highly suggest that more of you do, especially with the sequel coming out and what may be a beginning sporadic updating schedule, it might keep you better informed than the FFN updates. So if you do want to follow me on Twitter, just search **Try and Tri again**, that's the name, and that's what I'm going to keep it as, even with the sequel, so you all don't get confused.

_Common questions about the sequel:_

**Is the sequel going to be about the prophecy?:** That's something I can't tell, you're just going to have to read it and find out.

**What is the main plot of the sequel?:** Again, it's something you're going to have to find out when you read the sequel, although when I post it, the intro will be a bit of a summary.

**Will Victoire be in healers school by the time this happens?:** We'll have to read the sequel to find out!

**Are there more mysteries surrounding Tedtoire?:** Well, I'm a little incapable of writing a story with out some sort of mystery aspect (Especially since Teddy's an auror), so most likely, yes.

**Who are the characters going to be in the sequel?:** Everyone. Absolutely everyone. (Note: I'm not being sarcastic here.)

**Will we have a look at Xavier's life in the sequel?:** I think it would be impossible to write a sequel without mentioning Xavier.

**Will Dominique be romantically involved with someone?:** Um, can't say, but don't worry, we will get to see a lot of Vic's family

**When will Vic move in with Teddy?:** Gosh people, I known this is a burning question, but I can't tell you. However, I can tell you that you will find out rather soon into the sequel.

**Is it (the sequel) going to be centered on Victoire and Teddy's life after this, or is it going to be more on background information?:** Um, I'm not entirely sure how to answer this without giving some stuff away. The best thing would be to tell you to read the summary part of the story that will be under the name.

SPEAKING OF THE SEQUEL HERE'S A LOOK AT THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THE FIRST CHAPTER:

**It was times like this that made Victoire wonder why she ever agreed to this wedding in the first place. **

_Now, you may take a moment to pause and fan girl if you like, but please continue to read this to the end :)_

**Are you going to post the title of the sequel so we can find it?:** Yes, of course.

**What's the sequel called so I can follow it?: **I'm going to call it '**_Life After Hogwarts_**', but I may change it, but that will only be much later in the story.

**When are you posting the sequel?:** Today ;)

**Wait . . . what?**

Yes, as a special Christmas present to you all, I'm going to post the first chapter of the sequel right after I update the last chapter of Try and Tri Again. Those of you who have me on your Author Alters will probably already know this, but thank you if you're taking the time to read this anyway. You can search the title Life After Hogwarts, or much more easily just go to my profile on the top of this page and it will be right there!

**Author Alters: **Speaking of the sequel, a lot of you already have me on your authors alerts, so thank. But those who don't, you don't necessarily have to add me because now that I've uploaded the sequel you can find it, but I suggest that you all add me to the alerts anyway, in case I write accompanying one-shots :)

**Anyway, I'm sure you are all anxious to get to the sequel, and I don't want to stop you, so I just want to say:**

**THANK YOU for joining me in this story,**

**I hope that you join me for the sequel,**

**Merry Christmas, and DTFBA!**


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